Should you fake it 'till you make it?
Fake it 'till you make is like fabricating it till you fluke it. Feel your way forward instead. Six practical moves when label on the tin is bigger than the tin itself.
I hear the phrase "fake it 'till you make it" a lot in consulting, especially for new consultants. Every time I do, I think back to my early days in consulting. I had no idea what I was doing.
One of my first engagements was with a government department. I was sold to the client as the change management expert. I can still remember reading the proposal and feeling that label on the Kim tin was bigger than the tin itself. The client expected a change manager. They had been told they were getting one. And there I was.
For the first three months, I felt like an imposter. I'd walk into meetings, listen hard, take careful notes, and then go back to my desk, read everything I could find about the client, about change, about the people in the room and what they cared about. I'd rehearse how I might frame a question so it didn't betray how much I was still working out.
So did I fake it till I made it? Not really.
I'd prefer to call it feeling my way forward (though that's not how I saw it at the time).
Faking implies a performance built on a hollow centre. "Fabricating it until you fluke it" is fraught. Feeling your way forward feels more authentic to me. It's drawing on what you already know, admitting what you don't, and being willing to sit in the discomfort of the gap while you close it.
I believe that when we pretend, we pay a tax. The energy that should be going into the client's problem gets diverted into maintaining a persona. Thinking slows down and analysis gets shallow. Clients may not name it, but they will feel it.
The best consultants I've worked with over the years do something that surprised me when I first noticed it. Even when they are sitting with ambiguity and uncertainty, they convey confidence by bringing their former experience to the table through authenticity. They downplay certainty, which rarely exists on any engagement. Their confidence comes from knowing that clients aren't hiring perfect people or perfect experience. They're hiring someone who can work a problem through, systematically.
So, what can you do to "feel your way forward" when its all new to you? Here are 6 pracital tips you can apply today.
