At a recent dinner with my girlfriends, 3 out of 5 happened to mention a book that I absolutely “had to read” if I wanted to keep my good relationship going strong. Always a sucker for anything that involves exploring different communication styles, I didn’t hesitate to grab a copy and immediately read it cover to cover. While I highly recommend adding the book to your summer reading list, if you don’t have the time, here are the main points and how they absolutely apply to your work life too.

Do you know any consultant that isn’t glued to their cell phone? I don’t. It’s almost like a nervous twitch that all become afflicted with as soon as they join a firm. You may think your constant emailing and conversation makes you seem indispensable and highly responsive. In reality, however, it could be suggesting more about how you view those around you. While it’s great to be connected and in the know, there are some places that are not appropriate for conversations or emailing.

In celebration of 2011 International Women’s Day, Accenture hosted a webcast with Barbara Walters. Don’t worry, you can still catch the full replay here if you missed live. I have to say, while I expected to hear words of inspiration for women from a pioneer in her industry, what I didn’t expect to hear and did was a beautiful, gender-neutral, crash course in career lessons-learned. She was also pretty damn funny to boot. So if you want to hear some sage advice from a living legend, I highly recommend catching the replay. And, if you don’t have time, here’s a slightly paraphrased recap of my favorites.

My better half and I have been in the travel game a long time. In fact in the years we’ve been together, we’ve virtually never been in the same city, together, one-hundred percent of the time. When I was working for Accenture, he had a role in town and I was the one gone all the time. Now that I am running my own company, he’s back on the road and I’m the one that has to say goodbye on Monday and wait impatiently for his Thursday return. Having both been on either side of the equation, we understand each other’s perspective really well. It’s also inspired us to find ways to keep things fun, fresh and strong, in spite of distance.

Do you ever wish you could just catch a breather at work? For many, the holidays might just be the only time of year that the opportunity exists to make time stand still. Generally, business comes to a near halt as people become pre-occupied with shopping, holiday parties and their families. Some people love to work over the holidays because it’s generally a quiet time. Others (like me) jump on the chance to take a good bit of time off. Whichever direction you choose, here are three valuable ways to use your time so you can hit the ground running next year!

The holidays can be a strange time. Most people find themselves either hurrying to meet a milestone by year end or winding down one project and gearing up to start another. Increased socializing is either a nice break or a hindrance to progress. Even pinning people down can be an impossible task. Because there are so many things going on it can be easy for teams to become disjointed. Here is a simple checklist of fairly obvious, yet often overlooked items that can make a big difference at work during the holidays.

Can you imagine being yelled at, cursed at and even kicked out of the room by a client in the middle of a meeting? What about being intimidated and raked over the coals every week in your one-on-one status meetings? Seem crazy? Well, luckily, many may never experience this, however, given the high stakes, scrutiny and visibility of many consulting projects, sometimes, the pressure can cause people to act out. Do you know how you would react if faced with a situation like that – especially if it was your client?

Work life balance for consultants is a subject that absolutely fascinates me. While many choose to just suck it up and accept the notion that it’s unreasonable to expect to maintain any type of balance, I disagree. In my experience, masters at balancing work and personal lives follow 4 basic principles.

The consulting lifestyle can be a rough, and not just for the consultant. It can take a toll on friends, family and relationships as well. The key to maintaining strong relationships as a consultant is to be proactive and deliberate about how you nurture and maintain them, while finding ways to become more efficient.