I hear it almost every day.
A senior executive has had enough. Too many meetings. Decisions that should take a week take three months. Another reorganisation has moved the boxes without changing very much. Sometimes the real problem is simpler: a new boss whom they neither trust nor respect.
Then comes the sentence: “I think I will do some consulting.”
Perhaps. But my first question is usually: do you want to become a consultant, or do you simply want to leave your company? They are not the same decision.
I understand the attraction. I spent more than 20 years with Dow before leaving to establish Borderless. I wanted more control over how I worked, what I worked on and, importantly, whom I worked with. I have never regretted it. That does not mean the change was quite as simple as it may now sound.
I started with a clean desk. No corporate name behind me. No legal department, IT helpdesk or finance colleague to sort out the irritating bits. More importantly, no automatic flow of work.
This is what many executives underestimate. Consulting is not chiefly about giving advice. It is about finding somebody who values your advice enough to pay for it. A large network helps, but it is not a business. People may know you, like you, and happily have lunch with you. They may even tell you how much they admire your decision. None of that is an assignment. You still have to ask for the work. Many senior executives discover that they dislike doing so.
There is another small shock. Some of the influence you enjoyed belonged to your position, not entirely to you. People returned calls because you represented a major company, controlled a budget, or could make a decision. Your experience and judgement have not disappeared, but the reason people listen has changed. It takes a little time to become comfortable with that.
An executive I spoke with recently moved from a large company into advisory work. He enjoyed the variety and the need to learn about unfamiliar businesses. What had changed most was his idea of ownership. In corporate life, ownership meant delivering the work. In consulting, it also meant finding the work and making sure the bills were paid.
He had noticed something else. He was used to being part of the decision. Now he could advise, argue and equip the client to decide, but the decision was no longer his. The client could accept his advice, alter it beyond recognition or ignore it. For people who have spent years running businesses, that can be surprisingly difficult.
The rewards are real. You can work with people you respect. You can decline work that does not interest you. You learn again because clients bring problems from businesses you would never otherwise encounter. There is a freshness to that after many years inside one company or sector.
Don’t exaggerate the supposed security of corporate employment either. I sometimes tell executives that the difference can be as little as six months. An independent consultant who stops winning work may run out of income in six months. A senior executive who loses a corporate role may have 12 months of salary or severance. Six months is worth considering, but so is the freedom you get in exchange.
Not everyone needs to do it the hard way. Joining an established advisory firm provides colleagues, systems, and a reputation that opens doors. I see that when experienced people join Borderless today. They still work on developing business, but they are not starting with an empty pipeline and a clean sheet of paper. There is structure, process and a a 25-year reputation behind them.
Before leaving, I would ask four blunt questions. What, precisely, will people pay you to do? Who is likely to buy it? Are you willing to sell it? And will you still enjoy the work when you no longer have the title, authority, and resources that came with your corporate position?
If the answers are convincing, consulting may be precisely the right move. If they are not, the problem may not be corporate life at all. It may be this company, this role or this boss.
The grass can be greener. But once you are independent, you are also responsible for cutting it.
By Andrew Kris, Founding Partner at Borderless Executive Search
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