Just to share with you a few things that resulted from an online teleconference with some of my ex-colleagues – a conversation that erupted spontaneously on what distinguishes better from not-so-good management consultants. The following summary is a bit rough around the edges but it conveys our thinking adequately.

Management consultants, we think, are called upon to play many roles in the management of an organization or team. One of the most important roles every consultant must learn to play is that of Master Communicator, not only on his or her own behalf to develop and sustain support for pending changes and transformations, but also on behalf of their top and key clients.


Because I believe that a consultant’s ability to communicate clearly, effectively and truthfully determines his or her ultimate success more than nearly any other attribute, allow me to offer the following food for thought to spark your own debates on where you are at in this respect:

• What separates great consultants from others is that they have truly learned the art of listening. They know how to ask relevant questions and listen intently and with interest. They not only ask questions, but they really listen to the answers. Do you? Learn the power of silence. Listen! Don’t just concentrate on what is said; also pay attention to what’s not said. Remember that diamonds seldom lay at the surface; that finding one gram of gold may require shifting ten kilos of soil and dirt.
• Nail down everyone’s change and transformation responsibilities with clarity and precision, including your own. As a rule of thumb: Anything that can be misunderstood, will be. It’s often a good idea to have someone repeat back to you their understanding of the assignment or objective, even if this concerns your top or key client. Aim to have absolute clarity on this by the time you leave meetings. The biggest error you can make here is forgetting to test yourself on your understanding.
• World class sports coaches constantly communicate their game plans; sometimes at nausea. They plan not only for individual games but plan deliberately and expertly for the development of their teams over the course of current and upcoming seasons. Once the game plan has been drawn up, they then communicate them to their teams continuously. As no consultant can bring change successfully in isolation, you will require the support of others – inlcuding your top and key clients. So: Where’s your game plan for change? How ‘proof’ is it? Have you communicated both the ‘can-go-wrong’s’ and the ‘cannot-go-wrong’s’ clearly and deliberately with those who support you? Go beyond presenting your Gannt charts as infallible artifacts but discuss them in detail – and more than just once – to learn in advance where balls may be dropped.
• Always keep in mind that what others tell you is only the tip of the iceberg. Inquire further. Go beyond merely asking questions by learning how to interview instead. Oftentimes the real answer is several layers below the initial response. Keep probing further and try to discover the “core” problem. Next time you watch or listen to a professional interviewer, detect one or two things you can improve on, then purposefully set out to improve your interviewing skills. Make this an ongoing initiative.
• Without the ability to communicate, a consultant cannot effectively cast her or his vision for change and transformation and call others – top, key and other client personnel - to act on that vision. Great consultants are articulate; exceptional ones continue to practice in the confines of their offices and hotel rooms. Learn – at all cost – to articulate your case for change with passion, conviction and as compelling as possible. If you don’t believe you can, who will? Bottom line: A management consultant is not capable of helping a client reach her or his full potentials without effective communications skills.
• Good consultants understand that their clients, irrespective roles or positions, need to be kept informed, and never want to be embarrassed or surprised. Learn that you act as an extension of them; that your conduct and the way you act both ‘on’ and ‘off’ the job.
• Listen to feedback carefully and avoid being defensive. This is especially important when receiving critiques or commentary on the approaches followed to generate change or transformation, or the methodologies and techniques applied. As a consultant you must continuously work to further develop and enhance your skills at remaining totally objective by putting integrity at the very top of your agenda. Remember that you, too, are not infallible. Offer others room to provide opinions, ideas, suggestions and comments on your plans and intentions. Keep in mind that not everyone is able to communicate feedback skillfully, coherently and constructively. Remain professional and even-keeled when you are confronted by objections, irrespective how they are delivered. Assume that those who object loudest are – perhaps – most passionate, most engaged and thus most vocal. Rather than trying to fight them with fire, help them redirect their their fire to what matters most.
• Ask client personnel across all functions and hierarchies, “What would you do?” Never draw intellectual or entrepreneurial distinctions based on position, title or role. Care about all opinions, perspectives and views, irrespective their sources, to actively demonstrate your work is about improving the organization – not about advancing anyone particular or subsections. Don’t dissect the organization, or divide it into camps by insinuating, eluding or suggesting in any form of favouritism or protectionism. Actions may speak louder than words, but your words often determine what actions you can and cannot undertake.
• Keep your ego at bay. It’s one thing to act with pride. It’s quite another to act with arrogance. You may have graduated cum laude with super-duper grades from one of the best business schools by knowing and understanding all the relevant theories, but it’s the client’s people who know exponentially more about their business, their clients, their solutions and processes – and their challenges – than you do. Wearing an Armani instead of boiler suit does not signal superiority.
• Organizational change and transformation – recreating competitive advantage – does not come from theory. Common sense hold that there’s no value in ‘knowing’ only. Results come from action – execution; knowing what to do, how to do it and when to do it successfully – then by taking proactive lead and demonstation through example. If you are not prepared to put your neck on the block; to clearly demonstrate you are prepared to stick to your recommendations, no matter what, how can you expect others to put their livelihoods at stake?
• Best-of-breed consultants incessantly follow formal but verbal conversations up in writing as to test their understanding with what was exchanged, chiefly to avoid misunderstandings. They understand how to phrase short texts that point directly to the cores of these exchanges, and know how to deliver these messages in ways that solicit off-heart and compelling responses. Outstanding consultants appreciate the importance of what could be equated to Public Relations, and can expertly blend advertisement-like messages into their communications, irrespective their importance or criticality.
• To further cement your reputation as a consultant of choice, cease to sell yourself. Instead, generate and re-generate results that speak for themselves. Let your reputation ride and grow on what you’ve done, not on who you are, what you know or who you know. Sean Connery didn’t become famous because he’s Scottish.
• As a good communicator, great consultants have the ability to set a person at ease. He or she can find a way to relate to nearly anyone of any background, regardless of social status, title or position within the organization.
• The fastest way to open the lines of communication is to smile. A smile overcomes innumerable communications barriers, crossing the boundaries of culture, race, age, class, gender, education, and economic status.

There's much in this list I can learn from myself. After all, management consulting isn't something you can learn from attending classes or courses only. As many of us know, consulting 'greatness' must be earned by doing; by walking - rather than talking - the miles.

And, as I still find out daily, each mile still brings surprises, new things to learn and accept, and bucket-loads of unexpected challenges. It's perhaps because of all this that consulting is such an addictive, such as great thing to 'do.'

Hope this post is useful to you....