How to be an A-team consultancy

Attracting and retaining a new generation of talented employees and instilling a sense of purpose has to be at the heart of growing your high-performing consultancy. So what can you do?

6 actionable tips from Marc Jantzen, Growth Expert

1. Get comfortable with hiring people that are better than you. Commit to hiring A-team players and hold out. Even if you have a resource gap, don’t accept mediocre.
   
   
2. Entrepreneurial characters tend to recruit characters like themselves – don’t! It’s a big mistake. It leads to a lack of diversity of thinking. Be clear and ask yourself, what are you good at? And surround yourself with complementary people.
   
   
3. Progressive owner-led consulting firms will be making important decisions on a weekly if not daily basis. Founders need people who ‘get it’, who share the load when it comes to doing the thinking and add value over and above executing what is written down in their job description.
    
   
4. Diversity and inclusion is all the rage. Make sure it features in your people strategy, don’t pay lip service to it just because it is trendy. Diversity of thought matters, it improves performance and mitigates the risk of making wrong calls.  
   
   
5. Have a people plan – not just a resource plan. Define the capabilities you will need in your business in 3 years’ time to fulfil your intended value proposition. Document how you plan to find or grow those capabilities. 
   
   
6. To a large extent, your people are your product, so take deliberate care of them and continue to invest in them.