SAP Consultants: Are You Qualified to Lead?

By Sam Sliman
President, Optimal Solutions Integration.

The success or failure of an SAP project often hinges on the capabilities and performance of lead consultants. Whether a lead consultant is a project manager, team lead, subject matter expert, or all of the above, he or she shoulders significant responsibility and therefore commands higher rates.

Lead consultants play a central, high-profile role in SAP projects. They are the masters of their domain, and the entire team looks to them to creatively solve difficult problems by bringing their substantial experience to bear on the project’s challenges.

So what makes an SAP consultant qualified to lead? While there is no one defining formula, all successful lead consultants share some characteristics:

Wisdom - To Mitigate Risk

In the SAP world, leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made the old fashioned way - through hard work and a diversity of experience. Experience with similar projects is a prerequisite for serving as the lead on an SAP project. But lead consultants must draw on more than just their own direct experience to ensure success. They must be adept at recognizing signs and patterns of risk, and quick to tap the appropriate skills and expertise around them to mitigate this risk. They must have the wisdom to think and execute clearly and effectively under pressure and amidst complexity. And, equally important, they must have the presence born of experience and wisdom to be received and respected as a trusted advisor by steering committees and C-level executives.

Political Skill - To Influence

All organizations have politics, and the cross-functional nature of an SAP implementation tends to be heavily influenced by them. A lead consultant has to be comfortable with corporate politics and understand that complex projects require not only strategy but bare-knuckled pragmatism. That means that there is always some give-and-take and that solutions to problems may not be optimal from a strictly “engineering” point of view. A lead consultant has to understand the political landscape and know how to influence the project team so that decisions respect the inevitable politics inherent in an organization. In the end, lead consultants need the support of their superiors as well - in order to call in the favors that will inevitably be needed to navigate political roadblocks.

Discipline - To Execute

An SAP lead consultant sets the tempo of activity and the operating norms for the team. Therefore the quality of the effort will be a direct reflection of the individual’s personal operating style. A lead consultant will ultimately be judged by on-time, on-budget delivery, as well as the quality of the deliverables. If a lead consultant is sloppy, disorganized or undisciplined, the team will be as well. Deadlines will be missed, important details will be overlooked, and the end product will fail to meet requirements of functionality and performance. In order to be successful, an SAP lead consultant must run a tight ship - from a personal and team leadership standpoint.

Vision - To Inspire

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. An SAP project leader needs to understand the client’s business challenges and the solution to these challenges. They must be able to communicate these challenges to the team so everyone involved understands the full significance of the project. And they need to convey a sense of passion in pursuit of the goal - in order to inspire all team members to perform at the high level necessary to achieve the vision. A vital and indispensable ingredient of successful leadership is the ability to evoke, challenge and direct the very best in all the team members involved in the project.

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