I teach Management Consulting to MBA students, and to keep my content current, each year I speak to a handful of consultants about their practice.  I recently talked with 5 consultants about what makes a good consultant.

In this blog post, I outline three key qualities of a good management consultant: seeks to define the real problem, is trustworthy and seeks to really, deeply understand the client and their situation.

  1. Trustworthiness:  Disclosure and honesty are required for a successful consulting engagement.  This requires that the client share confidential information with the consultant about the business, but for the client to do so, he/she must feel that the consultant is trustworthy, and will keep the information confidential.  Good consultants enable and encourage disclosure of important information that is required to solve the problem, and this requires trust.
  2. Seeks to really, deeply understand the client and their situation: Consultants bring a broad understanding of common issues that organizations face, yet each organization and problem is unique.  Effective consultants take the time to deeply understand the client and their situation including what the client has already tried, why the issue is a problem now, who the stakeholders area, who, in the client organization, wants the issue resolved (and is willing to champion the project inside the organization and prioritize the project) and what the consequences are for the client for not addressing the issue.
  3. Seeks to define the real problem: A good consultant seeks to solve the client’s problem for good. In this way, a consultant is like a doctor- listening to the client’s story to properly diagnose the issue and develop a plan to create a durable solution. Without proper diagnosis, you end up working on the wrong problem.  Consulting engagements require time and energy, precious commodities in today’s organizations, and it’s a shame to waste time and energy solving the wrong problem.

 

Consultants bring specialized expertise and an understanding of how other organizations have solved similar problems, and thus can add a tremendous amount of value to an organization.  However, for consulting to deliver optimal value, the consultant must be trustworthy, seek to understand the client and the problem and have a genuine interest in defining (and then solving) the real, root problem.  While consulting can add value to an organization, not all consultants deliver the same amount or type of value.  When vetting consultants, pay careful attention to their approach and how much trust they engender, in order to find the best consultant and get the best value for your investment.