Re: As a consultant, do you ever fire a client? If so, when?
Interesting responses - thanks people.
In my 20 years as a Quality Systems Consultant, I did not FIRE a client but I did refused to be associated with them. Maybe that could be considered the same.
I see them as the the same thing. A voluntary decision to withdraw from/terminate a relationship - ie, not initiated by the client.
I agree, for a consultant, reputation is vital. The MD of the client I mentioned was pushing to begin sign up with certifier - and not only were they far from ready, but I definitely wasn't willing to have my name & thus reputation associated with them.
I found that they had fudged a lot of data. I was to be onsite as an observer during the audit but declined. As a Consultant, my reputation is vital and never get involved in a company that fudges records.
Yikes, indeed not! I won't have anything to do with dishonesty either. I'd have made the same decision you did in both cases.
An earlier client I fired was one I'd worked with for a couple of years, during which I helped them turn a dreadful cumbersome pile of *&^%$ (though certified! heaven knows how) into a streamlined & functional, clear system.
They wanted me to continue helping with various internal projects, as well as acting as their QM and internal auditor. Two things happened: a/ I realised that there was quite some disparity between the stated policies and 'people values' and also a lot of blame going on - by the GM and of everyone else. ('Teamwork' really did mean 'do it my way'. And when push came to shove, forget some of those values). And b/during an internal audit, I discovered a senior manager there was regularly reporting completely false figures on returned products (very low figures reported... but a shelf crammed with them in the warehouse). This was just the last of a series of lies he'd been telling for a long time - but the GM 'couldn't decide' what to do.
Initially I had thought the blame thing might be changeable. Nope. He didn't want to even consider it, took refuge in claimed ignorance. And when that didn't work, anger. I struggled a little longer, and then decided it was a lost cause. Wrote a very clear summary of what had been done, what was still to be accomplished... and the top issues I thought needed to be dealt with & why, relating all back to the published company policy & values (ie, disparity between). Setting the bridge
thoroughly alight
Indeed yes.
Liked Wes' technique too - good one. And I agree with his clear separation of a true consultant/advisor from a contract worker ( in essence 'a pair of hands').
As a consultant, I consider I have a responsibility to act as a model of the values and behaviours I espouse. And if a particular engagement brings up a 'values conflict', then it's something I have to deal with. For me, I think the conflict in values is between my commitment to help the client and get them to their defined goal (something I take seriously), and my commitment to my own values and ethics. In some ways, it felt like 'letting the client down' to terminate the engagement. But I also felt it would have been dishonest to have continued, given the opinion that I had formed. WDYT?