I've been thinking about our company direction and what that means to us as consultants. I appreciate the Stride Core Values and I believe in all of them. However I feel like they leave us a bit rudderless because they are values that no one from any consulting company would object to. So I made a list of practices that I see at Stride that exhibit some of the Core Values.
I think it is commendable that we have been so flexible and focused on delivering client value. However I'd also like us to agree upon a set of practices as consultants. Not all practices will be possible at every client but we need a baseline to begin to evaluate potential clients and ongoing engagements in the interest of improving consultant growth and happiness.
I came up with four consulting pillars, core practices that we agree on that are are not implied by our core values. I'd like us to have a common page to start on in our practice as consultants.
Humility
- Admit what you don’t know
- Admit that you might be wrong
- Make the team’s success your success
- Bring your pair along with you and double check your assumptions when you can’t
- Bring the team along with you, solutions with team buy in are more valuable than going rogue, even when you’re right
- Listen to feedback and take ownership of action items
Honesty
- Be transparent: showing blemishes and admitting mistakes can lead to increased trust
- Give difficult feedback when problems arise
Respect
- Listen to customer needs and get to their “why” before rejecting their position
- Be sensitive to cultural differences and differences in experience
Learn from failure
- Be upfront about your failures and admit responsibility
- Root cause your mistakes, process problems and engineering mistakes
- Figure out when you are pushing too hard and know how to pull back
Willingness to help others
- Be eager to pair
- Help your client and Stride colleagues troubleshoot when they have problems
- Contribute to the Stride team by helping to conduct interviews and grade code tests