So, You Found Yourself on the Bench
The bench isn’t career purgatory, it’s consulting’s most honest mirror—and your biggest accelerator if you use it right. Off the field is where you sharpen skills, build relationships, and create IP. Play offence across the 4 Cs—Consultant, Clients, Colleagues, Community—and you’ll be first pick.
The dreaded bench. Consulting's equivalent of being subbed off the field and told to stretch it out on the sideline. At first, it feels like career purgatory. Your teammates are out there racking up billables and frequent flyer points, while you’re at your desk alphabetising your bookmarks bar and wondering if you should take up pottery.
The bench reflects the supply and demand side of consulting. It’s the market in real time. But, here’s the inconvenient truth: while market cycles play a role, the length of time you spend on the bench can say a lot about you.
That said, the bench can be the single best accelerator of your consulting career if you treat it right and focus on all the Consulting Cafe 4 Cs of consulting.
The Partner’s View: Playing the Long Game
If market conditions are steady or growing, Partners view a small bench as healthy, provided there is good turnover among those on it. It creates capacity for proposal writing and gives the flexibility to reassign staff quickly. From a Partner’s perspective, a small bench is not idle capacity; it is a strategic lever. It gives Partners the ability to take on new work at short notice and the confidence to let clients know that “We can start Monday.” It protects their investment in people by avoiding the churn of rehiring and retraining, and it fuels the kind of behind-the-scenes innovation that keeps a practice relevant to the market they face. Benched consultants often become the R&D lab, building playbooks, shaping proposals, and testing frameworks that drive the business forward.
But big benches are expensive, and they are what nightmares are made of for Partners. Every bench day is a non-billable fire that takes three or four billable days to extinguish. That is why Partners want a bench that is small, nimble, and fast-moving, in every sense of the word.
The Consultant’s Reality
Landing on the bench can feel strange. One day, you are flat out on a client site, sprinting to hit deadlines; the next, you are off the field, staring at an empty calendar and wondering what it all means. I’ll admit, I sometimes yearned for the bench when projects were relentless and I dreamed of a breather. The twist is that once I got there, it never took long before I was itching to get back on the tools and back in the game.
The bench can be consulting’s most brutally honest mirror. It shows you exactly where you stand. If you are not the first name called, that may be a capability gap. If Partners aren’t thinking of you, that may be a visibility gap. And if your whole practice is quiet, that may be a market fit gap. In the moment, it can feel like the game is happening without you.
That said, here is the opportunity. Off the field is where you reset, recalibrate, and decide how you will play when you are subbed back in. No client deadlines, just space you can either drift through or use to shape your next move. Done well, the bench is not a setback. It is the part of the game that sharpens you for when the whistle blows again.
The commercial truth is, your Partner wants you to be billable as quickly as possible. If you want to be in control of your destiny and the consulting you want to do, the bench is the place in consulting where you should play offence instead of defence.
The 4 Cs of Bench Mastery
Bench time is the perfect moment to lean into Cafe Consultants' 4 Cs of consulting: Consultant, Clients, Colleagues, and Community. Think of it like being on the sidelines before getting called back into the game. You use the time to hydrate, stretch, and sharpen your focus so you are ready to make an impact the moment you step back on the field. In consulting, this means reconnecting with clients and providing insights that strengthen their relationships. It means supporting colleagues and building goodwill that carries into your next project together. It means creating content, frameworks, checklists, and playbooks that give you presence and influence within the firm. And it means developing capability with intention, choosing skills that make you stronger and more versatile. Bench time is one of the rare moments where you get to set your own agenda. When you use it well, you step back into the game with confidence, clarity, and momentum, ready to be the first choice when the next opportunity arrives.
Here are a few ideas to take with you next time you come off the field.
1. Consultant - Sharpen your game
The toughest gig in consulting is holding up a mirror and actually liking what you see. Knowing yourself means being honest about your mindset, your natural strengths, and the skills that set you apart from the consultant at the desk next to you.
Bench time is your chance to sharpen that rare thing you do better than most and then start using it with purpose. Think of it like an X-ray. It doesn’t judge; it just reveals the gaps in your capability, visibility, or saleability. It is diagnostic, not a death sentence. The smart consultants don’t play defence here; they go on offence. Do these, and the mirror doesn’t just reflect who you are, it starts showing who you are becoming.
Actionable Moves
- Book a 30-minute skills audit with a Partner or Director. Ask them where they see your edge and where they would invest in you.
- Turn one strength into an asset this week. Build a framework, checklist, or cheat sheet that others can use on their engagements.
- Pair with someone in another practice for a skills swap. Teach them something you know cold and learn one of their tricks in return.
Run your own consulting hackathon. Set yourself and some other benchers 48 hours to build something outrageous that aligns to your consulting superpower. Think a Notion database for client proposals or a chatbot that answers FAQs about your chosen skill. You will learn more in two days than in two weeks of passive bench time.
2 Clients - Win the Crowd
Bench time is your chance to get closer to clients by showing up with value. It is the perfect window to connect or reconnect with old clients who haven’t heard from you in a while, or to map out a business plan for how you will win new ones. Partners remember consultants who bring relationships, not just delivery. Use this time to plant seeds because the consultants who grow client trust in the quiet moments are the ones clients fight to have back when the next project lands.
Actionable Moves
- Invite a client into the office to present to your team. Ask them to share what they really want from consultants when they engage them. I have done this and the responses were wild, and clients appreciated the opportunity.
- Re-engage with old clients. Write a personal note: “Saw this article and thought of your team.” Don’t ask for work, just offer a spark.
- Bring market intel. Share one new insight per week with your practice lead. Partners notice curiosity.
Send a client a mock newspaper front page. Create a fake Financial Review or Wall Street Journal front page with a headline you wish your client could achieve. Make it fun. Use it as a conversation starter: “If this were the headline, what would have to be true?” It is gutsy, creative, and guaranteed to spark dialogue.
3 Colleagues - Build your team off-field
In consulting, your colleagues are your team. On the field they are the ones who back you when deadlines are brutal and the stakes are high. Off the field, on the bench is when you build the trust, muscle memory, and connection that makes you stronger together when the game is live. Bench time is training camp. It is where you practice plays, learn each other’s moves, and build the bonds that carry you through crunch time later.
Actionable Moves
- Join a proposal pod. Even if you are just polishing slides, you are showing you will do the unglamorous work for the team. That gets noticed.
- Create something reusable. A template, checklist, or tool. When colleagues bring it onto the field later, they will remember who built it.
- Mentor a junior over coffee. One small investment off the field, and you will have someone ready to run alongside you on it.
Host an “If I Were a Partner” debate. Pick a theme and put two teams in the shoes of a Partner. Debate something topical for your practice, the firm, or the market. Debates can generate superb insights and build empathy for Partner-level decision making.
4 Community – Beyond the field
Your community is not just your LinkedIn network. It is the industry you are part of, the associations you support, and the people and places outside work that matter to you. Too often consultants think their impact begins and ends with the client slide deck. Individually it might feel like you cannot move the needle. But imagine if every consultant gave a little time, expertise, or money back to their community. The ripple effect would be huge. And here is the twist. Giving back does not just help others. It sharpens your empathy, widens your perspective, and makes you a better consultant.
Actionable Moves
- Join an industry association or working group. Even if you just help with events, you will meet people who shape your sector.
- Volunteer your consulting skills. Offer to help a not-for-profit with strategy, planning, or facilitation. They get value, you get practice.
- Reconnect locally. Attend a community event, support a local initiative, or mentor at a university. Small efforts stack up.
Launch a pro bono mini-project. Grab a couple of colleagues and deliver a consulting-style engagement for a school, charity, or start-up. Treat it like a real client gig. The learning and impact are massive.
Final Word: The Bench Isn’t a Pause Button
Handled badly, bench time can feel like slow death. Handled well, it is your unfair advantage. Here is the kicker: Consultants who crush bench time often get promoted fastest. Not because of what they did on the bench but because they used it to show initiative, visibility, and growth. The bench does not stall your career. It highlights it. The question is, what will it highlight about you?
So, next time you are benched, don’t ask “Why me?” Ask “Why now, and how can I make this the smartest career move I ever make?”
What is the boldest thing you did while on the bench? I would love you to share here.
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