Every profession seems to have their own set of acronyms and memory shortcuts, so why not consultants? Here is something that I use as an aide memoire for team briefings.

A   Advocacy. Many consultants forget about who they represent and who they need to take the lead from in terms of their assignment. Often a good consultant comes a cropper when they ‘go native’ on the client. Keeping counsel whilst out in the field could be one of the things that your employer will thank you for.

B  Building …. relationships. When a consultant leaves site, there are two memories of how you performed, which are how well you played with the others and how well you did your role.

C  Confidence. This literally means “with faith”. Clear, positive thinking really does make a difference in outcome. Canoeists always train to look at the open water and not the rocks. You focus on the rocks and that’s exactly where the canoe ends up.

D   Diligence. When you do a task, complete it and do it to the best of your ability. If you need to test, document, make a phone call or anything else on the task list, make sure it’s done.

E   Excelling. One day you left with a few certificates to say how clever you were at the date printed on them. How much simpler can I say this than, keep upto date. Many course, degrees, certifications and competences have a fixed shelf life. Get to understand this and build your own continuous development programme.

So in summary; listen, smile and do your job well.