What's your message today?
This is a simple question, however most of junior consultants and even some partners don’t have an answer at least not a compelling one.
It is relevant to not only ride along a project, but become an active contributor and essential part of the team. So make sure you understand at any moment of a project or your daily work how the big picture looks like and how your work contributes in achieving the project objectives. You should be able to convince your clients, your leadership and at least wow your dinner date with. So make it compelling, make it count.
Focus on the big items first on which you are currently working on and bring them into the right sequence and ask yourself why they are essential. Now you already have your basic story. Spice it up with some details, evidences and numbers to make the story compelling and even more alive. If you have this ready you can easily shine in internal meetings or conference calls with your senior partners. They love compelling stories and you will be able to tell them what today’s message is. If there is a partner on board carefully observe and learn how he is doing it.
Sometimes you will also enjoy the weird show of one partner not getting anything together. Let it run for a while and then try to stop the non-sense (I suggest you are in the role of the Engagement Manager at this moment) and lead the rest of the call to a good end. At the beginning of a project most clients are typically even more confused than you and will appreciate your support here as well. Make sure you know what’s going on and help them to sort things out and to communicate accordingly.
Naturally, the message can and should change if necessary, but again make it compelling.