The current climate under the cloud of COVID-19 means that every day is a new norm. Our actions as individuals and companies may have some, no or a completely dramatic impact on tomorrow - who knows ? But that should not stop us striving to help form what may become a brave new world. One certainty is that the world is going to be a wholly different place on the other side of this situation.
As consultants we often get a bad press and, in some cases, this is completely justified. We can be criticised for charging for every last minute of our time. For some of our core professions, our personalities are joked about as a contraceptive.
What happened yesterday is now history (we can't even buy chips that are wrapped in history at the present time) and we can only make an impact on the present or the future. So now is the time to remind our clients, by our actions, that 1) we are people with feelings 2) we are here to help get them through a period of global uncertainty 3) we will do whatever it takes and (ouch) 4) there will not, or may not, be a fee clock ticking for the period in which we are trying to define whether there even is a positive future for our clients' businesses.
For us, the consultants, this may mean any one, or all, of the following:-
a. Showing calm and control (where does our strength come from ?)
b. Call on our core skills, strengths, disciplines & experience (where can you add value most ?)
c. Asking about the person / people and not just the task (do we really have a heart ?)
d. "This one's on me" (offering your services completely free if you are able to do so)
As the epilogue to the "Hill Street Blues" series always concluded "lets be safe out there people" - but lets take some risks for our clients (not those of personal safety) and have them define us by our actions and not by their perceptions ..............