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Review: Secrets of Consulting
Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully was an excellent "tech book" to take on vacation.
Sitting back and reading the book, I couldn't help but nod and laugh many times. Gerald M. Weinberg, the author, has obviously been in the consulting business for a long time. He realizes that whether it's legal, technical, or regulatory consulting, consulting is the same game: being able to give advice and take it well.
Where the last book was on establishing and growing trust, the intimate part of the relationship, Weinberg moves back a bit and talks about how to frame up relationships so that they are sucessful. His book is full of litte quips, which he calls "laws"
I enjoyed the book immensely. I wish I had read this book early in my career, but somehow I don't think I would have believed much of what Weinberg has to say. You just have to live through some of these things to really see the truth here.
One of the things that struck close to home was the idea that you _must_ spend a portion of your week developing yourself professionally, whether writing articles, making contacts, speaking, etc, you can't just "deep dive" on one client to the exclusion of your larger practice.
Good advice all around, and highly recommended for people who want to work on their consulting skills.
I was fortunate to discover Weinberg when I was in college. I read his "The Psychology of Computer Programming" and have read most of his books since then as they came out. When "Secrets of Consulting" came out I read it and then bought a number of copies and gave them to friends. It's also a very useful book if you are trying to innovate within a company--intrapreneurship as Gifford Pinchot calls it.
I am glad that I recommended this to you, it sounds like you got a lot out of it.