As we head closer to the end of 2020, I’m starting to think about where I want my business to go and who I want to be, have, and experience in 2021.
Considering we’re still in the middle of a pandemic, it feels futile to plan anything out. Nevertheless, I’ve been thinking about the types of client and partnership opportunities I’ve had in the past year. With each year that passes, my projects and client interactions become more complex. I’ve developed a routine that affords me to be more intentional about who I work with, but that didn’t come without any hiccups.
I took my own advice and evaluated each project using the following prompts:
- How did I feel about this project overall?
- How did I feel about my role in this project?
- How did I feel while working with this client/partner?
As I reflected on this year’s projects, I also thought of prior projects and decided it would be fun to share two experiences that I consider my best and my worst time working with clients.
Because I’m focusing on me, I won’t be naming the specific clients nor the focus of the projects (because that’s messy), but If you’ve been a reader of my blog over the years, you should know that my client projects tend to fall somewhere in the sexual and reproductive health, rights, or justice space, young women’s empowerment, and the like. I’ll focus instead on what I learned during these processes and how they’ve shaped my process in being intentional of who I work with, what I take on, and how I choose to work.
Let’s start with the worst client experience:
This client project occurred during the transitional period where I was in the process of leaving my day job and moving into my consulting business full time.
This was a collaborative program that brought together several community-based organizations to provide free or reduced cost services to individuals and families. I partnered with one of the organizations, who was overseeing the program’s evaluation.
My role in the project was supposed to last 2 months max. However, several things happened, including the staff member I was working with getting fired (and then being rehired), the executive director getting fired, and my role expanding from assisting with small parts of the program’s evaluation to now overseeing the entire data collection, analysis and reporting process. I didn’t have access to all the data due to the staff member being fired and had to wait until they returned. Plus, our working relationship became contentious over time as I had a feeling that they didn’t want me on the project to begin with. There was a tug of war over task responsibility that left me feeling very micro-managed.
Let’s start with the positive. I appreciated my ability to pivot from being in a supportive role to overseeing the evaluation. I learned many things about myself, including that I needed to speak up for myself and for the program participants based on the data I was seeing. I learned that I needed to put my foot down to unrealistic expectations and to being micro-managed. I also learned the importance of good communication and how to communicate in ways that give clients peace of mind. Two processes I use today – client kickoff meetings to address concerns and share expectations, and having routine check-in meetings (whether weekly or biweekly) – came from this experience.
I also learned an unfortunate truth: Clients will do what they want to do. Regardless of what the program data says, the recommendations you give to move the project forward, or how much they paid you to work with them. And that’s ok. This was hard to come to terms with (and still is at times). A workaround has been – with similar projects where I need to provide program recommendations – to prioritize the recommendations based on what the data says AND having an understanding of the client’s staff capacity.
Now my best client experience:
This was a multi-year capacity building project with an organization that, to this day, is one of the most detailed oriented, structured, organized organizations I’ve ever worked with. My role in the project was to oversee the process of building up evaluation understanding, utilization and capacity.
I worked with one of the leadership directors in establishing a inter-department working group of staff with various levels of evaluation knowledge and use. Regardless of knowledge level, the staff were easy to engage, asked thoughtful questions within the context of their department’s programs and organizational goals, and were transparent on what they had capacity to do. Together we surveyed staff to gain insight into what they felt about evaluation along with how they saw the evaluation process fitting into their individual and departmental work. The working group staff were trained in evaluation and were charged to teach their departments everything they’d learned while working with me, and doing so in a way that was culturally responsive to the communities they serve and programs they run.
Similar to my worst client experience, I did a lot of pivoting during this project. By this time, I had several projects under my belt and started all projects with the understanding that things may shift slightly or significantly. Plus, there was a level of understanding between myself and the director I oversaw the project with that wasn’t there with with prior clients.
I could feel the investment of the staff, not only in terms of budget but in their willingness to show and and engage with the process. This organization requested funding to do this level of capacity building because they saw it as part of their strategic plan and success. You can truly tell the difference between a client that needs you there by funder request and a client that is self guided and invested in the process in multiple ways.
I learned that this is the type of client experiences I wanted more of. I also learned that I always refine my process after each client because each client – for better or worse – shows me something different about myself and my process.
Key takeaway
As you grow into your expertise and take on different kinds of projects, you become more comfortable with how you lead. At the same time, don’t become too complacent because each client and partner experience is different. Have your process, stick up for yourself, be flexible, and continue to work toward the kinds of client and partnership experiences you want.
Raise Your Voice: How do you reflect on client and partnership projects? Share below in the comments section.
