G-Spot #602: There is no 'I' in performance ~ Deloitte Consulting Forum

Consultant Joined: 26 May 2005 Posts: 11

I am some what new to consulting; I have only been on a handful of engagements. With year-end reviews just now finishing up, I've learned a lot about the profession and its many nuances.

Let me throw everything out there; I want it to all hang out. I received low marks on my year-end review. While it would be extremely easy for me to make this g-spot issue a rant or a sob-story to gain empathy, I decided it would be much more constructive for everybody at the firm if I share my experiences so none of you fall in the 'performance-pit' that I did. For all of you new hires joining the firm, welcome and please read carefully.

It all started about a year ago. I was new to the firm and very eager to be a 'rock-star' as all of us are when we're new to any company. After all of the introductions, the endless power points, and the HR propaganda I began to look for a project. One day, as I was going through my huge stack of new hire emails, my staffing manager calls.

"I've got a great project lined up for you, come see me in my office."

Excitedly, I walked down to the office to see what awaited me. The role was one that I had never performed before in an industry I didn’t care too much for. A combination of me wanting to learn more about this new role and being new to the firm, I skeptically agreed to do it. To reassure me, my staffing manager also told me that a very important lead partner thought this role was a good fit for me. Needless to say I was impressed; how could I say no? Here was my chance to prove to everybody that I'm a 'rock-star'.

One week later my plane was touching down a few miles away from my client site. I was shown to my office, introduced to the team, and thrown in front of my project. As it turns out, my cube was right along side a bunch of contractors far away from where the firm practitioners sat, “no big deal,” I thought. That day I'm given the same tasks the contractors are given. Eagerly I take the work and start hacking away at it; after all, I am the new guy who can do anything.

The team I worked with consisted of about eight people. Half of them were from our technical services area of the firm, the other four were managers. All of them where well above 40, had families, and were all residences in the area; I was the only person who traveled to the project site. To make matters worse most of my team consisted of 'lifers', or people who had ‘job security’ on the project (This project will never go away) and wanted to live in the area. Basically I was working with a very low-intensity team who had no career aspirations at the firm. As well all know our firm is not low intensity, and it’s definitely not a place to be for ‘job security.’

After successfully completing the first round of tasks I was expecting something a bit more challenging; however, this did not happen. Months later I began to finally realize that this was never going to happen. I was getting the exact same low-level work the contractors were receiving. My billable rate was so low on the project that the firm was actually loosing money on me doing the same work that the contractors were doing. This made no sense to me. I approached my manager about this issue in a sugar-coated, constructive way but it did no good; I kept receiving the same low-level tasks.

You always hear firm leadership say again and again, "No matter what your role, crappy or not, you must do your best to be successful in the firm." This is where the vicious cycle begins. It is where you get stuck in a rut and watch your performance erode from right beneath you. We've probably all been there, some projects are worse than others, but for those of you who don't understand this, or dismiss this whole article as another "lazy, complaining consultant," consider yourself lucky; you probably have never been there (And I hope you never end up there).

I thought I could fix the situation by becoming more involved on the engagement, trying to find ways to improve the processes that were in place, working on power points for the managers and partners. No matter what I did nothing seemed to work. I was still given the same low-level contractor work. I went out on lunch meetings with my manager to discuss my performance, figure out what I can do better to get a better role, and just figure out someway where I could get something that would actually require the use of my brain.

The result? A very low mark on my final project performance review right before my year end performance review. I found out through my year-end review that my manager on the engagement said that I challenged the ‘status-quo’. Challenged the status quo? I thought that was our job as consultants; when we are given a task we look beyond that and try to find better ways to complete the given, higher-level objectives.

A consultant’s performance is not simply based on they you do; it is based on their team, project, and manager and/or partner. If you’re new to the firm, and you have a bad feeling about a project that you get staffed on; consider trying to find a new project instead of trying to fix the situation on your current project. Another colleague of mine was staffed on a bad project with terrible management and got out of it within a few weeks; although this looks bad at the time, (or if you do it often) my colleague will end up with higher marks in the end because they will be successful on more projects. The experience will simply look like a blip on his year-end performance reviews.

This firm is all about perception; nothing else matters. As long as you maintain the perception that you are hard-working, can get stuff done, and can do anything, you’ll be set even if you don’t really work hard or get things done. If you have the right project and are working with the right people, establishing this perception is very simple. If you get staffed on a bad project, be very aware; “perception management” is a very tricky matter.

Jaded, I moved on to my next with the same attitude I went into on the first project. When the new project was over I was very successful and received high marks. My ideas that, on my previous project, challenged the ‘status-quo’ made me a ‘rock-star’ performer on the new project. The new project simply had the right conditions; I had the right team and the right role. The most important part of the combination was the team. There’s no way I could have performed as well as I did without the team I had on the new project; in fact, I could have worked with this team on any other project, including the old project, and I would have still performed very well.

From this experience I have learned that there is no “I” in performance (and pay raises). Your performance is based heavily on that of your team. You will do extremely well if you’re put on a team with a good attitude and a few, more senior people, who you can look up to as mentors.

What was the cost of this lesson? The entire leadership in the local office thinking I’m a spaz for getting low year-end marks, probably losing a few thousand dollars next year in compensation, having my career basically set back a year, and being put on the ‘Performance Improvement Plan’. I feel like a retard but what direction do I have to go from hear? Well, from down here, it looks like I can only go up. Hopefully, at the very least, it will save some of you a couple thousand dollars in the future; hey, maybe you could cut me in on 10% Wink

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What do you think? Have you had similar experiences? Do you think I’m just a whiner? Let me know by telling us what you think.

Consultant Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Posts: 22

Great post, Kerplunk. Thanks for sharing.

Manager Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Great post, thanks for sharing your story with us. Unfortunately the company does not do a great job of matching expectations with realities. I used to attend college recruiting events and they always include like 5 xA's who gush about leading teams of subcontractors in exotic locales. Then people come in expecting something similar to that and get placed on a role like the one you described and inevitably are disillusioned. Not that those xA roles aren't impossible just highly rare.

I think perhaps we should take a different approach. Tell people the real benefits/drawbacks of consulting at Deloitte and let them make a more informed decision. If perhaps we tied recruiter rewards at the Firm to things like retention rather than recruitment things like this would happen...

Consultant Joined: 14 Jun 2005 Posts: 20

I totally agree. I do enjoy working for Deloitte, but it was a HUGE culture shock when I first arrived. I had visions of jetsetting arcoss the globe doing cool, interesting tasks that quickly helped the client's business.

My first project was not what you'd call luxurious (Ohio), but I adjusted and now I enjoy working here. However, the whole process would have been eased with a little more upfront information. The college recruiters made it seem like working here was one little notch below being James Bond.

Manager Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 40

great post. Sorry to hear your review didn't go well, but it looks like you'll make up for it next year. Still it comes off as being extremely unfair. I'm glad you stuck it out though.

Consultant Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Posts: 22

Principal Joined: 26 May 2005 Posts: 163

I agree that there is a huge disconnect between the picture that the recruiters/orientation provides and what its really like.

When I was working on some recruiting event I was having a casual conversation with the recruiting coordinater about how its not reallly too easy for me to get here because I'm working on a 5 day project. The recruiter gave me a wide-eyed 'Don't say that!' look.

Basically the firm recruiting damn well knows what they are doing and what perceptions they are delivering.

Principal Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 164

Great Posts.

It is unfortunate, but performance reviews do depend greatly on your environment, but it's hard to know what the right environment is until you've worked on a few projects. I got no opportunities to set myself apart during my first year. I was on the same project the whole time doing the same work. It wasn't as bad as Kerplunk's, but I had no opportunity to "wow" anyone.

And this year, I have gotten great reviews for some projects, and mediocre for others. I did more work on the mediocre projects, but the managers had different expectations. Now I am just doing everything I can to make sure I look for projects with the managers and partners that I already know will treat me well and give me interesting work. It's not easy though. So much of staffing is just pure "right place right time"

Analyst Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Posts: 1

PERCEPTION is so the key in ratings. I've learned that to do well at year end, it all depends on who you know at the local office. It doesn't matter if you did well on a project, what matters is who will speak up for you at year end when your name comes up.

Thanks for the post KerPlunk - hope things went well for you this time around.

I agree with you and DCMonki that perception is key.

One of the best things at year end is if you can have partners and senior managers you have worked with attend your specific review session (hey - they're probably already attending for someone else also).

It helps enormously in the review sessions to have people provide positive input.