How to become a great manager in a consultancy

ESNs — Entreprises de Services du Numérique, formerly known as SSII (the French term for IT services consultancies) — sometimes have a reputation that precedes them. That's often tied to a poor understanding of the specific roles their employees hold, particularly tech consultants.

By default, managers can end up taking the blame. In this article we'll cover the pitfalls to avoid when managing your tech teams and our tips for becoming a great manager in a consultancy.

At Bluecoders, we offer training programs to help you build skills and grow your management capital.

What does a manager do in a consultancy?

A manager's role in a consultancy

A manager's role in a consultancy is highly versatile: they're responsible both for business development in their patch (whether geographic or by client portfolio) and for hiring their consultants.

At the intersection of these two activities sits team management, calibrated to client needs.

The specific responsibilities of a manager in a consultancy also depend on the consultancy's activities. Generally speaking, the main tasks are:

• Prospecting and growing major accounts on their IT, industrial, or business challenges.
• Hiring and managing a team of consultants, whether on client site or in-house.
• Strengthening a sense of belonging to the company among their team.
• Supporting consultants in growing their careers.
• Converting fixed-price engagements into staff augmentation work.
• Ensuring the deliverables promised to clients while maintaining a strong relationship with them.
• Tracking team performance and objectives through regular reporting.

Why is being a manager in a consultancy different?

A business manager inside a consultancy is different from one in any other kind of company. You face a dual challenge: serving your client and serving your consultants.

On the client side, you need to identify new potential leads with a need to outsource IT projects and run commercial follow-up through to delivery.

On the consultant side, you identify available consultants for your projects and track your team's progress.

This isn't even a double role — it's a quadruple one — which makes the consultancy manager's job rich and complex at the same time.

Unlike a traditional manager, you have to manage your client and manage your "client suppliers" at the same time.

Which soft skills and hard skills do you need?

To become a business manager in a consultancy, the path is fairly straightforward: a standard business school program or a Master's-level business degree, with an appetite for new technologies and IT.

A role this versatile demands both specific soft skills and hard skills.

Soft skills of a great consultancy manager

Soft skills

To be a great manager, you need:

• to be organized: to manage your consultants' staffing and limit bench time
• to be at ease verbally: to maintain strong client relationships and clear communication with your team
• to be persuasive and persistent: to drive business development for your unit and win new contracts
• to be a unifier: to build team spirit and a positive atmosphere within your unit.
• to show leadership: especially when assigning engagements based on your consultants' skills. You also need initiative and resilience under pressure, given how competitive the consultancy market is.
• to be considerate: maintaining a caring connection with your team and your consultants helps build loyalty.

Hard skills

Even though business managers in consultancies are usually selected for their commercial and managerial skills, technical skills are valued. So it's recommended to have skills in:

• project management: to properly handle engagements, deadlines, budgets, teams, etc.
• software management
• hardware
• programming languages (Python, Java, C++, Perl, Go, Javascript)
• IT management and data storage
• data analysis and analytical thinking: to assess staffing and the feasibility of engagements as accurately as possible. This helps reduce bench time and keep both consultants and clients happy.
• financial analysis and critical thinking: to stay on budget and manage the investments required for a project.
• IT in general

Tech skills are particularly valued because they help you build credibility with your team and ease communication around projects.

Your consultants will appreciate having a manager who understands their craft and its specifics rather than feeling like they're speaking a different language and being misunderstood.

How do you become a better manager in a consultancy?

Our 5 tips for being a great manager in a consultancy

Now that we've zoomed in on what makes consultancy business managers unique, let's get into our top 5 tips to become a better manager.

Train yourself

To gain new knowledge and grow your skills, you absolutely have to invest in training. It's the basics of becoming a better manager: learning.

You can take courses on:

• mastering the legal framework of consulting engagements
• different leadership styles
• developing your team's potential
• improving client relationships
• growing your technical skills

There's a wide range of training programs to help you build maturity in client and team management and pave the way for career growth.

Through Bluecoders, you have access to many training programs so you can master the tools to grow, perform, and succeed alongside your team.

Grow your team

It's not just about leveling yourself up — it's also about helping your team grow.

To do that, stay close to your team and run regular meetings and check-ins. That gives you a clear view of each person's skills and aspirations.

To grow your team, offer them new challenges, new projects, and new engagements that match their expertise. Suggest training programs if certain skills are missing or during bench time.

Taking interest in their aspirations is also a way to set more ambitious goals for the team as a whole and expand the team's responsibilities within the company.

Keep your team busy

We just mentioned training during bench time. Bench time refers to that period between two engagements when your consultant has just finished a project for client X but hasn't yet been assigned to one for client Y.

To minimize this and as a manager, you need to ensure your team's utilization rate. That means staying on top of each project's progress and juggling availability and skills. A sharp, analytical, and quick mind is essential to organize your team's day-to-day well.

Where bench time is unavoidable, don't leave your consultants stranded — they'll feel abandoned. Instead, offer them training, internal projects within the consultancy, or the chance to mentor a junior or an intern.

Build consultant loyalty

If you respect the first golden rules above, your consultants will already be more inclined to stay on your team.

That said, it requires transparency and strong communication with your team. Valued by your consultants, these management qualities give you, the business manager, and your team a clearer view of current and upcoming projects.

You can also help maintain a healthy work-life balance for your team through monthly check-ins. Feeling included in the company and staying in regular touch will boost your team's loyalty.

Finally, reward their work when the client is happy with the engagement — whether through compensation, access to training, or new, more stimulating and empowering assignments.

Manage with rigor and care

Lastly, be smart about how you manage your team. It may seem obvious, but some consultancy teams are still managed under pressure and tension. These management practices are counterproductive and lead your team straight into the wall.

Show care by listening to your consultants. Don't forget that they are the workforce and the source of your profit. Without your tech consultants, no engagements and no manager.

That doesn't mean your team gets to call all the shots. Manage them with rigor, but with fairness and active listening.

Embody the role of the moderating manager to maintain a positive, work-friendly atmosphere.