The Top 25 Most Influential Consultants 2004 - Murray Dalziel, Managing Director, Global Practices, The Hay Group

Early in his career, The Hay Group's now–managing director, global practices, approached his driveway on his way to his car and discovered an obstacle. The vehicle had a flat tire. He returned to the house and communicated the nature of the problem to his wife. "Of course, I was expecting her to say, 'Take my car,'" Dalziel notes. But she didn't say anything. So, Dalziel took a second crack at leading her to a solution. "I said, 'Gee, what are we going to do?'" he recalls. "And she said, 'Stop being a consultant and take some action.'"

Dalziel has faithfully followed his wife's advice throughout his 25-year consulting career, which most recently has focused on propelling his firm's research into human behavior and its impact on organizational performance. Under Dalziel's leadership during the past 24 months, The Hay Group has published more than 60 papers on the design of effective organizational structures, jobs, and work processes; assessment, selection, and development of managers and executives; compensation, benefits, and performance management; and executive compensation and corporate governance.
In addition to examining the links between human behavior and organizational performance, Dalziel has cultivated a role that he once described as "chief dating officer": inspiring the flow of ideas among his firm's bright minds, regardless of their geographic location. While noting the importance of formal knowledge management processes and systems, Dalziel remains fascinated by the sociology that sparks the journey of a trenchant idea or approach from one client team to another.
"Part of the job of a leader, I think, is to help people see those connections," he says. Another important aspect of the job is stimulating a team to generate collective thinking that is more valuable than the individual conclusion any one of its members might reach. "There is a temptation in our profession to at times think that you're the smartest guy on the planet," he says. "Now, I honestly don't think that I'm the smartest guy on the planet, but I'm continually amazed that a group of bright people always can come up with better solutions — even when I thought I had the best solution. I really like connecting people."