The Real Reason You're Still a Consultant
- Sangamesh Gella
- Oct 28
- 8 min read
P.S. If you are reading this, you will definitely find it helpful. I write about Salesforce, AI tools, and productivity stuff that actually works: no fluff, no generic advice, just real experiences from the trenches. For more information, visit my website's home page below and subscribe if you haven't yet. Thank you for reading this.
Three certifications this year. Built a booking portal that everyone said was impossible. Designed the data architecture for your company's biggest implementation.
Someone just got promoted to the role you desired. It wasn't you.
Your manager says you need to "think more strategically." Your skip-level mentions "leadership maturity" in your review. Neither explains what that actually means when you're already delivering complex work.
After half a decade in this ecosystem, after working with 100+ Salesforce professionals through stalled careers, I can tell you what nobody says out loud.
The gap isn't technical. It's not about knowing more features or earning another badge.
It's about beliefs you've been carrying so long you don't notice them anymore.
The invisible patterns running your career
"Nobody else gets it right"
Early in your career, you fixed other people's mistakes. Bad flows. Broken validation rules. Processes that made no sense.
You learned that checking work yourself prevents problems. Staying involved ensures quality. Doing it personally guarantees results.
Now you're reviewing every user story. Debugging every apex class your team writes. Sitting in every technical discussion because things go wrong when you don't.
Your calendar is booked solid. Decisions wait on you. Junior consultants stop trying because you'll redo their work anyway.
What made you reliable as an individual contributor makes you a bottleneck as a leader.
"I already know the answer"
You've built enough implementations to spot solutions immediately. The client describes a problem, and you already know the fix. A business analyst starts explaining requirements; you're three steps ahead.
So you jump in fast. Provide the answer. Move things forward. Save everyone time.
Except people stop contributing in meetings. Developers quit suggesting alternatives. Stakeholders go quiet when you speak.
You think you're being helpful. They think you're not listening.
The skill that made you valuable as a builder is making you ineffective as an architect.
"It's not ready yet"
You care about what you deliver. You've seen too many rushed implementations create years of technical debt. So you add buffer time to estimates. Run extra testing cycles. Revise documentation until it's comprehensive.
Hold releases until you've eliminated every concern. Clients appreciate quality. But they needed the solution last month. While you're ensuring perfection, their business is making do with manual workarounds and spreadsheets.
Your commitment to excellence is becoming indistinguishable from the inability to ship.
"They should figure it out"
You didn't have much support when you were learning. No formal training. No mentor holding your hand. You read documentation, built practice orgs, and failed until you figured it out.
That struggle made you good. So when team members move slowly, you get impatient. When they ask basic questions, you wonder why they didn't research first. When they need guidance, you think they should be more self-sufficient.
People stop asking you for help. They stop admitting when they're stuck. Eventually, they stop working for you.
The path that worked for you is destroying your team.
"I'm just the technical person"
You see the architects who speak at conferences. The consultants with six-figure books of business. The practice leads presenting to C-suite executives.
They're polished. Connected. Comfortable in rooms you're not.
So you focus on technical delivery. Stay heads-down on implementation work. Avoid opportunities for visibility because you're "not that kind of person."
Consultants with less technical depth are landing bigger roles. Not because they're better at Salesforce. Because they're comfortable being seen.
What it looks like when belief meets reality
Jennifer was exceptional. Application Architect. Everyone knew it. Her technical designs were elegant. Her understanding of platform limits was encyclopedic. But she couldn't keep architects on her team. Three left in eighteen months. Exit interviews said the same thing. She didn't trust anyone. She micromanaged everything. Working for her felt suffocating.
Jennifer defended her approach. Someone needs to maintain standards. Architects were making mistakes that would have caused production issues. She was protecting the org.
Her director had her shadow another team lead for a week. Just observe. Watch how someone else operated.
The difference was stark. The other lead asked questions instead of giving instructions. Let architects propose solutions before offering input. Gave feedback after delivery, not during every step.
When Jennifer watched the architects on that team, they were engaged. Contributing. Growing. Taking ownership.
Hidden belief controlling everything: "Nobody else gets it right."
This came from watching admins destroy orgs she'd have to fix. From inheriting implementations where nothing was documented. From years of being the person who caught mistakes before they reached production.
That vigilance built her reputation. It also meant she couldn't delegate. Couldn't let go. Couldn't let anyone operate without her oversight.
When she started documenting which decisions genuinely required her involvement versus which ones were just her habit of checking everything, the ratio shocked her. Maybe 20% actually needed her direct input. The other 80% was fear disguised as quality control.
She started releasing control selectively. Stopped reviewing every code review. Let architects present directly to stakeholders instead of filtering everything through her.
Her team's velocity doubled in two months. Not because she lowered standards. Because people finally had room to work.
David faced different obstacles. Senior Consultant. Technically strong. Delivered consistently.
Never got invited to client strategy meetings. Never asked to scope new work. Stayed assigned to implementation execution while others moved into advisory roles.
He assumed it was politics. Or maybe his firm didn't value technical depth. He kept his head down and kept delivering.
Then his manager gave him direct feedback. "You're excellent at building. Clients don't see you as someone who helps them think through business problems."
David pushed back. He asked clarifying questions in requirements meetings. He attended workshops. He participated.
His manager pulled up recordings from recent calls. David sat silently for 40 minutes of a strategy discussion. When stakeholders debated priorities, he said nothing. When they asked about feasibility, he gave one-sentence answers and stopped.
The pattern became obvious once he saw it. He was waiting for permission to contribute. Waiting to be asked direct questions. Waiting to feel like his input was wanted.
Hidden belief: "I'm just the technical person."
Where did this come from? Early project experiences where business analysts and managers ran conversations. Being told as a junior consultant to listen more than talk. Learning that technical people implement what business people decide.
That deference served him well early on. It was destroying his advancement now.
He started forcing himself to contribute once in every strategy discussion. Even when not asked directly. Even when it felt uncomfortable. Just once per meeting.
The response surprised him. Stakeholders engaged with his ideas. Started directing questions to him. Within three months, a client specifically asked him to attend their quarterly planning.
Not because his technical skills improved. Because he finally showed up as more than just an implementer.
How to replace what's limiting you
Name what's actually happening
Projects feel harder. People avoid your feedback. Opportunities go to others. You're working longer hours while advancing more slowly.
Blaming circumstances is easy. The client is difficult. The platform has limitations. Your company has politics. Resources are tight.
Every professional breaking through identical situations is addressing something you're not.
Find where it started
That project where you saved everything by catching a critical error. The manager who praised you for having answers immediately. The promotion you earned by working harder than everyone else.
Those moments created patterns. They worked perfectly then. They're limiting you now.
Build something that serves you better
From "Nobody else gets it right" to "My job is building teams that deliver, not delivering everything myself."
Measure differently. Not by how many issues you caught, but by how many issues never happened because your team grew skilled enough to prevent them.
Five belief replacements that unlock advancement
The Trust Builder
Stop inserting yourself into every decision. Audit where you're involved this week. Which meetings actually need you, and which are a habit?
Create clear decision rights. What requires your approval versus what your team handles independently? Start small. Pick one category and step back completely.
Track team capability growth, not your intervention frequency. If people are learning and problems aren't increasing, your involvement wasn't actually necessary.
The Question Habit
Before your next discovery call, set one rule. Ask two questions before stating one solution. Even when you already know the answer. Especially then.
Let silence happen after you ask. Count to five. Don't fill the gap. Someone will contribute something you wouldn't have thought of.
Measure success by solution quality and stakeholder engagement, not by whether your specific idea won.
The Velocity Choice
Build a release decision framework. Map every deployment decision from the last quarter. Critical? Important? Nice to have?
You're probably treating them all the same. Stop.
Critical decisions deserve careful analysis. Essential decisions deserve appropriate diligence. Nice-to-haves deserve momentum, not perfection.
Give yourself time limits. Important decisions get 48 hours maximum. Nice-to-haves get 4 hours. Force yourself to move forward with the best available information, not perfect information.
The Development Path
Your team members aren't you. They won't learn the way you did. They have different strengths, different backgrounds, and different working styles.
Monthly talent assessment focused on one question: What is this person exceptionally good at that I'm not leveraging?
The consultant who moves slowly might catch edge cases you'd miss. The admin who asks lots of questions might be thinking through user adoption challenges you haven't considered.
Build to their strengths instead of measuring against your profile.
The Visibility Practice
Start a weekly wins document. Just bullet points. What shipped. What problems did you solve? What relationships did you strengthen?
Monthly, share three of these in visible ways. Team meetings. Project reviews. Casual conversations with leadership.
Not bragging. Informing. Ensuring people who make advancement decisions have complete information.
While you stay quiet, consultants with equivalent results but strategic visibility advance past you. The difference isn't skill. It's information asymmetry.
Why does this scale beyond individual careers
Once you've addressed your own blockers, you recognise them everywhere.
The architect who won't let developers own technical decisions? "Nobody else gets it right."
The consultant who dominates every meeting? "I already know the answer."
The admin who won't release anything? "It's not ready yet."
When you've worked through these beliefs yourself, you can guide others through them. Not by telling them what's wrong. By asking questions that help them see it.
This changes team performance. When three people on a team eliminate their blockers, project velocity increases. Client satisfaction improves. Retention strengthens.
When entire teams eliminate collective beliefs, organisational culture shifts. "We've always done it this way" becomes "What would work better?" "The client would never accept that" becomes "Let's ask them."
Changed leadership creates changed results.
What shifts when you address this as a Consultant
Most Salesforce professionals optimise externally. Another certification. Deeper platform knowledge. More implementation experience. Better technical skills.
The consultants who have advanced past them are optimising internally.
They're identifying beliefs that invisibly limit effectiveness. Then systematically eliminating them.
Your beliefs about control, contribution, quality, development, and visibility determine your advancement trajectory more than any technical skill.
They're operating right now. Whether you notice them or not.
When you address what's genuinely limiting you instead of what appears to be limiting you, your ceiling disappears.
P.S. If you are reading this, you will definitely find it helpful. I write about Salesforce, AI tools, and productivity stuff that actually works: no fluff, no generic advice, just real experiences from the trenches. For more information, visit my website's home page below and subscribe if you haven't yet. Thank you for reading this.
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