Tandreia Dixon is a first year supply chain consultant with enVista. In the blog below, she discusses her experiences during her first project.
Another key is to be flexible, there were times when my client’s management had requests that inconvenienced me, such as observing and capturing a certain process in the wee hours of the morning. I would’ve rather been counting sheep, but when duty calls, it’s not about you; it’s all about the client.
Just as much as my client’s management was open about what they needed, it was important that I exhibited transparency also. I was sure to notify my client’s supervisors and management about my progress, concerns, needs, and even conversations and interactions I had with process owners. So, I reported weekly in upper management’s status report meetings and set up meetings with supervisors. The more time I spent with the client’s management, the more trust and confidence that they began to have in me. Whenever an opportunity presented itself, I ate lunch, dinner, and even went to a group outing with management and supervisors. The time spent allowed me to get to know them, and the issues they faced day to day.
Thus far, I’ve learned many keys to completing a successful project and winning the hearts of my client’s management. One of the main keys I learned from my manager was to over deliver, under budget. I learned to be aware of how I utilized my bill time when achieving project objectives and aim to deliver results before the due date. I learned to be cost efficient, and to conservatively keep the travel budget (consisting of flights, car rentals, meals, and lodging) in mind when while spending.
The experiences mentioned in “Be the Happy Medium” – Working with External Teams Parts 1 & 2 are lessons learned from the mentorship and teachings of my manager, as well as personal trial and error. When successfully executing the project at hand using the tactics mentioned above, more value was delivered to the client than expected. Most importantly, all parties were able to reach their goals.
