Consulting Is Like Being a Decathlete

Being a consultant Is like being a decathlete

The reality is, consulting isn’t one event. It’s a multievent sport!

A good consultant isn’t defined by one speciality alone, but by the ability to perform consistently across multiple disciplines, switching mindsets, skills, and strategies as the situation demands.

1. The Sprint: Getting Up to Speed Fast

When clients hire a consultant, they want results fast. The first 100 metres is all about rapid learning: understanding products, people, priorities, and pain points. You need to move fast without tripping on assumptions.

2. The Long Jump: Ideas that land

It’s not enough to run fast - you have to control your speed, and generate ideas that land. Translating analysis into clear, actionable strategies is where the long jump happens. The take-off is preparation; the landing is measurable impact.

3. The Shot Put: Strength in Delivery

Like a consultant, the long jump requires strength an technical ability. This is where execution power matters - writing the copy, building the plan, presenting the deck and launching the campaign.

4. The High Jump: Raising the Bar

Clients bring consultants in because they want to reach new heights. Whether it’s refining a product message, streamlining a process, or rethinking a go-to-market strategy, the goal is always to raise the bar, but without knocking it off on the way up.

5. The 400m: Sustained Momentum

Keeping energy and motivation through complex deliverables is critical. A consultant needs to know when to push and when to breathe. If you run out of energy and fade in the last 20 metres, your early efforts are wasted.

6. The Hurdles: Navigating Obstacles Gracefully

People, priorities, and politics create hurdles. The art lies in clearing them cleanly, using balance and poise to maintain your stride.

7. The Discus: Strategic Throwing

Sometimes your role is to throw ideas far and wide, helping teams see the bigger picture. In the discus you step back and throw with precision.

8. The Pole Vault: Leveraging Tools and Relationships

No one clears great heights alone. Consultants rely on their poles in the form of data, experience, frameworks, and networks, to vault over barriers and deliver results.

9. The Javelin: Sharp Messaging

A consultant’s recommendations need to cut through noise and land with clarity. Like a javelin, your message must travel far, straight, and true, powered by momentum and aimed with intent.

10. The 1500m: Tactics, endurance and finishing strong

After all the fast starts and high jumps, the decathlon ends with endurance. So does consulting. Seeing a project through to completion — supporting implementation, mentoring teams, and embedding change — takes stamina and heart.

The Real Medal? Adaptability

The decathlete wins being good  at all their events, balancing analysis and creativity, structure and agility. And like the best athletes, consultants never stop training. Every client, every project, every “event” teaches you something new about performance, resilience, and the power of preparation, and you take that forward into your next engagement.