Consulting is a complicated job that requires a deep understanding of the problem at hand, processing large volumes of data, producing a solution and communicating clear action-oriented recommendations to the people in charge. When you have to work from a distance, conducting these steps can be an issue. Due to the latest situation created by COVID-19, distance and the use of online tools have become the new standard in consulting and many other jobs.
This situation reminds me of a class I took during my MBA at George Washington University, the Consulting Abroad Project, where a team of students had to work remotely with a company located in another continent, which in our case was South America, specifically Peru. This lasted for a whole semester, during which time we worked with the client remotely for 4 months, and at the end we went to present the solution to the leaders of the company.
There were a lot of lessons learned during this experience, and in this post I will share 4 lessons which are particularly applicable when doing remote or international consulting.
1. Send a confirmation e-mail
When meetings and interviews take place online, it is easy to get distracted, lose focus and miss important information that is communicated via Zoom. Moreover, different team members may interpret information, goals and priorities in different ways.
Hence, it is very important that at the end of each meeting, a recap is done with the team members and a verifying e-mail is sent to the client. This can be a short recap e-mail, mentioning the main points covered in the meeting, and briefly discussing the next steps to be taken. At the end of the e-mail you should ask for verification from the client, in order to make sure that the message your team received on the call is the same one that the client intended to send.
In this way, you ensure that everyone is on the same page and avoid miscommunications that can cause your team to waste valuable time and resources.
2. Assign each team member a specific role
Working in a team can be challenging. Often times we don’t get to choose our team members, hence we are not sure about each other’s strengths and on which parts of the project every person should focus. In order to have an effective team it is important to divide up roles so that each team member knows the responsibilities they will have during the project.
Clearly defining each person’s role helps to avoid conflict and reduce mistakes. For example, some team members may not listen attentively throughout the entire meeting hoping that other team members are doing so. Meanwhile, other members may be thinking the same, leading to unproductive meetings where important points are missed or misunderstood. By assigning a team member with the role of minute taker, such issues can be avoided, leading to a more successful project.
3. Make a plan and set deadlines
If the team is working remotely it is important to keep each other accountable. When you are working with a client abroad, the client will trust you to be able to deliver a well-thought out solution to their problem without their need to intervene and check on your progress. Moreover, even the professor of the class might choose to have a more hands-off approach in order to allow you to grow these accountability skills for yourself.
This can be your chance to prove yourself, by making sure to have a set plan in place from the beginning with deadlines for deliverables. This plan needs to be set in accordance with the skills, pace and approval of other team members. It will help keep things in place, avoiding procrastination, and allowing for steady progress with the project.
4. Remember that you are representing more than yourself
When consulting remotely as part of your MBA program, it can be easy to treat your project work as just another task or just another class. However, in a consulting project you work with real clients and you represent not just yourself but also your team, your professor, your university, and in cases of international consulting even your country. Hence, it is really important to take your remote consulting project seriously. In addition to that, the client is taking a chance on you, by trusting you with their private data, opening the doors of their company to you, and giving you their time.
Conclusion
Working remotely involves new challenges in the way we work together. Hence, in order to produce a successful consulting project, and before jumping directly into the work, your team has to have set roles and responsibilities as well as deadlines regarding the project. Moreover, it is crucial to send a confirmation e-mail after every remote call in order to make sure the message received by the team is the one intended to be sent by the client. Whenever you work in a team for an organization, whether that be a school or company, your work represents your team and your company, so it is important to take the work as seriously as possible.
Tringa Krasniqi holds an MBA degree from The George Washington University. She is the founder and consultant at Ivy Journey, an educational consulting firm for gaining admission to universities and winning scholarships.
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