Eight Skills of Highly Successful Consultants

With deference to Dr. Covey and his very popular Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (all habits that will make us better consultants!), here are eight skills that all of us as consultants can work on to improve. This article will start with three overarching skills, then describe five more specific skills to consider in your ongoing development.

One way to look at your total skill set as a consultant (internal or external), is to consider your relative strengths in the three major portions of our work: designing "it", delivering "it", and selling "it". These three skills represent the complete package for a consultant, regardless of what your expertise (your "it") is.

The Complete Package:

Designing "It"
This is our technical expertise. This is the "stuff" we learn in classes and through experience and practice. It is the front end of our work in most cases. While we cannot underestimate the importance of these skills (and the need to continue to upgrade them), we also can't be content if these skills are top-notch. They are not enough.

Delivering "It"
This is the other mega-skill that many of us are very comfortable with. Once we've designed our "product", we have to be able to deliver it. This is the skill set that is often most evident to our clients, or is what we tell people we do when they ask us our profession. Again, this skill set is critical, but alone it isn't enough.

Selling "It"
This skill, in my experience, is the one most often in need of improvement. While many books have been written about this skill set, there is one key, which by itself will improve your success in selling your work. If you will always focus on client/customer benefits, rather than product/process features, you will improve your success immediately. Features are components of your product or service. Examples include:

? Size
? Length
? Speed
? Number of modules
? Your Experience

People don't buy features they buy benefits. All of us know this at some level, but seldom focus on turning the important features of our offerings into true benefits. To assume that your client/customer will figure out the benefit, is to lower your chance of selling your potential product or
idea.

Some Specific Skills to Consider:

Contracting
This is another skill that requires a book to discuss well and which requires planning and practice to improve. Getting clear agreements with clients up front about what the work is, what the desired outcomes are, and what your role is, is what contracting is all about.

Relationship Building
Building relationships are important in all three of the major skill areas. In designing, you need to build relationships in order to gain the organizational information you need to design effectively. In delivering you need to be able to have good relationships with those involved, to lead to a more successful outcome. In selling, it's important to remember that selling is a relationship process. People buy other people and believe in their ability to deliver.

Having a focus on relationships is more than building rapport, which can happen quite rapidly. Building relationships is long term focused and requires considerable commitment.

Warning

Building relationships with individuals is important, but recognize that if your focus is on only one person in an organization, when they are gone (get promoted, get a new job, are downsized out, or whatever) you have lost your leverage to help the organization. So, remember to build a network of relationships within your client organizations.

Separating Process from Content
It is so important to maintain perspective while in the client organization. Clients will focus on the content (of a meeting, the product, the outputs from your study, or whatever), but if the process matters aren't attended to, outcomes can be compromised.

Working on your ability to step back and recognize what is happening at the group dynamics and interpersonal level will improve your success. Clients don't always know that they need this, but they will almost always recognize that you "did something" to make things go better when you can point to, and improve the process, while sharing the content of your work. This skill is often the key to additional work or referrals.

Socratic Questioning
Socrates is immortalized at least in part for his teaching approach of asking a line of questions that leads the student to discover answers for themselves.

When you clients discover answers to their problems, rather than simply hear them from you, they will own the answers. Their ability to hold onto the concepts, apply them, and improve their situation will skyrocket. Improving your ability to help them discover (through the use of Socratic questioning), is a critical, though often overlooked skill.

Using more questions will cause you to lose the feeling of power that you are providing the "right" answer. But the client gains far more than you lose. While you may feel like you are losing emotionally, you win with the client, and probably strengthen your relationship with them too.

Saying "No!"
Most of us need to improve our ability to say this. Of course we can physically say it, (OK, just for practice, say it three times right now - out loud!) but we all know we don't always say it when we wish we had!

Improving your judgment on when to use this word will help you in three important ways, time management, happiness level, and client success.

Time Management

Many of your time management problems stem from trying to do too much. When people (clients, peers, anyone) ask you to do something that you don't feel you are best suited for, or don't really want to do, use your word!

Happiness Level

When we focus our energy on the things we really want to or need to be doing (rather than just the things people ask us to do or we feel we should do), we will be happier! Say it to help you preserve and honor your priorities.

Client Success

There are times that a client may ask you for something ("We just need this [you fill in the blank]") that you know, or strongly believe is the wrong thing. These are the times to step back and be genuine. Help them understand your perspective, and focus them on the outcome, not the suggested solution. In these cases, you might not be saying "no", exactly, but it is what you really mean!

If you feel a team is ready for such a discussion, pull out this list of attributes and have a team discussion on how well people feel their team is doing on each of these dimensions, the discussion can be enlightening and help the team move its performance to even higher levels.

©1999, All Rights Reserved, Kevin Eikenberry. Kevin is the President of The Kevin Eikenberry Group, a learning consulting company that helps their Clients reach their potential through a variety of training, consulting and speaking services. Go to http://www.kevineikenberry.com/training/ training.asp to learn more about customized training and workshops on consulting services offered or contact Kevin at toll free 888.LEARNER.

Flight Management Announces First Agency Agreement
MarketWatch - 4 hours ago
Functioning as a central agency for a large, diverse group of carefully screened carriers, Flight Management expects to quickly secure its position as an ...
National Storm Continues Recovery with Second Quarter Results MarketWatch
all 17 news articles

RTT News
Assurant to Acquire GE Consumer & Industrial's Warranty Management ...
MarketWatch - 22 hours ago
for Assurant to acquire GE's Warranty Management Group (WMG) business, a unit that markets and sells extended warranties and service contracts for major ...
Assurant announces acquisition of GE Consumer & Industrial's ... Trading Markets (press release)
Assurant to Acquire GE's Warranty Management Group - quick facts RTT News
Assurant signs warranty accord with GE unit The Associated Press
Wall Street Journal - Trading Markets (press release)all 92 news articles

Babson Executive Education's Retail Management Program Helps ...
MarketWatch - 54 minutes ago
Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its ...

The Southern Ledger
Hot spots: News from around the world
Chicago Sun-Times, United States - 9 hours ago
NEW ORLEANS -- A Federal Emergency Management official says Hurricane Gustav evacuees whose homes remain uninhabitable -- because of power outages, ...
FEMA may cover hotel costs for hurricane evacuees The Associated Press
FEMA to cover hotels for those with damaged homes Houston Chronicle
FEMA fields complaints as evacuees return to Big Easy USA Today
NBC13.com - KTALall 449 news articles

Earthtimes (press release)
Dow Falls 344.65 As Hedge Funds
Wall Street Journal - 14 hours ago
Part of the nervousness about hedge funds stems from a decision this week by Ospraie Management, one of the biggest players in commodities, ...
Ospraie Management to close flagship fund BusinessWeek
Lehman Brothers and the Cost of Multitasking Wall Street Journal Blogs
Ospraie Management closes main hedge fund guardian.co.uk
Bloomberg - Hedge Fund Netall 314 news articles

Ping Identity Showcases Advances in Federated Identity Management ...
MarketWatch - 20 minutes ago
Ping Identity is the market leader in federated identity management, delivering secure Internet single sign-on software and services to more than 230 ...

Business management theorist, Hammer, dies
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY - 5 hours ago
Michael Hammer, the author of several seminal books on business management who applied his theories to the non-profit world, died Wednesday night. ...
Management Author Hammer Dies Wall Street Journal
all 2 news articles

Questcor Strengthens Management Team's Manufacturing and ...
MarketWatch - 7 hours ago
announced today that it has recently expanded its management team with the appointment of Timothy O'Neill, Ph.D., Vice President, Contract Manufacturing, ...

Rivermine Hosts FREE Aberdeen Group Webinar on Telecom Expense ...
MarketWatch - 5 hours ago
... new strategies for reducing wireless and wireline spend including: -- How an organization can become a Best-in-Class telecom expense management leader; ...

RTT News
US non-manufacturing sector grew in August
Reliable Plant Magazine, OK - 4 hours ago
The report was issued September 4 by Anthony Nieves, CPM, CFPM, chair of the Institute for Supply Management Non-Manufacturing Business Survey Committee; ...
Supply Managment institute reports growth in US service sector Bizjournals.com
Service sector grows CNNMoney.com
US service sector expands slightly in Aug - ISM guardian.co.uk
Bloomberg - The Associated Pressall 605 news articles

Wind Chimes and more...

Windchimes for great gifts!

More Computer Consulting 101 Hiring Tips (Part 2 of 2)