By March 2023, and we are amidst the spring semester.
I have mixed feelings and thoughts about my journey as a consultant, a career path that through this course I can – from the safety of an academic environment – explore. On the one hand, I find it deeply intriguing; trying to understand what the hidden requests are and what is the client’s perspective. On the other hand, I have understood that I become easily unmotivated, especially when I don’t see the “why” behind a client’s request.
Client relationship:
After running my own startup I thought that I had gained a good experience on building robust client relationships. However, it’s now clear to me that as you grow as professional, you understand differently clients’ requests. At the end of the day what matters is to have a satisfied client. As professor Flammer says “Client is the king”.
Project management:
Agile project management; a methodology that this course taught me which transforms the way you operate. To adapt quickly, alter effectively your work scopes and to leverage every resource available.
Project managers; There is certain people that they are natural leaders. Finding a balance between the client’s request, team members agenda and personalities is not an easy task. It requires a constant internal check with yourself and your team to ensure that everyone is on board. A good project manager is a gamechanger.
Cultural relativism:
I am deeply motivated to understand what cultural frameworks my team members bring into their work. Most importantly, this project has been a catalyst in identifying my own strengths and weaknesses that stem from my personal cultural framework.
As European and Greek, I tend to leverage limited resources and try to come up with an unconventional solution to differ myself from others. I have been taught that going the extra mile is always appreciated if you want to succeed.
However, I am not used to defer to authority, which doesn’t always serve neither me. For instance, my far-fetched proposal could be either a huge success or a unprecedented failure only because I wasn’t eager to defer to authority, which at this case is the client.
On a final note, this class has taught me once again the importance of keeping an open heart and mind while working in intercultural and interdisciplinary projects.
Through our upbringing, we have been taught that comparison is the only way to understand where we stand as personalities and professionals. Yet, comparison leads nowhere, especially when you need all hands on the table.