In October of last year, I was promoted to Director of Consulting Services. The plan was for me to become the client director for the client where I was placed. Unfortunately, the client identified the dual role as a conflict of interest, so those plans were scrapped. I continued to bill hours for my client, but I was assigned as client director to a different client.
I did what I could to manage the small number of resources, but I feel like our relationship with the client was already on the downswing even before I took over. This happens all the time in the consultant world. After all, consultants are expensive and we aren't supposed to be a long-term solution. Tell that to some of my clients who have retained my services for multiple years.
Since I have been a client director without a client to manage, the plans have been set in motion for me to become the client director for the client where I'm currently placed (not the same conflict-of-interest one). The announcement will go out in the next day or two and it will be official on Monday. What exactly does a client director do? Allow me to elaborate.
The client director is a single point of contact between my company and the client. We are the starting point for new resource requests as well as the point person to manage the currently-placed resources. If a client requests a resource, the director identifies either an existing resource or sources candidates, interviews, and identifies qualified candidates for the placement. Our consultants are managed by the client for day-to-day work, and my policy is reach out to me if you need anything, otherwise I'm not going to bother you. No news is good news. That said, a good director maintains an open communication channel with the managers at the client to get ahead of any issues before they blow up into major problems.
I intend to write a newsletter (perhaps monthly) to keep the team informed about the happenings at the client. No other directors do this, but then again it's one of my monkey tricks.
I did what I could to manage the small number of resources, but I feel like our relationship with the client was already on the downswing even before I took over. This happens all the time in the consultant world. After all, consultants are expensive and we aren't supposed to be a long-term solution. Tell that to some of my clients who have retained my services for multiple years.
Since I have been a client director without a client to manage, the plans have been set in motion for me to become the client director for the client where I'm currently placed (not the same conflict-of-interest one). The announcement will go out in the next day or two and it will be official on Monday. What exactly does a client director do? Allow me to elaborate.
The client director is a single point of contact between my company and the client. We are the starting point for new resource requests as well as the point person to manage the currently-placed resources. If a client requests a resource, the director identifies either an existing resource or sources candidates, interviews, and identifies qualified candidates for the placement. Our consultants are managed by the client for day-to-day work, and my policy is reach out to me if you need anything, otherwise I'm not going to bother you. No news is good news. That said, a good director maintains an open communication channel with the managers at the client to get ahead of any issues before they blow up into major problems.
I intend to write a newsletter (perhaps monthly) to keep the team informed about the happenings at the client. No other directors do this, but then again it's one of my monkey tricks.