In the first Message from the Chair Stepping Into the Hot Seat, I set the stage and commented on the whirlwind week I just experienced. But, what got me here in the first place, writing the fourth Message from the Chair?

In 1973, with a year and one-half old MBA, wife and two children, I was employed by a regional bank in management. Cool! Good gig. The trouble was, they found out I wasn’t a banker about a day or so before I found out I wasn’t going to be a banker. Fired, yikes. What now?

Doing a Yellow Pages search (remember Yellow Pages, don’t you?) for my next employment opportunity, I went shopping with my resume (no ‘Ladders.com’ then; just feet on the street) and, finally, was hired by an owner of a boutique management consulting firm. At the time, I knew him as an experienced management consultant who accepted my skill set (finance) but not either my competency or my comportment as a management consultant. Nonetheless, for the next eight years I was with the firm and helped the owner, together with others, grow it and serve some great clients in the Southeast. During my employment there he ‘hammered’ me on consulting competencies and ethics – drilled them into me as only an ex-Naval submariner could do. We traveled together, working with clients together, but mostly he tested and trained me. I was always under his watchful tutelage (err… control). He was, for me at the time, what every neophyte consultant hopes for – a true mentor.

As a result of his training and mentoring, I’ve been a management consultant for the past 38 years, have been a member of IMC USA since the early 80’s and earned my CMC in October, 1988.

What’s the link to now? As I remember, he was not only a founding father of an organization that ultimately was one that morphed into the current IMC USA but also a Certified Management Consultant (CMC). I have remained in our career mostly due to his strength of character and professionalism. Nathaniel Hill, thank you.

My volunteerism at both the Chapter level (Carolinas) and also National (three years on the Board) has been my pay-back to his pay-forward. What a role providence plays!

What’s your story? And, more importantly, what role do you play in the development of the next management consultant?  What's your pay-forward?

Next up, the Leadership Summit. Stay tuned.

My best,

David