As I get more integrated with companies through my consulting role, I'm taking note of Rob Levinson's article in a recent StartupJournal on the role of the consultant within an organization.

Let me start out by stating an opinion. People who have hero complexes do not make good consultants. They need the credit when the project shines, and pass the blame when it fails. These type of people have worked for me, and they'd never make good consultants.

Good consultants are ambidexterous, in that they are both invisible and well branded at the same time.

Consultants are invisible, and should be, when the results of a client engagement hit the public eye (unless the customer chooses otherwise). On the flip, consultants need to be experts at personal branding and differentiation for the purposes of new business development.

How do you do this? Very carefully.

A close example of this are all of those web development companies that insist on putting their names at the bottom of their clients' websites. Are you kidding me people? You're not helping the client's brand and image by putting a link at the footer of the page back to yours. If I like your work, I'll ask the client who did it. They'll give you a referral, and I'll call you. How 1997...