Consulting Code Blue
Consulting Code Blue
Companies in the new millenium must respond quickly to the economy's rapidly changing conditions. The days of complacency are over, and firms now search for ways to meet the challenges of the marketplace without increasing employees. Many firms use the talents of outside management consultants.
In fact, using management consultants can be the most cost-effective way for a company to receive specialized help on a temporary basis. Yet most companies (and unfortunately some consultants) overlook the fact that management consulting itself is a skill. A consultant's ability to set expectations clearly, for example, is critical to assuring mutually satisfying results. A consultant's ability to fully understand the issues before acting assures the integrity of recommendations. And the consultant's development of trust with his or her client can mean the difference between a 2 or 3 percent improvement and one of 200 or 300 percent.
Management consulting skills (or the lack of them) make the difference between the success and failure of a consultant. Poor skills usually result in the consultant not being asked back, or worse, being dismissed. Such dismissal is the consulting equivalent of heart failure. In many hospitals, they would call such a failure a "code blue". I use the term "code blue" to describe the situation of consultants who are quite talented but find themselves out the door and on the outs.
Peter Block, in his remarkable book Flawless Consulting, details the dangerous corners a consultant can get themselves into, often with little awareness of the danger signs until too late. Whether you are a management consultant wanting to expand your skills or a company looking to improve the quality of the consultants you use, read Block's Flawless Consulting. It is one of the best in the field.
In my experience as a consultant in teambuilding and strategic planning over the last ten years, I have seen these dangerous corners from both consultant and client roles. There are four areas, which occur frequently:
Forcing the problem into a solution. The adage "if all you have is a hammer, then everything begins to look like a nail" applies directly to management consultants who declare diverse skills but are in fact one-trick ponies. As grand as a particular solution or technology might be, no single program can solve all the world's organizational ills.
The consultant overlooks his or her own needs. Take, for example, a consultant who undercharges just to get the work. While this looks like a sound competitive practice to increase volume, not making his or her regular compensation is a de-motivator over time. It would be like an employee having to low bid a salary just to stay employed. Another critical need management consultants tend to overlook is scheduling enough personal time to maintain one's energy over the length of a project. Overwork and over commitment can kill a consultant's health.
Absence of mission. Every consultant/client project should have a clear understanding up front of what it is the consultant is there to do. If there is not a clear mission, all parties are essentially conspiring to avoid focus. Management consultants can collect fees forever based on vague project mandates that are never tied to a big picture. You don't want your company to pay for services, which are not focused towards results.
The consultant rushes to advise. When faced with problems or situations that seem familiar, it is easy for a consultant to draw quick parallels between the project at hand and prior projects. Think of going to the doctor with chest pain and having him or her say "Oh, it's another heart condition. We see those all the time. Just come in Monday and I'll operate." You would be quite upset if that chest pain was due to indigestion, wouldn't you? Good management consultants spend an appropriate amount of time diagnosing the situation before making recommendations and taking action.
Even if you find yourself in one of these situations, all is not lost. Honest communication (laying all the cards on the table) between consultant and client frequently repairs terminal cases with little or no loss of face on either side. Both client and consultant contribute to project breakdowns, and while it may seem the job of the management consultant to fix them, it is also the responsibility of the client to get his or her project back on track. This is hard to do sometimes without getting angry or otherwise damaging the relationship. By getting past any anger or frustration, however, both client and consultant have a significant chance to regroup and both walk away winners.
Consulting Code Blue - To learn more about this author, visit George Smart's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
by George Smart
Companies in the new millenium must respond quickly to the economy's rapidly changing conditions. The days of complacency are over, and firms now search for ways to meet the challenges of the marketplace without increasing employees. Many firms use the talents of outside management consultants.
In fact, using management consultants can be the most cost-effective way for a company to receive specialized help on a temporary basis. Yet most companies (and unfortunately some consultants) overlook the fact that management consulting itself is a skill. A consultant's ability to set expectations clearly, for example, is critical to assuring mutually satisfying results. A consultant's ability to fully understand the issues before acting assures the integrity of recommendations. And the consultant's development of trust with his or her client can mean the difference between a 2 or 3 percent improvement and one of 200 or 300 percent.
Management consulting skills (or the lack of them) make the difference between the success and failure of a consultant. Poor skills usually result in the consultant not being asked back, or worse, being dismissed. Such dismissal is the consulting equivalent of heart failure. In many hospitals, they would call such a failure a "code blue". I use the term "code blue" to describe the situation of consultants who are quite talented but find themselves out the door and on the outs.
Peter Block, in his remarkable book Flawless Consulting, details the dangerous corners a consultant can get themselves into, often with little awareness of the danger signs until too late. Whether you are a management consultant wanting to expand your skills or a company looking to improve the quality of the consultants you use, read Block's Flawless Consulting. It is one of the best in the field.
In my experience as a consultant in teambuilding and strategic planning over the last ten years, I have seen these dangerous corners from both consultant and client roles. There are four areas, which occur frequently:
Forcing the problem into a solution. The adage "if all you have is a hammer, then everything begins to look like a nail" applies directly to management consultants who declare diverse skills but are in fact one-trick ponies. As grand as a particular solution or technology might be, no single program can solve all the world's organizational ills.
The consultant overlooks his or her own needs. Take, for example, a consultant who undercharges just to get the work. While this looks like a sound competitive practice to increase volume, not making his or her regular compensation is a de-motivator over time. It would be like an employee having to low bid a salary just to stay employed. Another critical need management consultants tend to overlook is scheduling enough personal time to maintain one's energy over the length of a project. Overwork and over commitment can kill a consultant's health.
Absence of mission. Every consultant/client project should have a clear understanding up front of what it is the consultant is there to do. If there is not a clear mission, all parties are essentially conspiring to avoid focus. Management consultants can collect fees forever based on vague project mandates that are never tied to a big picture. You don't want your company to pay for services, which are not focused towards results.
The consultant rushes to advise. When faced with problems or situations that seem familiar, it is easy for a consultant to draw quick parallels between the project at hand and prior projects. Think of going to the doctor with chest pain and having him or her say "Oh, it's another heart condition. We see those all the time. Just come in Monday and I'll operate." You would be quite upset if that chest pain was due to indigestion, wouldn't you? Good management consultants spend an appropriate amount of time diagnosing the situation before making recommendations and taking action.
Even if you find yourself in one of these situations, all is not lost. Honest communication (laying all the cards on the table) between consultant and client frequently repairs terminal cases with little or no loss of face on either side. Both client and consultant contribute to project breakdowns, and while it may seem the job of the management consultant to fix them, it is also the responsibility of the client to get his or her project back on track. This is hard to do sometimes without getting angry or otherwise damaging the relationship. By getting past any anger or frustration, however, both client and consultant have a significant chance to regroup and both walk away winners.
Consulting Code Blue - To learn more about this author, visit George Smart's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to George's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 |
|
Leadership Lessons Learned from Texas Hold'em Poker - George Smart - With 25 years of proven experience in executive education and leadership development, EvanCarmichael.com expert George Smart helps companies gain a competitive edge. He specializes in executive coaching and leadership simulations -- practical, bottom-line, high-interaction training that has participants genuinely engaged.
|
|
|
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
|
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Personal Leadership New Sales Leadership Paradigm The Flowing Point Challenges Of Change Positive Thinking |
|
 | ||
 |
Email The Reporters
Press Release Builder | |
 |
The Top 10 Guy Kawasaki Posts
Best Posts for Entrepreneurs | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||