Middle management is based entirely on revenue with no thought to leadership or management ability. Hence, if they bring clients with them when they come, are able to sell effectively, or get fed by a Principal, they will generally be considered successful even if they are extremely poor at actually managing. If you don't have an advocate (i.e. a manager or Principal who is interested in seeing you progress), nothing you do will make a difference. Managers / Principals are generally too busy pursuing sales leads to take an interest in your career, which obviously compounds the previous problem.
The poorer managers are also perfectly willing to accept mediocrity: poor performers are accepted, nurtured, and praised when they do well while star performers are expected to be stars and pick up the slack. This is a relatively new phenomenon (within the past 2 years) and is why I say the culture is eroding. When I started, mediocrity was not tolerated.
The firm does not care about education beyond the required accounting hours that they want you to have as a Consultant; an MBA is useless here due to the aforementioned reason.
Unless you come in as a manager or have an advocate you will never make manager (Team Leader) here. Having an advocate is the key to success here.
With a few notable exceptions, the Principal group is wholly consumed with itself.
