As was written elsewhere, I have studied martial arts (mostly Kung Fu) under several masters. The many lessons learned during that time do not stop at the end of my fist, or sword for that matter. In fact, the longer I studied martial arts, the more I was able to apply Kung Fu to my daily life and work as a consultant.
I am saddened by the large number of so-called "consultants" who obviously do not have the best of their clients’ interests in mind and only look to enrich themselves. But while complaining about the lack of virtues of others is easy, coming up with guidelines to follow is a lot harder.
Luckily, Wu De, the virtues of the warrior, serve as a guiding framework in many situations in life. Wu De goes back, supposedly, to Sun Tzu, the famous general and author of "The Art Of War,” about 2,500 years ago.
The virtues are meant to prevent the warrior from going astray by giving him moral guidelines. Their existence is in part due to the spiritual aspect of Kung Fu. The fighting style was both a means for real-world defense and a tool for enlightenment.
However, we can see that the teachers of Kung Fu wanted to make sure that their students used their skills for the greater good and not for personal enrichment. A skilled warrior without a good moral compass is like an egoistic consultant who can cause a lot of damage by blemishing the reputation of the whole trade.
Here is how I try to incorporate them into my consulting work, which I recommend others follow.
Wu De and DevOps consulting
谦虚 Qian Xu – Humility
This is probably the most important virtue for the consultant. Yes, you are an expert, and the client has hired you to help. But you must never assume that you are better than the client or that your past experience can be applied 1:1 in every case. Each client is different, and over time, you will learn a lot from them (if you have the humility to allow yourself to do so).
Without humility, you will look down on your client and it will show in your handling of the case. You will not work to the best of your abilities, and you will become arrogant. Furthermore, you will rob yourself of the chance of a new experience, which you can learn from to become the expert you appear to be.
慈悲 Cí Bei – Compassion
When you stop sympathizing with your clients and you can no longer feel their pain, you are of no more use as a consultant. At this stage, you will do more harm than good, and it is time to change professions. This happens to a lot of people and everyone I’ve talked to in this scenario has said they should have switched earlier.
This is not a job for soulless robots. To a degree, it is a matter of lying to yourself to have compassion for every single client, but that is part of the job.
自制 Zì Zhì – Self-control
You are the expert; you know how to do it, and the presentation your client is giving makes you cringe. When they ask how they are doing, you want to shout, “I have never seen something so horrible! This is not Agile. The team responsibilities are a mess, the code base is outdated on a geological scale, the monitoring is insufficient, and the documentation is non-existent.” Instead, you smile and say that there is probably some room for improvement and figure out for yourself the parts you want to change and the battles that are better left unfought.
尊敬 Zun Jing – Respect
Respect for the people and respect for the business is what having a professional attitude is all about. Respect for the culture of the client and their unique situation allows you to find the best solution. All in all, a respectful attitude allows you as the consultant to be civilized even in situations of dire disagreement. Showing respect to others puts you in a position where others look up to you and follow your advice.
Just as respect can be earned, it can be lost, and if you lose it for the person who is your main contact, consider moving on. Similarly to compassion, once you lose respect, you are no longer valuable and will do more harm than good.
Respect is often reciprocated, and having it from your client will make your work easier.
正义 Zheng Yi – Justice
Support the righteous, not the wicked. This is a personal opinion, but when you can choose between clients, always go for the one that has a positive impact on the world.
Try to support the people that want to actually do good for the company even when it might be easier to roll with those that are actually part of the problem. You have a lot of visibility as a consultant and showing that you support justice will increase your trustworthiness and respectability.
信用 Xin Yong – Trustworthiness
When the client knows that they can trust you, they will ask for more support from you. This might be trust in your technical skills, your ability to speak truthfully, the fact you don’t pretend to know when you don’t, etc. The client must see (every day) that hiring you was the best decision.
There are many roots to gain trust and many ways to show it. For a permanent employee, it might be enough that the team lead knows where not to trust them, but as a consultant, it is one of the currencies that you exchange with your client. Do not waste it.
忠诚 Zhong Cheng – Loyalty
Do not speak ill of the client at any time, during or after your work with them. Support their initiatives, and if at any time you feel it’s wrong to support them, leave. Advocate their products while you are working for them because it will give you a much better view of what they are doing, which will help you support them.
It is always fun when old friends get together and exchange war stories, but keep the client's name out of it. "This one time I was working for a financial institution" is enough.
Remember that others listen to what you say. They might be part of the group or simply overhearing your conversation because you are talking too loudly. Then they will wonder what kind of a consultant you are, disgracing your clients in such a way.
This can result in a loss of reputation, not to mention the risk of legal trouble (I know of a real case where this resulted in a threat of legal action due to a violated NDA). Such instances leave a bad impression on the trade as a whole, and you wouldn’t want to be responsible for that.
After a while, as a consultant, it is common to see the same problems, but remember, showing loyalty is important. At least pretend to believe that the re-org is going in the right direction and that the new database is a good thing. You are paid as much for the work you do indirectly as directly.
意志 Yi Zhi – Ambition
Always find new ways to help the client. Challenge them to be better in every aspect, pushing their teams and managers as much as you do their technological choices. You are in a unique position to do just that while many of their permanent employees have gone operationally blind or simply lost motivation.
Do not stop at finding a good solution; implement it and then push for an even better one. Make sure to inform the client about the steps they need to take to improve to give them a positive outlook on the future.
忍耐 Ren Nai – Endurance
Not every day is awesome. Just like in any job, there will be bad days and sometimes bad clients. Remember to be professional when times are tough. This is expected from you more than others.
Expectations change with the position people take; just as a junior may be forgiven certain mistakes that a senior would not, a visible lack of endurance will look worse on you than a permanent employee.
毅力 Yi Li – Persistence
This is the other side of endurance. You must not only endure the bad times but keep pushing to make things better. It is your chosen profession to help clients, and for that, you need persistence. You must never be part of the problem but always the solution.
耐 心 Nai Xin – Patience
Closely related and equal to endurance and persistence is patience. You will encounter outdated tools and glacially slow processes in larger companies, as they tend to be this way when they reach and exceed a certain threshold of employees.
They will most likely not work according to best practices. This takes patience to deal with, and you might need to take a deep breath when you hear how long it is going to take to get one of your suggested changes implemented. But that’s how it is!
With endurance, persistence, and patience, you will be able to work better in these situations, and you will not get to a point where you give up.
勇敢 Yong Gan - Courage
Standing up for what is right can be hard. It is both easier and harder as a consultant. It is easier because usually, you will operate at least partly out of the normal hierarchy. You are also, by definition, someone who is hired to spread some knowledge and good practices. It is harder, on the other hand, because you need to choose very carefully which battles to fight.
Because you are in a good position to change things, it is vital to decide what to do and what not to do. If you fight too often, you will get a reputation as a troublemaker and might lose a client because you step on too many toes. If you don’t take on enough battles, you will become part of the problem and lose the justification for your existence in the position.
It is way too easy to just look at all the problems a client might have and decide that they are not going to be fixed. You have seen so many other places with similar problems, and they did not get fixed, so why bother? You need to, or again, you will become part of the problem.
If you have a reputation for being trustworthy and loyal, it takes less courage to point out issues, and people will react more favorably to your suggestions.
Closing thoughts
When I attempted to live by the virtues of Wu De, I realized that they are easy to grasp but hard to follow. They are not likely to ever be reached and are more of a guiding light than a bar to touch.
They encourage constant self-improvement and introspective. There is no day when you wake up and suddenly realize that you are now a good practitioner of Wu De. Instead, with every step forward, you see more potential for improvement and more situations where you can apply the virtues of the warrior, be it in your family life, your work, or anywhere else.
Published: Jul 16, 2024
