Consulting, in general, is not for everyone. Likewise, consulting it the field of project management is not something everyone is ready to handle. Even if you’re a 15-year veteran of project management, that doesn’t mean you have the tools, the stability, and the make-up to go out on a limb as a consultant in your given field.
We all know that project managers have a few skills and characteristics that they must have to some degree to be successful:
- Leadership
- Communication
- Organization
- Confidence, etc.
The list can go on for quite a while. Those are still necessary for the project management consultant, but let’s look at five key signs which can point to individual characteristics that should be present to help enable you to be a successful consulting project manager. If you don’t have them, it’s probably not a field that you should be in.
Five reasons you may not be cut out to be a project management consultant
You are afraid of risk
While risk is something to be identified, tracked, mitigated, and avoided – if possible – on a project, it’s not something to avoid if you’re heading out on your own as consulting project manager. In fact, the very nature of taking that action involves risk. If you’re putting yourself out there, marketing yourself to potential clients, pushing your expertise on companies and individuals, and doing this while there’s no 9-to-5 job and every-two-weeks paycheck involved, then that is the very definition of risk. If you’re not ready to do this, then the consulting path is not for you.
You are not prone to leadership
To be a successful project manager, you need to be a leader. You’re asked to manage teams of very skilled resources who are looking to you for assignments, guidance, direction, and coverage. That said, I have seen project managers who often flounder but remain employed and keep plugging away even when they really don’t have that leadership characteristic. However, if you’re heading out on your own as a consulting project manager, that leadership quality must be present. Because now you’ll potentially be leading people who have no prior knowledge of you or your conquests and may even be upset that you’re in charge. You have to be strong leader to consult in these types of situations.
You don’t consider yourself an expert
Even if you have to ‘fake it till you make it’ you still need to consider yourself – or at least purport to be – an expert in your field if you intend to consult. If you don’t take yourself seriously, others certainly won’t. The confidence – dare I even say arrogance, but not too much of it – needs to be there. You don’t have to act like the DBA I once mentored under who thought he was a god and you weren’t worthy to be in the same room with him. While it did seem to work for him and no one bothered him with a question unless they knew they could sound intelligent, you don’t want to be standoffish if you’re a consultant. You must be an expert – or act like one till you are – but still be accessible. You need to be that DBA, but with customer facing skills, a good bedside manor, and some sort of soul.
You lack entrepreneurial spirit
By stepping out on your own, you are an entrepreneur. If you aren’t an entrepreneur in your field, then you aren’t likely to even take that step. But going independent and consulting in your field requires that mindset. You’ll need to be innovative and creative as to how you market yourself, how you reach out to customers, how you find customers, and what industries to attack. I’ve found PM consulting opportunities in industries I had never dreamed of. You have to think outside of the box and take advantage of those opportunities in order to stay afloat.
You are a company man
If you’re a company man and really enjoy the 9-to-5 job and all the benefits and security it brings you, then consulting is not going to be for you. And when I say this it helps if your family understands this and feels the same way because there is a certain amount of ‘security’ that is lost when you venture out as a consultant. If driving to an office, sitting at a desk, and talking to people in the hallway is your idea of work, then stay away from consulting. Because as a consultant, none of that applies and you will feel a degree of isolation. You’ll always be the outsider.
Summary
Consulting in any field can be extremely rewarding and leading projects and initiatives as a consulting project manager can provide you with many unique experiences. Helping small organizations develop best practices and then watching those organizations become more successful as a result is a great feeling. But it’s not for everyone and it’s not always green pastures. If you read this and realize that you match several or all of the five items above, then it’s not likely to be the field for you.