OUR PARTNERS IN THE PERFORMANCE CONSULTING PROCESS
When you work strategically, you are focused on delivering results to the business or organization. You, however, cannot achieve these results alone. Many factors are controlled by business leaders, factors that can be changed only by those leaders. Partnering with these individuals becomes critical to your success as a performance consultant.
It is important to clearly identify the appropriate individual(s) with whom you should partner when working on any type of performance consulting initiative. We use the term client to refer to the individual with whom you should partner. You may prefer another term, such as customer or partner. A common mistake made by performance consultants is determining too late in the process that they are not working with the “true” client. A client is someone who
owns (has accountability for) achieving business results within the organization and in this way has something to gain (or lose) from the success (or failure) of the initiative;
has authority and power to make things happen, including the garnering of resources required to support a specific initiative;
is within the chain of command of the employees whose performance is to be changed in some manner; and
frequently, although not always, acts as a sponsor of the initiative and is the primary funder of it.
Clients
Clients come in two “flavors”: sustained and project.
Sustained clients meet the criteria just listed and, because of their position and influence within the organization, are people with whom a partnership is maintained independent of any current project or initiative. Your level of communication and contact with these clients is sustained and continuous. Generally, sustained clients are located in the mid- to upper levels in an organization. Job titles of sustained clients include president, chief executive officer, vice president, chief operating officer, general manager, country manager, and director.
Project clients meet the criteria noted for a specific project. Your communication with project clients will be robust during the life of the project and will decrease when the project has been completed. These are individuals whose position and power generally do not warrant the intensive communication on a sustained basis. However, their importance relative to a specific project does require a strong partnership during that initiative. Frequently, projects are supported by client teams where several individuals have ownership for some aspect of the initiative; they work together as a team to support the project. For example, if the business goal is to successfully introduce a new product to the marketplace, a client team may consist of the vice president of sales, vice president of marketing, and vice president of supply chain management. Client teams are almost always required for enterprise-wide projects.
All of this yields yet another characteristic of strategic work: performance consultants can work in a strategic manner only when they have direct access to the client for the initiative. As a performance consultant, you need to influence clients as they make decisions relative to performance and business goals. It is virtually impossible to influence someone with whom you do not have direct access. This is all the more reason to be thoughtful about with whom you will need a sustained client relationship. We will discuss techniques for gaining access and deepening sustained client partnerships in Chapter 3. Here are a couple important questions for you to consider:
1. With whom do I currently have a sustained partnership in my organization?
2. With whom should I have a sustained partnership?
Stakeholders
Stakeholder is a term used frequently today with regard to projects and initiatives. We want to clarify the difference between a stakeholder and a client. Clients own and are accountable for the business results that the initiative is addressing. For example, clients are responsible for achieving sales goals, providing superior customer service, or reaching profit goals. Clients are also the ultimate decision makers. While stakeholders have a vested interest in the outcome and may have accountability to achieve some portion of the results, they do not have accountability for the entire set of results. An example would include first-line supervisors of employees whose performance is to be improved in some manner. As stakeholders, supervisors are accountable for those results within their span of control. They will also have a significant influence on the outcome of the entire initiative. They can stress the importance of using a new approach on the job and how that will help the department “make its numbers.” Therefore, strategies to engage stakeholders should be considered when designing and implementing solutions.
Employees are not stakeholders; they are the group of individuals whose performance is to change. Employees will benefit from, or be hindered by, the actions of stakeholders. The key to keep in mind: the ultimate decision maker and your partner for the initiative is the client. However, a successful performance consulting engagement requires interaction with and participation from stakeholders.