Smoothly is in the eye of the beholder.[/caption]Do you know that feeling of exasperation, or worse, dejection you feel when you fall over the line after a marathon heroic work effort? Having sheltered your client from all kinds of untold pitfalls, looked ahead, anticipated, mitigated, designed cleverly, implemented and delivered, all you get from that blissfully ignorant recipient of your herculean deeds is "Oh, that's nice, what about the other four requests I sent last week?"
I'm learning that quite often, it's just as important to communicate plans, hurdles and be sure to highlight roadblocks and even technical issues your client's can't possibly understand. Sometimes, "things just running smoothly" isn't enough. Because sometime (often) "smoothly" is in the eye of the beholder.
In consulting (and software development) you do have to check your ego at the door. I get that. But sometimes credit is important. Not necessarily for your ego, but for the good of your project. Wouldn't it be terrible to lose a project because the customer doesn't know how well you're really doing for them.
"I told you so", months from now when you've been replaced, doesn't pay the bills.
When you're making great progress but no-one knows because solutions are clean, elegant and "look simple", all they can see is what isn't getting done.
If the work is laid out, prioiritised and everyone has buy in, and sees the impact of changing priorities, is seems they are happier to achieve A and B, and know when, how and why C, D, E & F aren't ready yet, than they would be to achieve A, B, C & D and still be waiting for E & F!
Communication! It's should be easier than doing, and will quite often help just as much.
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