Sales and Leadership Wisdom from the Leaders, Mr.Harsh Bisht – Banking & Capital Markets Leader – EY

I asked Harsh Bisht, banking and capital markets leader – EY, How has leadership evolved in the consulting industry over the years? What are three to five critical traits for a successful leader?
He replied, when I started my Consulting career, roughly 28 years ago, Leadership in consulting was all about showing direction, leading, motivating and binding the team together.
This has evolved with a Leader needing to add a few more skills. Let me step back & give you a context – when I joined my first job as a management trainee, I had a horizon of 10 years of gaining experience in one firm before even thinking of moving to another. Today when I interview management graduates & even laterals, their window for a job is at best two to three years & they don’t shy away from saying it explicitly. In current times, typically an entire organization changes in three to four years.
Most Consulting firms hire Engineers + MBA’s with work experience or MBA’s with industry experience. Experience of the Consultant is very important from a Client point of view. More the experienced Consultants, more is his/ her demand at client site. Hence, the evolution in consulting leadership style is all about giving more emphasis on, how do I motivate people and retain them ? Consultants are our only Assets in Consulting – who deliver assignments, at the client site. I can be at the client site once a week, once in 15 days, but the person who is going to be on the ground for eight hours a day is the most important person for the Client. Hence one of the most important trait of a leader in today’s generation is his/ her people management skills so as to (a) Motivate the team which operates from a client site & hardly comes to office (b) Retain the team of high performing MBA’s for a longer period of time and (c) bind the team them together.
Another important evolving trait of the Leader is his Relationship management & Networking skills with an objective of increasing business. Thanks to Social media, one is connected to their clients on Facebook, Linked in & other Social media, etc. This helps in understanding clients more closely, their interests, family, be part of their celebrations, etc. Today, relationship management & networking with clients – both online & more importantly offline, plays an very important role in long term success in Consulting.
Today, Leadership in consulting is about internal management – showing direction, leading, motivating, retaining and binding the team together as well as external management – Relationship management & Networking with clients for sustained business relationships.
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