Getting Fired...From a Project

Getting fired sucks. I was recently fired (removed) from a consulting project. Not my actual job. It was a combination of perceived poor performance, bad role fit, and a ruthlessly micro-managing client.

I started a new project in early October. I was required to work independently with them without a supporting team. The first day on the project, I had the sense from my client counterpart that she did not want me there. I met with her one-on-one and her attitude towards me felt downright hostile. She came off as very anxiety prone, nervous, and annoyed at my reasoning for being on the project. Nevertheless, I signed up for this as a consultant. I knew that I had a job to do. My duties were to partner with her and the rest of the client team to support a process transformation for a Fortune 50 organization.

Weeks went by and I felt like I was making progress with the client. I contributed to the team and produced deliverables to facilitate the transformation. I worked closely with my counterpart to develop materials that supported the team. My job was to make their life easier.

I was asked to produce a deliverable by my client counterpart that incorporated some of the strategies we had outlined. The deliverable was a bit confusing but I took a stab at the first pass. When I reviewed it with my her, she ripped it to shreds. I could tell she was annoyed that I was not grasping the material quick enough. It had only been 2 weeks at that point. The deliverable missed the mark. We used the rest of our meeting to workshop a new version together.

In the meeting, I could tell she was frustrated with me. It was hard to tell if her frustration was related to me or from the pressure of the job. Whatever the case, I could tell that her anxiety and nerves were getting the best of her. I tried not to let her influence my mood but I was having sleepless nights due to the way she spoke to me in those early meetings.

After another week or so, I was making inroads into the relationship. I was also partnering closer with the project team and providing value. The women I was working closely with was taking two weeks off and we met to review in-flight progress of activities. The meeting went great and she commented on how good I was doing and driving the project forward.

It was a huge confidence boost and I went into the two weeks of her leave feeling like I could handle any obstacle that came my way. The project continued to pick up speed and I strove to make an impact where I could. I received an email from my client counterpart while she was out of office. In the email she indicated that I had dropped the ball on updating one of the sites we maintained for the project. They were basic mistakes that I should not have missed. I took ownership of them and moved forward.

Although my main counterpart was out of office for two weeks she was scheduled to have a meeting with my leadership early in the week she returned. I was also scheduled to take a day off for vacation. When I returned from the long weekend I had a meeting with my supervisor first thing Tuesday morning.

Going into the call I was nervous about some of the feedback I would receive. However, I felt mostly positive about the inroads I had made. I received the worst feedback I had ever experienced in nearly seven years of consulting. My consulting supervisor said the client was not happy about the work I was doing and that I was not catching on fast enough. She was disappointed of the value I was providing.

After the call I felt blindsided and confused. I was expecting some feedback but not to the level I had just received. I knew there were things I dropped the ball on. But I also knew that over the last two weeks I was making improvements and partnering closer with the rest of the client team.

The feedback was a major confidence loss on my end. I started to question the value I brought as a consultant. However, I was not going to let this step back hold me back. Two weeks went by and I continued to partner with the client team. We had several meetings where I walked away feeling positive. In one meeting, she had commented that she had seen an improvement in the value I was bringing.

I headed home on a Friday afternoon on the bus after a long week. Going into the weekend I was feeling excited for what was to come in the project. As I sat on the bus I received a call from my supervisor. She indicated that the client has decided to let me go from the project.

They felt like I was not grasping things quick enough and she was spending too much time coaching me. Starting Monday, I would be on the bench and starting over by looking for a new project. Essentially, I was fired.

That was it, the client decided to go with someone else and let me go. There was nothing I could do about it. In that moment I felt like I had been jerked around. It made me question my own value and confidence.

My time on the project was less than two months but the lessons will last for as long as I'm working. Here are few takeaways from getting fired on my latest project:

1. Try not to take it personally. It was hard not to take my removal on the project personally. The way the client treated me did not feel right. I knew there was more going on in her life that led to my removal. Her anxiety and nerves got the best of her. I messed up a few times, but I know there were things she took out on me. In professional services, you can be an easy target for a disgruntled client. It is part of the industry. Clients come and go. Sometimes you won't click or vibe with one. That's okay. It's hard in the moment but try not to take it personally.

2. Be aggressive and show initiative. Walking away from the project I realized I may have been too passive with how I facilitated the relationships and deliverables. I needed to be more aggressive with letting my voice and point of view be heard. Even though my deliverables were not outlined in a Statement of Work (SOW), I could have shown more initiative in getting things done. Rather than reacting so much to the change landscape, I should have showed more action. Going forward, I'm going to be more aggressive and show initiative even if my role is unclear. That is consulting after all.

3. Have a perspective even if it is not right. Similar to the previous point, walking into an unknown territory, I need to have a perspective, even if it's not right. Showing others that I bring a certain skill set to the table is important to do upfront. When I do not know the industry, I can still fall back on the skills I bring to the table. In this case it was change management and process improvement. I didn't know everything the client did but I needed to show a perspective even if it wasn't right.

4. Pay attention to the small things. My client counterpart highlighted several components of my work where I missed the mark. Whether it was the font size on a slide, small spelling errors, material presentation, background and colors of a slide, she was really into the details. More so than any other person I have worked with. Looking back, I should have done a better job of paying attention to the parts of the work that mattered so much to the client. In consulting you have to absorb what is important to the client. For this experience it was the small things.

5. Take less notes and absorb instead. When I find myself unsure of the content of a client, I take too many notes. I'll sometimes write down word for word what they are describing. Hoping to capture important pieces of their organizations story. In hindsight, I typically do not refer to these notes as I do my work. They don't provide a ton of value. Instead, I need to do a better job of listening and absorbing. Take notes when needed but focus on actions and big buckets of information. Absorb the information that is being told. Taking notes takes you out of the moment in my opinion. You are focused on copying what the person is saying versus reacting and absorbing to what they have to say.

6. Match your working style to those around you. The client moved fast. They were not following a plan. If there was a plan, it changed weekly, sometimes daily. Looking back, I should have spent less time focusing on specific deliverables. I should have absorbed the working style of the client better. My client counterpart hit this point a lot when we met. I didn't feel bogged down by any specific deliverables but I could have moved faster.

Getting fired from a project is common in a consulting career. The longer you stay in consulting, the higher the likelihood you will have a client who is difficult. No matter what you do, they simply cannot be won over. For high achievers this can be an ego blow. A lot of folks I know who have left consulting have done it because of a difficult client. In professional services organizations, you are getting paid premium dollars for dealing with your clients crap. For some, the pressure becomes too much to bear.

I almost considered walking away from consulting after this experience. The negative feedback blindsided me. The way the client treated me left a poor taste in my mouth on the organization as a whole. I'll avoid that company in the future at all costs as my career evolves. It just wasn't a good fit.

It has been about a month since I walked away from this experience. Now I am on a new project at a different client. Everything that I learned in the previous experience has made me a better consultant. I bring my perspective, show initiative, and highlight my point of view. I'm thankful I was fired from the previous project. I have a lot of lessons learned I can use moving forward.