Running a university research lab is very much like running a small company. I am responsible for not only portions of my own annual salary,¹ but also my graduate students' stipends and tuition and, of course, all the funding necessary to actually do the work. With this, particularly at smaller universities like UL Lafayette,² comes the need to fill many roles: account manager, salesman, marketing, public relations, purchasing, human resources, IT support, creative director, etc. etc. etc.³ If I'm lucky, I actually get to do some research from time to time. This is, of course, in addition to teaching and service responsibilities.

I bring all of this up as preface for how much I liked a recent article from Matt Gemmell, who spent the bulk of the last seven years as an independent consultant. The article really struck a chord with me:

Everything is now your problem, and the only way to keep abreast of things is to take it all seriously.

Many of the tips he gives would be equally useful, whether you're a consultant or a corporate stooge. To me, most of the tips read as "ways to be good at your job", not "ways to be a good consultant". For example:

Making a positive impression. No matter what service you provide, the one job we all have is professional communication. Spelling, grammar, punctuation and accuracy are crucial. You’re the face of your business, and your credibility will initially hinge on the impression you give, long before your work is judged.

Identifying goals and problems. Most clients don’t have a clear goal in mind. They know they want something, and they know that they want you to provide it. They rarely have any concrete idea of how they want you to get there – and that’s fine, because finding the goal is the first part of your job.

Above all, you will insist that others be professionals too. It’s a failure of your own professional diligence if you allow sabotaging behaviour on the client’s part to go unchallenged. Clients are their own worst enemies, and it’s absolutely your job to identify and change those situations, as they pertain to your work.

Demand respect. You don’t have to kiss ass, and it’s better if you don’t. Be respected and valued, or be elsewhere. You’ll very quickly get a feel for any personality clashes during the initial approach and negotiation with a client; take any warning signs seriously. You can’t function effectively without mutual respect. Change clients instead.

Instead of clipping any more (I could honestly just clip the whole thing, that's how I much I like it.), go read the article.

Okay, one more... this one also resonated with me as a still-relatively-new professor:

... you’ll probably start out hungry for work, and grateful when it arrives. Those are both healthy feelings, but they have to be managed, because they can become damaging.

It resonated because I have recently come to the realization that I need to protect my own vision, even if that comes at the expense of turning down funding opportunities. If those opportunities don't align with where I want to go, they are a hindrance; they do no good.