WHAT MAKES A MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT GREAT? Part III of III
WHAT MAKES A MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT GREAT? Part III of III
Great consultants rarely accept limitations. Great consultants are able to step into ambiguous, sometimes hostile situations and sense what changes need to be made. Great consultants are driven by ideas and a strong desire to have a positive impact on clients.
What makes a consultant unique is the ability to apply previously acquired knowledge to a new situation and to determine which of the many methods used beforehand is the best suited for the problem at hand. It is the difference between working by conditioned reflex and actually thinking about what you are doing and determining the most efficient means of achieving the objective.
Typically, you can't eat what a consultant sells. You can't drive it. You can't smell it. Although it usually ends up in the form of a report, the product usually delivered by a consultant is an idea, an insight, a suggestion, and a way of thinking. Ultimately, consulting firms are nothing more than repositories of pure intellectual capital. This means that their most important asset has to be the ability to use past intellectual capital and to generate new intellectual capital through rigorous thinking and careful research. This explains the frenzy to hire the best and the brightest of America's business schools. This intellectual focus of consulting is clearly important in deciding whether you would do well in the field. A great consultant has to be a great thinker with a passion for ideas. You need to be the type that does well in school and likes it. You need to enjoy problem-diagnosis, problem-framing and problem-solving.
If you find yourself struggling with the academic-side of business school, getting stuck on cases, disliking writing, but excelling along other dimensions (e.g. human interaction or entrepreneurialism) you probably should not be a consultant. You may very well get a job offer anyway. Firms may hire you opportunistically, knowing that they you can generate more value for them than you are being paid. But advancing and leading may be a different matter altogether.
Incidentally, some firms aren't nearly as pedigree-sensitive as people seem to think. Leaders of some of the most prominent firms in the consulting profession have made it with degrees from institutions far below the top-ranked schools. Pedigree can neither guarantee one success nor condemn one to failure. For that matter, the MBA degree itself need not be necessary. A number of firms are hiring persons with other degree backgrounds (e.g. law, engineering, public administration, medicine). McKinsey, in particular, has recently been aggressive in its pursuit of attorneys, PhD's and the like. Many undergraduate students enter consulting, often in two or three year programs that are expected to be followed by a stint at business school.
With all of the money being thrown around by the consulting firms these days, it can be easy to get into the profession for the wrong reasons. After all is said and done, consulting is a service profession and most firms screen carefully for commitment to others and ability to excel in meeting client needs. As a consultant you will always be working to help others. Your ability to serve clients will determine your success and the prospects of your employer.
While intangible, a personal commitment to excel in meeting the needs of your clients is vital to enjoying the profession. In a recent letter published by a seasoned consultant, they put it this way: "It is only through personal excellence that this profession becomes truly enjoyable. Those who demonstrate superior skills gain personal control early in their careers. These individuals are in such demand that, at any point in time, they have numerous options to choose from. They typically become engagement managers sooner, and tend to set the pace for their teams. Through their intellectual leadership they gain respect from the clients, the partners and their teammates.
In a business world where institutional loyalty is rare, the individual needs to excel and generate his or her own marketability. The result is that the institution needs the individual, not the reverse. Over the years, I have observed that unfriendly clients become attentive when listening to people of excellence because their contribution is unique. Those who achieve excellence feel great about themselves and are more likely to find the consulting experience a path to fulfillment. The financial rewards become window dressing and the high of the experience becomes the drug of first choice."
Consultants will often note that some of their most fulfilling relationships are with clients because he had built life-long, lasting partnerships with a number of clients through repeated contact and hard work. These relationships are what can make the long hours, stressful travel and corporate frustrations encountered by consultants worthwhile.
Consultants who enjoy talking to people do well. It's a field where the gregarious do well with their teammates and their clients. This isn't to say that you must be the ultimate extrovert, but you do have to connect. However you accomplish this, whether it is by charm, humor, listening or hard-work, it's vital that you enjoy, understand and communicate with clients. Consulting firm interviewers are looking for people that they'd like to work with themselves. It's only human.
So, it's an odd admixture in demand at the consulting firms. Smart, likable people who are good at helping others. Not necessarily a natural combination of abilities you might say. The screening process, of course, can vary widely and many firms are usually looking for unique traits.
Other characteristics in demand including understanding of specific business issues, a tolerance for ambiguity, tolerance for absolutely abusive hours, superb IT skills, personal appearance, the ability to work quickly in spreadsheets, logical thinking skills, writing skills, willingness to travel and ability with languages.
This is an excerpt from the book Consulting: A Job Or A Lifestyle – ISBN: 1598000640.
WHAT MAKES A MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT GREAT Part III of III - To learn more about this author, visit Atul Uchil's Website.
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THE GREAT CONSULTANT
Great consultants rarely accept limitations. Great consultants are able to step into ambiguous, sometimes hostile situations and sense what changes need to be made. Great consultants are driven by ideas and a strong desire to have a positive impact on clients.
What makes a consultant unique is the ability to apply previously acquired knowledge to a new situation and to determine which of the many methods used beforehand is the best suited for the problem at hand. It is the difference between working by conditioned reflex and actually thinking about what you are doing and determining the most efficient means of achieving the objective.
Typically, you can't eat what a consultant sells. You can't drive it. You can't smell it. Although it usually ends up in the form of a report, the product usually delivered by a consultant is an idea, an insight, a suggestion, and a way of thinking. Ultimately, consulting firms are nothing more than repositories of pure intellectual capital. This means that their most important asset has to be the ability to use past intellectual capital and to generate new intellectual capital through rigorous thinking and careful research. This explains the frenzy to hire the best and the brightest of America's business schools. This intellectual focus of consulting is clearly important in deciding whether you would do well in the field. A great consultant has to be a great thinker with a passion for ideas. You need to be the type that does well in school and likes it. You need to enjoy problem-diagnosis, problem-framing and problem-solving.
If you find yourself struggling with the academic-side of business school, getting stuck on cases, disliking writing, but excelling along other dimensions (e.g. human interaction or entrepreneurialism) you probably should not be a consultant. You may very well get a job offer anyway. Firms may hire you opportunistically, knowing that they you can generate more value for them than you are being paid. But advancing and leading may be a different matter altogether.
Incidentally, some firms aren't nearly as pedigree-sensitive as people seem to think. Leaders of some of the most prominent firms in the consulting profession have made it with degrees from institutions far below the top-ranked schools. Pedigree can neither guarantee one success nor condemn one to failure. For that matter, the MBA degree itself need not be necessary. A number of firms are hiring persons with other degree backgrounds (e.g. law, engineering, public administration, medicine). McKinsey, in particular, has recently been aggressive in its pursuit of attorneys, PhD's and the like. Many undergraduate students enter consulting, often in two or three year programs that are expected to be followed by a stint at business school.
With all of the money being thrown around by the consulting firms these days, it can be easy to get into the profession for the wrong reasons. After all is said and done, consulting is a service profession and most firms screen carefully for commitment to others and ability to excel in meeting client needs. As a consultant you will always be working to help others. Your ability to serve clients will determine your success and the prospects of your employer.
While intangible, a personal commitment to excel in meeting the needs of your clients is vital to enjoying the profession. In a recent letter published by a seasoned consultant, they put it this way: "It is only through personal excellence that this profession becomes truly enjoyable. Those who demonstrate superior skills gain personal control early in their careers. These individuals are in such demand that, at any point in time, they have numerous options to choose from. They typically become engagement managers sooner, and tend to set the pace for their teams. Through their intellectual leadership they gain respect from the clients, the partners and their teammates.
In a business world where institutional loyalty is rare, the individual needs to excel and generate his or her own marketability. The result is that the institution needs the individual, not the reverse. Over the years, I have observed that unfriendly clients become attentive when listening to people of excellence because their contribution is unique. Those who achieve excellence feel great about themselves and are more likely to find the consulting experience a path to fulfillment. The financial rewards become window dressing and the high of the experience becomes the drug of first choice."
Consultants will often note that some of their most fulfilling relationships are with clients because he had built life-long, lasting partnerships with a number of clients through repeated contact and hard work. These relationships are what can make the long hours, stressful travel and corporate frustrations encountered by consultants worthwhile.
Consultants who enjoy talking to people do well. It's a field where the gregarious do well with their teammates and their clients. This isn't to say that you must be the ultimate extrovert, but you do have to connect. However you accomplish this, whether it is by charm, humor, listening or hard-work, it's vital that you enjoy, understand and communicate with clients. Consulting firm interviewers are looking for people that they'd like to work with themselves. It's only human.
So, it's an odd admixture in demand at the consulting firms. Smart, likable people who are good at helping others. Not necessarily a natural combination of abilities you might say. The screening process, of course, can vary widely and many firms are usually looking for unique traits.
Other characteristics in demand including understanding of specific business issues, a tolerance for ambiguity, tolerance for absolutely abusive hours, superb IT skills, personal appearance, the ability to work quickly in spreadsheets, logical thinking skills, writing skills, willingness to travel and ability with languages.
This is an excerpt from the book Consulting: A Job Or A Lifestyle – ISBN: 1598000640.
WHAT MAKES A MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT GREAT Part III of III - To learn more about this author, visit Atul Uchil's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Atul Uchil Video - Atul UchilDo not sell products, services or commodities. Just establish strong relationships with clients and achieve the coveted status of a trusted advisor. Then, your clients will elect to buy services and/or products from you. Never try to sell them.
I know that this sounds deceptively simple. Almost as if one could just sit around and wait for things to happen. Establishing and maintaining trusted client relationships without trying to sell them anything, requires a lot of patience and a constant struggle against the temptation to start selling.
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