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Neil Middleton has over 35 years’ experience within the service, financial and ecological sectors, performing a variety of leadership, managerial, technical, customer service, people development, consultancy, marketing and financial roles. He is the managing director of two companies operating within the UK: Echoes Ecology Ltd, an ecological consultancy he established in Scotland in 2006, and Time For Bespoke Solutions Ltd, a company that provides management consultancy and people development solutions. Neil is also an accomplished trainer across a wide range of business and ecology-related subjects, having developed and delivered well over 200 training events to date. He has a constant appetite for self-development, as well as seeking to develop those around him. Hence the inspiration behind this book, in which he shares his experiences, thoughts and ideas as to how best you can perform successfully in your role.

Neil is available to provide people development and management consultancy services to ecological consultancies and other service-sector businesses throughout the UK.

Social Calls of the Bats of Britain and Ireland. (2014): Neil Middleton, Andrew Froud and Keith French. Pelagic Publishing, Exeter. ISBN: 978-1-907807-97-8.

Joan Punteney studied illustration and graphic design at Edinburgh College of Art. She works as a freelance artist on a wide variety of projects and subjects. Her main work, and passion, has always been painting animals, and she has undertaken countless commissions for lifelike paintings of horses, pets and wildlife. Joan is also an excellent cartoonist, as demonstrated by the work produced for this book. Joan is available to produce commissioned high-quality artwork.

Those working in ecology are technically a highly competent group of people. Almost every ecologist, at every level, has either completed a degree associated in some way with their role, or has amassed a huge amount of experience in their core subject matter, or has even managed to achieve both. Many of us, as we grew up, watched birds, studied bats, recorded insects and identified plants, all as part of our leisure time. To progress from being a keen amateur to gaining a professional position in a field that we are passionate about is a dream come true. In fact, in many industry sectors you will struggle to find a workforce anywhere near as emotionally attached at the same personal, non-working level. As the working week draws to a close I might ask a colleague, ‘So what are your plans this weekend?’, and the number of times I have been given an answer such as ‘I am going to do a survey for the local badger group’ is a huge credit to the drive and commitment many show. I cannot imagine many other professions where people spend their leisure time doing anything remotely like their professional activities. In my previous working life I don’t recall any of my insurance colleagues ever saying that they were nipping out to the travel agents to book an insurance holiday.

To support all of this expertise, there are vast libraries of books and research papers, as well as terabyte upon terabyte of information available on the internet. If you want to find out about a technical aspect of the role, then typically you will be spoiled for choice, advice and opinions. Of course there are still some technical subjects that not too much is known about, and hence little exists in terms of literature. For many this is all part of the fascination and challenge of working in ecology. So, with countless people to ask, and plentiful guidance about species, their identification, ecology and biology, today’s ecologist has more to refer to than ever before. However, for many, the skills that are required in relation to their office working environment are often not given anywhere near as much attention. Sadly, most further education bodies do not cover many (if any) of the core business-related skills that an aspiring ecologist would find beneficial – or indeed, at times, crucial. It is often the case that the graduates who have more confidence and the appropriate skills to start a career within the business world are those who gained these skills as a result of jobs they carried out while trying to fund their way through university, as opposed to anything they learned during term time.

So, there I was one day, not unusually for a man quickly approaching his grumpy years, wondering why so little has been done to help ecologists with this aspect of their working role. I quickly moved on to lambasting those who had never done anything about it. Now, I am not quite sure who the ‘those’ I was thinking about actually were, because to be fair very few of us, at least in our sector, are experts in business-related human behaviour. Strange, if we bear in mind that many of us know a considerable amount about animal behaviour. And of course, humankind is very much like the other creatures many of us study. Usually when we do or say something, or react in a certain way, it is for a reason or in response to our environment, including the behaviours of those around us.

Human behaviour is a massive subject, which I am clearly in no way qualified to comment upon. I do, however, have some relevant experience within the world of business, management, team building and the like, and I have spent a huge amount of time working in office environments (some would say too much!). With that in mind, here I am endeavouring to contribute towards improving business-related skills within the ecology sector. I hope this book will help you see your world through different eyes and give useful perspectives on how to manage your way through the potentially hazardous office habitat. On the face of it the office looks comfortable and safe, but on a bad day it can make the career you are so passionate about seem very challenging.

This book will cover lots of ideas for you to consider in order to make the office-related aspects of your performance less stressful and more effective. With these additional skills your chances of being an asset to your team and your employer will be enhanced, as will your ability to forge a successful career in your chosen profession.

The approaches described herein are by no means the only ones that can be adopted in a given scenario, but at the very least they give you more in your toolbox to help you to navigate effectively through your day.

Bear in mind that small changes to your behaviours can have a huge positive impact upon your performance and how you are perceived within your working environment. If, on the other hand, you change nothing, then nothing will change. It is a fine line between mediocrity and brilliance. Brilliance is not that difficult to achieve. It’s all about adopting the correct approach to your working environment, and delivering what’s expected of you every time; no excuses. Be good at the simple stuff, and everyone around you will perceive you as brilliant.

At first glance this book might appear to be aimed purely at those working as an ecologist, at whatever level. However, if you are in a more senior position (such as a team manager or principal ecologist), or working in a human resources (HR) or training role, there is a lot in here that may give you food for thought as to how to approach different scenarios, or how to encourage people around you to develop. At the very least you may wish to steer your team members towards reading this book.

Other than where I refer to real events – in which case nothing that can identify any individual is provided – all other characters mentioned by name or appearing in this work are fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Some of these fictional characters appear in a number of the case studies and examples. The same characters are used throughout, as follows:

A glossary of regularly used business-related words and expressions appears at the end of the book. It is not a conventional glossary, in that it is not limited to defining words that occur in the text, but includes various other terms that you may encounter during your business-related activities. I hope that you find it useful.

It would have been impossible to write this book without a huge amount of assistance and support, not only while writing it, but also during my entire learning and working life.

First of all I would like to thank a number of people who have contributed to the production of this book: Joan Punteney, for the excellent front cover and the equally brilliant illustrations accompanying each chapter; Aileen Hendry, my partner in life, as well as my constant reviewer, for her knowledge, experience, feedback (lots of feedback, in fact!) and greatly needed proofreading skills; Laura Carter-Davis (Team Manager, Echoes Ecology Ltd) for her support and critical appraisal of the material, and for her proofreading; Hugh Brazier, for his excellent copy-editing skills and valued input; and Nigel Massen of Pelagic Publishing, for his faith that I had something worth saying and for his continued support and professional expertise.

I am grateful to Steve Jackson-Matthews (Head of Ecology and Director, Land Use Consultants Ltd), Reuben Singleton (Director, Tweed Ecology Ltd) and David Darrell-Lambert (Director, Bird Brain UK Ltd) for their valued opinions relating to the subjects covered in this book, and for allowing me to quote some of their wise words.

Special thanks are also due to Andrew Froud and Keith French, my co-authors on Social Calls of the Bats of Britain and Ireland, for their friendship and inspiration over many years.

For support and encouragement throughout the writing process, and at certain key moments, my gratitude goes to Heather Campbell, Paul Carter-Davis, Audrey Middleton, Emily Middleton and Sophie Punteney.

Within Echoes Ecology Ltd I have been blessed, through good planning and a small dose of luck, to have an excellent team, and in particular during the writing of this book thanks are due to Laura Carter-Davis, Heather Ream, Rhiannon Hatfield, Elaine Anderson, Aaron Middleton, Colin Everett, Laura Spence, Mingaile Zebaite and Emily Platt for being so good at what they do best: looking after our customers and working so effectively together.

I would finally like to acknowledge some key mentors from my earlier life in business. The management team at the Gloucester Hotel (Aberdeen) gave me my first lessons in customer service, and the head waitress, Dorothy, constantly reminded me that ‘Every day, in every way, you’re getting better.’ Who would have thought that would still prove to be such a source of inspiration, some 35 years later? And then there were my colleagues at Norwich Union PLC. Too many to mention here, but in particular I am grateful to Ian Brodie, Isobell Carroll, Ian Girdwood, Tracey Henderson, Mike King, Scott McLean, Peter Millington, Steve Molyneux, Bill Petrie, Ian Potter, Janice Rodgers, John Shearer, Gordon Smith, Tim Webb and Phil Worthington. Although all of this seems so far away from the world of ecology, so much of what I have learned and achieved during my own professional journey is down to these people.

Collectively, all the people named above have taught me that the day you stop being receptive to new ideas, new challenges and self-development is the day you may as well just pack up everything, switch off the lights and wait for ... Wait for what, exactly? In professional life worthwhile things rarely happen unless you work hard and make them happen. You may be lucky, you may be superhuman, you may be the exception to the rule. As for the rest of us, if we really want it badly enough we have to work darn hard. Fortunately, all the way through my professional life, I have been lucky enough to work alongside and be inspired by people who know this.

I suppose the best place to get started is to define precisely what I mean by an ‘effective ecologist’. Naturally, someone working within the ecology sector needs to be knowledgeable, competent and experienced in the taxonomic groups, habitats and survey methods they are involved with. In other words, they would be expected to have the relevant technical knowledge (including qualifications) and work-related experience.

Looking at technical knowledge first – well, that’s a given, isn’t it? Surely if a person doesn’t have the knowledge then they shouldn’t be in the job in the first place. Alternatively, they could be given the training required. But if neither the knowledge nor the training is in place, the employer should not be asking them to do something which is beyond their technical skillset. For example, someone who doesn’t know how to identify plant species shouldn’t be anywhere near a National Vegetation Classification (NVC) survey.

Let us now consider the difference between knowledge and experience. It’s not difficult in our sector to see that someone can have quite a lot of theoretical knowledge about a particular subject, without necessarily having any relevant practical experience. Many years ago I was quite well informed about cetaceans, and I could have told you huge amounts about whales and dolphins: where to find them, how to identify them, diet, breeding behaviour. Was I suitably experienced to carry out cetacean surveys? No, I most certainly wasn’t. I had read lots of books and watched lots of videos (there’s a clue as to how long ago I am talking about), but I hadn’t seen that many cetacean species in the flesh in their natural environment.

It is clear, then, that knowledge and experience are not necessarily the same thing. A combination of both is essential in order for an ecologist to be capable of carrying out their responsibilities at the required level. So there you have it, technical knowledge and relevant field experience – that’s all it takes, isn’t it? If only it were that simple.

Although this book is not going to make frequent reference to the technical knowledge and experience aspects of being an ecologist, it is very important for me to stress something at the outset. Everything that we will go on to discuss assumes that a person employed or engaged to carry out a professional job is knowledgeable, skilled, technically competent, qualified, experienced – and whatever else you want to add – at carrying out the role. In fact, when interviewing a candidate for a job in our sector these are usually the areas that are given the most attention. You can see and touch a qualification; you can discuss experience at length; you can talk about the type of sites worked upon and knowledge of different species.

It is much harder, however, for a potential employer to gauge the candidate’s generic business behaviours, their interpersonal skills, and whether or not they are going to be a good ‘cultural fit’ for the business. This latter aspect is high on the agenda for any smart employer. As Steve Jackson-Matthews (Land Use Consultants Ltd) says, one of the most important criteria he assesses potential employees on is, ‘Will they be a good fit into my existing team?’ If, as an employer, you have someone in front of you who is technically brilliant but your gut instinct is telling you that they won’t be a good fit, then you are taking a big risk employing them. It is considerably easier to train someone lacking in technical ability than to squeeze the square peg of an unsuitable new staff member into the round hole in an effectively operating team environment.

Even when everything on the face of it goes well at the interview stage, it is not easy to be sure how well the interviewee will integrate into the team and whether or not they can be effective in carrying out the role. Are they really the workaholic they profess to be? Will they really pull out all the stops to meet a critical deadline? Are they really a good team player? What is pretty certain, though, is that as an employer you don’t know what you and your team are really going to get until this new person walks through the door at 9 o’clock on their first morning. Assuming, that is, that they are on time in the first place. As the weeks and months pass by, will the new recruit actually prove to be effective in their role? So perhaps, after all, there is so much more that matters, over and above technical knowledge and work-related experience.

Of the three areas touched upon (technical knowledge, experience and effectiveness), I would suggest that the foundation to everything is effectiveness (Figure 1.1). Perhaps at this early stage you wouldn’t entirely agree. So just in case you’re not convinced, let’s explore the matter a little further.

From your employer’s and/or a customer’s perspective, if you are the best ornithologist in your area, with a huge amount of knowledge and experience, but you communicate poorly and you never arrive on time, would that not be a concern? Let’s add that you often forget to take the appropriate health and safety PPE (personal protective equipment) onto site and your reports are not only poorly written and full of errors, but also habitually late (in fact, very late). If this is you, the chances are your reputation will be severely damaged and you won’t have a job or customers for much longer. In fact, if this is your approach to your work, who could actually say that you are the best ornithologist in your area? The requirement for any job would probably state that it needs to be completed safely, on time, within budget, and with a good-quality ‘fit for purpose’ report. If you are not achieving these things, are you really the best person for the job? Are you really the best ornithologist available to that particular employer or customer?

It is important, when engaging with other people (as we are all doing, all of the time), to bear in mind that the world around you often looks different from the perspective of others. As soon as you have more than one person’s point of view you have the potential to have a difference of opinion, even over the smallest of matters. In the broadest sense, the way that you may be feeling internally on being told something could be very different to how the person giving you the message is intending to make you feel or perceiving your reaction. Such scenarios often hinge on how a particular event impacts upon you, bearing in mind your own perspective of how you will be affected, or not, by what is being proposed. For example, if you were told by your manager that your company vehicle was being sold and you now had to share a pool car, I imagine that you would feel quite negative about that. On the other hand, the situation from your boss’s point of view might be very different. Money will now be available for a positive impact elsewhere in the business. What if the money saved could now go towards employing an assistant ecologist directly supporting you and removing some of your workload? How do you feel now?

As you continue reading this book there are two important, different and sometimes conflicting perspectives that I am going to refer to while exploring the topics and examples given: that of the employer and that of the employee.

First of all, let’s look at it from the employer’s perspective. How do you coach and give guidance to someone in order to help them be a better professional and an effective fit within the business world in which you are operating? It’s difficult. It involves numerous areas of expertise (e.g. interpersonal skills, organisational skills, time management) that may lie beyond your own knowledge and experience. You may not even be aware of why some of the things you do yourself impact upon the team around you in the way, either positive or negative, that they do.

Secondly, let’s consider an employee’s perspective. What areas can you work upon and what things can you do in order to be more effective in your role? If you were more effective, would that have a positive impact? Would your life be less challenging, less stressful, more productive – and therefore more enjoyable, more satisfying and ultimately more successful?

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that most of us have been educated or have acquired our skills very much with the technical aspects (such as species identification and field skills) being the main or even the sole focus of our development. How many ecologists (at any level) do you know who have ever been given specific training relating to interacting with people? What about subjects such as management skills, effective leadership, communication skills, time management, project planning, negotiation skills, sales skills or finance? The number is very small in comparison to the number of people out there today who are being expected to perform many of these skills to a high level as part of their role.

Why is this the case? Well, there could be many reasons, but by and large it is usually the following. First of all, your employer may not know that much about these things themselves, and whether they do or they don’t, they may not realise that you and the company could benefit greatly from better guidance. Secondly, a lack of available funds. And finally, pressure on time and resources. For example, you may have a training budget available, but who is going to want to go on a time management course when they can learn how to identify grasses and sedges? Perhaps if they were better at time management they would be able to do both.

Whether you are an employer, a manager or a team member in the ecology sector, the chances are that any non-technical skills you have been fortunate enough to pick up along the way have been acquired ‘on the job’ or as part of some other aspect of your life. It is less likely that you have been given any sort of formal guidance. This book helps to plug that gap. It doesn’t cover everything, but it’s a good start. The approach that I take is by no means the only way to do things. But if you take on board what is discussed in this book you will be more effective in your role, at whatever level that is. Note once again the key word: effective.

Good question, and thanks for taking me back to where I was a few minutes ago. Let me give you something to ponder over. Ecological consultants are very much in the service sector, but many of us fail to realise this. We see ourselves purely as ecologists, and forget (or, in some instances, may never have considered in the first place) that we are providing a service, managing risk and producing solutions. However, what we do is no different to what is offered by almost every other service-sector business out there. We have customers who pay for our services, and who rely on us delivering an excellent product.

What can these customers do if they don’t receive what they believe to be an appropriate level of service? Simple. As has always been the case, they can go elsewhere. And in this age of the instantaneous alternative (easily found via the technology at our fingertips) it is easier than it has ever been to do so. So we are all operating within the service sector, and it just so happens that the service we are providing relates to ecology. And if it happens that you never directly see or speak to a customer, don’t be fooled into thinking that you are not part of the service. Your role might be purely bat echolocation analysis or sitting on a remote mountainside carrying out vantage-point bird surveys, but if you fail to deliver there is the potential for a poor customer experience.

How would I respond when someone asks me what an effective ecologist looks like? Although not exhaustive, the following list should give you a good feel for what I mean.

•behaves professionally and fully understands how to operate with positive effect within the business in which they work.

•communicates appropriately within their team and with customers and suppliers.

•has the vision to anticipate when a problem is looming and takes meaningful action to prevent the issue arising.

Now let’s develop the concept of effectiveness one step further, by considering it in relation to an employer or manager. What does an effective employer within the ecological sector look like?

First of all, assuming that they themselves are carrying out an ecological function at some level, then all of the aforementioned would still apply. What else? OK, you would be hoping to see good managerial skills and leadership behaviours. In addition to these, however, there is a huge part of the manager’s role which involves delivering the required results on behalf of the business (Figure 1.2). Something that is often not appreciated, when considering that how these results are achieved, relates to the people working within the team. If the manager doesn’t recruit the right people and develop the team members to be effective, then this certainly will impact upon what is achievable. Therefore, creating, developing and retaining teams that are going to be effective at delivering the required outputs is essential. Some people at this level in our sector do not think about it in this way. They may only be involved in team development (e.g. recruitment) a couple of times a year, and so they don’t necessarily consider the positive everyday impact they can have on employee development and retention.

My conclusion is that an effective ecologist in a managerial role is someone who is good at identifying, developing and retaining the right people. It is therefore vitally important that the person in that position is effective at recruitment, staff development and team building. If they get these areas right then the business will benefit greatly. Life will be so much easier, more productive and more rewarding for everyone involved, as the whole team moves forward in unison, rising to successfully serve customers and resolve daily challenges.

All of that seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? Well, if it is that straightforward why is it that so many people fall short so many times, and even the best of the best fall short some of the time? It is all very well believing that you can do all of these things well, but actually being able to deliver, time after time, day after day, against all of the pressures (both business and personal) that you face, is by no means easy. Therefore, rather than it being a haphazard ‘some days I’m good, some days I’m not’ lottery, you should at least consider that there might be approaches and techniques that can be adopted and put into daily practice. As you develop the habit of employing these techniques, they all become part of your ‘subconscious competence’ (Table 1.1).

When you get these foundations to your business day fixed firmly in place you will find that so much of what used to be potentially contentious or cumbersome begins to evaporate. Ultimately, it’s all about being effective in your working environment, for the benefit of your employer, their customers, their suppliers, your work colleagues, and of course yourself.

This model relates to how people progress towards being fully skilled, competent and/or confident at a particular ability, task or process.

With all of this in mind let’s look at Case study 1.1. The example given does not fit into an ecology box but nonetheless, using a fairly straightforward everyday customer experience, it gives us all something we can relate to.

Case study 1.1It’s all part of the service

My mum just had her garden landscaped. It took a couple of days, four landscape gardeners and a fair amount of money. It’s not that she has a large garden, it’s just that it was a bit of a mess!

After it was all finished, I was talking with her on the phone and I enquired about the progress that had been made. Her response was that the gardeners were fabulous, she would have no hesitation in using them again, and she was going to recommend them to a couple of her friends who were also needing work done. I then asked, ‘Tell me what you mean by fabulous?’ Here is her answer:

They arrived on time each day, they took their shoes off before coming into the house to discuss things, they took all of the garden rubbish away with them and they worked constantly during the job (no random breaks or disappearing off to do something else). There was one small problem, though. I asked them to make sure that when they had finished using the outside tap, to slacken it slightly, as they had turned it off too tight for me to use myself. They assured me that they would do this, but unfortunately they didn’t. I noticed this the morning after they had finished the job. I was going to have to ask a neighbour to sort it for me. But at lunchtime that same day one of the gardeners appeared at my door to say that she had remembered late last night that they hadn’t slackened the tap. She apologised and was embarrassed that they had forgotten to do this, and she was now here to fix it. She went into the garden, slackened the tap appropriately and left, apologising once again.

All that way just to turn a tap! But it wasn’t a tap that was the issue here, it was a ‘promise’; it was a reflection on their integrity and their professionalism; it was all part of their service ethos; it was all to do with customer satisfaction.

Now the thing to notice in this real-life example is that nothing that my mum said, regarding her satisfaction that the job had been done well, related to how knowledgeable the workforce were about the plants they were planting, the trees they were cutting, the slabs they were laying, and so on. All of that was taken as a given. What differentiated those workers all related to how they interacted with their customer, how they were organised (arriving on time and working within budget), and how they followed up, and resolved, a potential issue before it became a real problem. They got the basics so right, at such a high level, that overall they were totally effective.

We have now spent a bit of time looking at what effective is all about, from an employee’s and an employer’s perspective. However, how does effectiveness relate to efficiency?

The first point I would like to make is that someone who is effective would normally have an efficient approach to their workload. However, achieving efficiency alone does not always equate to being effective. I think we have all experienced heavy workloads on our desks and a customer promising to appoint us tomorrow, for a survey that should have been carried out a month ago, to produce a report that was needed yesterday. Ecology isn’t easy. We are one of the few service-sector businesses where a huge part of what we deliver is governed by the seasons. If something gets missed (for example, a great crested newt survey) it may be many months, or even longer, before it can be revisited and a solution provided. Everyone else involved in the process (landscape architects, project planners, planning consultants, construction companies and the like) can usually start work and make progress at almost any time of year. All of these other professionals must find the ecological aspects of their projects quite frustrating at times. So efficiency is definitely going to be a major factor in determining how effective we ecologists are for our customers. Can we get the survey done at the right time of year, and thereafter can we deliver a ‘fit for purpose’ report to the client by their deadline?

What is efficient? When most of us hear that word we think ‘speed of process’. Often, in order to achieve speed (i.e. efficiency) in a service-sector scenario, there is a sacrifice, and that sacrifice usually relates to quality. So when we are really up against it, what ultimately do we sacrifice: speed or quality? The quicker the job is done, the greater the risks are that something somewhere hasn’t been properly covered or fully considered. You therefore have this potential for conflict. ‘Yes, I can do it faster, but it won’t be as good.’ Sometimes there may be a way around this. It might, for example, be possible for the customer to pay more in order to achieve both speed and quality (e.g. double the resources working on the project over the shorter period of time). Let’s be realistic, though: even on the rare occasion when a customer is willing and able to pay more, where does an ecological consultant instantly find reliable, effective expertise at the drop of a hat, mid-season? Anyone out there who might be able to assist is probably up to their eyes in their own seasonally constrained challenges. So let’s take the ‘I can pay more’ scenario out of the equation.

Being fast, and therefore efficient, does not always equate to being effective, although undoubtedly someone who can achieve both, when under pressure, is gold dust. So please do not mix up the two. There is definitely a conflict, and if you are not on top of it, it could very well be your undoing. Usually in our world the biggest threat to quality of output presents itself when we are running out of time. Being effective, in this case, is about understanding, early on, the situation that is looming. Then having identified that there is a potential problem it’s a matter of making the right decisions in order to help reduce the risks associated with running out of time or missing the deadline. Having made these decisions you must then communicate with everyone else involved to ensure that they all know what’s happening and why. If the deadline can’t be met, then you must ensure that the people who are relying on you are made aware of this now (not later today, or tomorrow, or an hour before it’s due – lift the phone now). Yes, ultimately a deadline (assuming it is a critical deadline that cannot be shifted) is a deadline, but you will be surprised how often a deadline set some months ago gets shifted back and no one thought to tell you (how ineffective is that?). Ask the question. Is there some wriggle room, can we renegotiate, can we stagger the outputs – for instance, if we can give you the bit you really need tomorrow, can you wait another couple of days for the rest?

You may have noticed that so far I am precariously perched on a barbed wire fence as to what ultimately gets sacrificed – speed or quality – when there is no other way. There isn’t really a right or wrong answer. There are so many different scenarios that would draw me in opposite directions. All through the thought process, however, I would be asking myself, ‘How did this happen, and how can we prevent a repeat occurrence?’

Often the answer is not so much about today’s challenge (short-term thinking), but more about the future development of the people involved. Additionally, systems and processes may need to be investigated, as they could have fallen down and need to be fixed, or new procedures may need to be put in place in order to prevent reoccurrences in future projects.

At all costs you must remain credible in your dealings with your customer and give them the best that you can possibly deliver within the time constraints. Some ideas will be forthcoming elsewhere in this book as to how you can manage scenarios such as this. Ultimately you are working in a sector where you are often required to hit tight deadlines while still producing quality outputs. Usually, when it goes wrong, it’s because somewhere in the process (perhaps even because of how you have managed your own time in the weeks leading up to this point) someone has failed to notice early enough that something isn’t going to be achievable. Then by the time it is communicated it is too late to find reasonable alternative solutions.

The answer to dealing with the challenges you are often faced with is to anticipate when problems may arise, far enough in advance in order to give yourself or your manager the opportunity to fix it before it’s too late. Simply put, it’s down to paying attention to what you are responsible for and communicating effectively (this latter aspect is covered in Chapter 4). In your working environment, are there ways in which this becomes more easily achievable? Of course there are. You just need to build a workflow system that monitors and reports upon progress throughout the lifespan of a project. Someone (a manager) needs to be responsible for putting the system in place and ensuring it is adhered to. Those working on cases within the business then need to be operating within the system and communicating with everyone else involved, every step of the way. If the system fails at any given time then a review of what went wrong needs to quickly take place, and adapting the process in order to prevent the same problem happening again will be required. Chapter 7 (Project management) will give you some ideas in this respect.

In conclusion, being effective, whatever your level in an organisation, has an immense impact upon whether or not you are likely to be successful within the various roles you are going to take on during your career. Whether these roles are regarded as having been successful, or not, is determined by the results you achieve on the projects and challenges that are placed in front of you. In understanding what effectiveness looks and feels like, it is important not only to consider your individual perspective as an ecologist, but also to fully take on board the perspective of your employer and manager. Conversely, if you are an employer or manager, you should be considering the perspective of your employees. Customer perceptions are also very important. Ultimately it is your customers who will use the work you have produced, and they will constantly be considering how effective you actually are. Being effective impacts upon service levels, customer retention, success in business and careers.

As we are about to delve deeper into the various subjects covered in this book, let’s ask an important question. Do you want to be better, do better and achieve more? Do you want to be successful? In order to help achieve these goals, being more effective can only have a positive impact. We can all aspire to improve, and I hope that in the remainder of this book I can put across ideas that help us move forward professionally to the benefit of ourselves and all around us.

Don’t try to be different. Just be good. Being good is different enough.

Before I answer the question ‘What’s the job?’, I would like to discuss the events leading up to someone getting a position within an ecological consultancy in the first place.

In the ecology sector, getting a paid position can be tough. Having completed a degree or obtained some other suitable qualification, many people struggle to immediately find a full-time permanent position. In most cases they are faced with ‘You don’t have enough consultancy-related experience’ – and if I have heard the frustrated ‘I can’t get a job without relevant experience, but I can’t get the experience without a job!’ once, I have heard it a hundred times. For many this means that they set off along the path of post-university education, seeking self-development in relevant subjects. In doing so they may attend training courses, join clubs or societies, or volunteer. Eventually they get seasonal work, then perhaps they move on to a longer fixed-term role and finally, hopefully, a permanent position. Along the way a fair number give up and divert course onto other career paths.

When seeking employment for the first time within the sector, a graduate very often does not fully appreciate what working within an ecological consultancy entails. It is not very likely that they will have covered this in much depth, if at all, within their studies and it would therefore make lots of sense for them to thoroughly investigate what the role of a consultant is. There are a number of common misconceptions that may occur at this stage. To quote Steve Jackson-Matthews:

An ecological consultancy is not there to prevent development occurring, and conversely it is not there in order to support every developer with everything they want to do. The position is far better described as being one of relative impartiality, whereby the consultant ‘consults’ with all parties involved, at every stage of the process, in order to arrive at an acceptable outcome. All of this needs to bear in mind the ecological credentials of each and every case.

Another point that should be seriously considered by a potential new recruit is that a career within our sector is unlikely to be a nine-to-five, 35-hours-a-week affair. Once you have found a job, the hard work is only just beginning. You may think that you have been working hard up until now, but usually new entrants find that what is expected of them in a typical working week (especially during the busy spring/summer seasons) is well beyond what they may have envisaged. You need to go into this career with a fair degree of flexibility regarding your availability to carry out work for your employer. It would be very unusual if you were not required to work late nights or early mornings. If you think about when the sun sets and rises, and then factor in travel time as well as complying with the various survey methods, that will begin to give you an idea of a typical working day (or night). Steve described it well to me when he said:

They have their whole career in front of them. It’s these early years, doing the hard graft in the field, when people learn the most. This gives them the experience and understanding they will need in the future when they themselves are in a more senior position and need to be effective in their decision making. This is partly why it’s not realistic for new entrants to expect to progress quickly up the ladder to a senior ecologist position. A senior ecologist has a huge responsibility, and their employer has to be confident that they fully understand the implications of the numerous important decisions they may make in a typical week. People coming into the sector for the first time should just take a deep breath, work hard and focus on enjoying the experiences that these early years will give them. This will equip them well with what they will most definitely need later on in their working life.

Numerous books and resources exist that cater for people seeking employment. For example, writing your CV and performing well at the interview stage have been covered elsewhere so thoroughly, so many times and in so many ways that I am not going to attempt to add much to these areas here. One thing I would say in this respect is that very little published literature appears to exist specifically aimed at the ecological sector. One exception that I have come across in the UK is an excellent book by Susan Searle called How to Become an Ecological Consultant (Searle 2011). For anyone seeking employment within our sector I would thoroughly recommend reading that book.

As an employer, quite often when we are faced with graduates applying for their first position, we are presented with applicants who are not work-ready. That is, not unless they have taken it upon themselves to develop skills and gain experience beyond that provided by their university tuition. This means that we have to ensure that the person we take on has the skills to add value to the business from the start. Hence, previous experience is eagerly sought. Alternatively, we can employ someone who will need quite a bit more attention and development before they are in a position where they are able to add value in their own right.

Every time an employer advertises that they are recruiting, at whatever level, they have a reason for doing so and a strong idea as to what their perfect applicant should be capable of. Once an advertisement goes public it’s not long before the recruiter has a lengthy list of candidates responding with their CVs. It is now time for the next stage. Who will be invited for an interview?

What is actually going on at a job interview is usually quite simple. The employer is looking for the best person they can find to solve a problem (or potential problem). Be clear on this. The employer isn’t doing this with the motivational emphasis of furthering the candidate’s career. If there is no benefit to the business, then there is no point. It might be that the employer needs to be more efficient with workflow, or has a skills gap that must be filled. It could be that they are growing their business and need more people in order to deal with the greater workload, or they might have grown to a point where they need additional people at a managerial level. But remember, if there were nothing in it for the employer then they wouldn’t be putting themselves through the distraction, effort and expense of looking for new people.

Of course there is also the perspective of the employee to consider at this important stage. When the right employee makes the right move at the right time into the right role, they get what they are after, as well as the employer getting the solution they require. Figure 2.1 gives a flavour of what each perspective may very well be at the outset, when a new position becomes available within our sector.

Mr Mitchell (Bill)	Client (Smith & Co.)
Michael	Team manager
Jane	Senior ecologist
Robert	Ecologist 1 (good performer)
John	Ecologist 2 (poor performer)
Tom	Ecologist 3 (from a different office within the same company)