Here’s my current situation – I culminated a consulting engagement with my last client about two months ago, but they keep coming back to me for advice and help.
Reflecting on the past two years that I’ve worked with the client, my role was very “visible” where I assumed a dominant position in structuring new procedures. Also as part of the project, I deliberately mentored the client staff in operational methodologies, but I’ve just realized that this would have pegged them as “learners” to the project sponsor, and not as “knowers” – whereas I’m sure they know whatever there is to know about the project.
Now I’m wondering if instead of being the team mouthpiece, it would’ve been wiser to assume a more “invisible” position where I could’ve worked in the background and worked through the team to accomplish the client’s goals, providing any professional and technical help they’d have needed
???
You don’t have any obligation to continue with the project once your part is done. It is unprofessional of your ex-client to come to you like a jilt house wife and ask for favours. I’m sure the sponsors would understand if you explain them your current engagements. The project team should take on their respective duties and responsibilities or if you can afford it then charge them for your "visibility".
the issue is not whether I mind them calling me OR them paying me for my services… I’m just concerned about the approach I took as a Consultant with the client for the past two years, and am wondering about my future engagements with other clients and what would be best in different contexts.
I talked to someone else about this yesterday and they had a good point – thought I’d share it here…
the role of a consultant is two-fold… one as a subject matter expert (SME) and the other as a social change agent… its much easier to be an SME and assume an invisible position but if you want to influence the organizational change process, then you need to be visible.
For your future projects I would suggest tell them about "maintenance plans" as part of the service you provide. This way they will know that if they come to you what its going to cost them and help them plan it better. On the same hand if they do sign up for a plan it would help you schedule your resources better and not get suprise calls when you already have prior engagements.
TofiBaba - again, my concern is not what I should have done to alleviate the calls I'm getting - I don't really mind - in fact, after this incident, I've proposed a Service Level Agreement to the company, but then again its something that I didn't want to get into in the first place...
What I wanted to know was how to decide in the first place if you should be this "active" that the sponsor thinks of you as the only expert !
my priority right now is to instil that confidence in the sponsor that the internal staff can handle the job well - at that point, I'll have balanced the change management prism!
So you actually don't really have a question. You are pretty much looking for corroboration or validation for your ideas(?). 'Cuz if you do want to change the way you've handled those assignments in the past, specially considering that it doesn't bother you to receive those calls, then just go ahead and do it.
With that said, I guess it just depends on your personality. Some people can't handle being in the spotlight and others can't live without that position. Client managment can ofcourse be swayed by how you handle them during the project. So your question as to how to decide to become invisible is pretty much a question you should ask yourself.
I've had some clients in the past who I would rather not deal with again, so I would try to be as straight-forward with them as possible and let them know that my job is done. There are some clients, however, that I love and wouldn't want to give up our relationship (I actually got a full time job at one such client). So I guess it depends on how well you get along with them.