My latest post for Harvard Business is about why consultants should return to traditional full-time work now and then:

I challenge all consultants to spend some time — at least a year — back in a “real” job, working shoulder to shoulder with the same kinds of people who pay for their advice. So few authors and experts are willing to do this, because they’re afraid. They know it’s much harder to be accountable for a real team, in a real company, for a real project, than it is to critique and advise from the safety of the sidelines.

In 2010, I decided I was guilty of this shortcoming myself. Though I had written three books, a decade had gone by since I’d managed a team or built a product. I had reached the point where no matter how many companies I visited or books I wrote, I couldn’t be sure how much of my advice was good anymore.

Read the full post here.