Week 1: Leader/Follower Relationships
Today, I completed my first week at Guidehouse Management Consulting firm remotely. As one may expect, it consisted of traditional orientations and onboardings. The nature of consulting work is very client-driven and relationship-based. In this environment, a level of trust is not only necessary but crucial for success. I found the leader/follower relationships in the firm interesting as there are formal structures in place but informal relationships that naturally develop. The leadership titles have very specific structures as well. It starts with the CEO and C-suite, Partner, Director, Associate Director, Managing Consultant, Senior Consultant, and Consultant level. If I were hired full-time as an entry-level campus hire, I would be a consultant. If I were hired as a grad-student entry-level, I would automatically be a Senior Consultant due to that additional degree. It takes about 2 years to move to a Senior Consultant from Consultant, and then an additional 3-4 years for additional titles with additional years added in between.
The work in the organization is structured into industries, practices, and solutions. Guidehouse is unique in that it specializes in both commercial and public sector industries which range from Energy, Sustainability, and Infrastructure, Financial Services, Health, Public Health, National Security, and more. I am within the Commercial Health Industry. Within the Commercial Health Industry, there are three practices: Payer/Provider, Life Sciences, and Managed Services. I belong to the Payer/Provider practice.
Within the Payer/Provider practice, I fall under the Healthcare Strategy and Innovation Solution. To provide even further support, there are homerooms for organizational management purposes. The homeroom I belong to is the “Network Strategy & Physicians Solution- Network”.
My homeroom leadership organization is as follows: Healthcare Segment Leader, Payer/Provider Practice Leaders, Provider Market Leader, and Solution Leader. All of these leaders are Partners within the firm. Under Solution Leader, there are various Directors leading client engagements. Since the firm is nearing 10,000 employees, it is crucial to have these infrastructures in place to be efficient in human capital and performance capabilities and needs.
The way decisions are made seems to be very collaborative, utilizing the people in your solution. For the general internship program, I have been assigned a “People Manager” and “Buddy”. My People Manager will provide support and guidance on my career plan and development, and oversee my performance evaluations. My People Manager is at the Associate Director level. Last summer, a challenge I had was that my People Manager did not work directly with me. I am glad this is not the case this summer, as my People Manager is on my client engagement. My “Buddy” is to offer guidance and share experience to support me in the Practice and Solution. My buddy is on the Senior Consultant level. I am also excited that my “Buddy” is also on my client engagement on another workstream. This will give me the opportunity to actually connect with both individuals on the client-work level and personal level for relationship building. This is a significant strength and development for my summer.
I have observed that there are high levels of respect for me as an Intern across a variety of leadership titles. They all have reiterated that they want me to work on projects of interest and grow my weaknesses into strengths. One does not disvalue another’s opinion based on their title, but it is truly a collaborative workspace. A challenge I may see is that since I am working with a variety of people in my workstreams, I will have calendar conflicts and need to communicate with my People Manager what is occurring to decide what to prioritize. I have identified from one of my orientation sessions that people are itching to reconnect in person and offices are beginning to plan in-person events starting in July at offices to socialize such as happy hours and Top Golf outings. This shows that they want to engage not only full-time employees but interns fully in their company culture and lifestyle.
I will work with my People Manager on one workstream and my Buddy on another workstream for the same client engagement: a large safety-net hospital in Texas. While I have these two formal supporters in “my network”, I can already identify that I will have at least one other informal influencer. Since my People Manager is on the Associate Director level, he has assigned me to work closely with a Consultant level individual for my daily work. This was honestly a relief to hear as I will have someone younger to consistently check in with and work on assignments together. I met with her this afternoon. We have several similarities which leave me to end this first week on a good note and looking forward to getting started on my workstreams on Monday!