Consulting is a profession of contrasts and high expectations. You will need to be not only multi-skilled, sensibly focused, knowledgeable, and widely experienced but also capable of maintaining a delicate balance of personal characteristics. Your clients expect you to be:
- Confident, but not arrogant.
- Assertive, but not pushy.
- Intelligent, but not a nerd.
- Personable, but not overly friendly.
- Candid, but not critical.
- Understanding, but not too sensitive.
- Creative and visionary, but at the same time logical and practical.
- See the big picture, but also watch out for the details.
Those traits afford you quite some challenges. Clients will be just as interested in your personal characteristics as in your skills. Although clients will ask you to discuss your skills, they will evaluate your characteristics. Is that mean we are going to be judged by our charming personality? Well I didn’t say that, knowledge is power, but character is more. Besides, personality and character are two different things. Anyway, clients tend to prefer working with someone who can ‘play along’, collaborative, in-tune, and riding the same wave of harmony.
The Independent Consultant Association recently conducted a study of its members, who were asked to consider a consultant’s role and describe the “ideal” consultant. The following are the top ten responses:
- Knows how to methodically diagnose any problem.
- Is constantly learning and growing.
- Never misses a deadline.
- Can prepare a compelling report with clear, helpful graphics.
- Knows how to tap the right and left sides of the brain.
- Loves the client and becomes a true friend.
- Understands how to use leverage for clients as well as in the consultant’s practice.
- Is technologically and socially competent.
- Knows how to run or participate in a meeting with equal effectiveness.
- Knows what’s going on in the world and is generally well-read.
So, those are the requirements for us to be great consultants, yet sometimes we slip ourselves into the valley of mediocrity, being mediocre is not an option in consulting business, here are some example signs of mediocrity:
- A belief that being a consultant means that you can be just who you are without concern for what your clients expect and refusing to be flexible to fit their environment when necessary.
- An inability to identify practical marketing tactics or finding excuses to avoid implementing them.
- An inability to recognize an opportunity, clients or potential clients might saying, “Do you know anything about . . .” or “Something that is really bugging me is . . .” or “I’d like some help with…” These are all basis for your solution. Listen! Listen! Listen! (Refer to my previous writing; There’s A Reason Why God Creates Man With Two Ears And Only One Mouth)
- An insistence on using a model or solution that you are familiar with rather than creating or finding a new one that would be more appropriate.
- An insistence on doing the same things over and over, not creating new materials or trying new options.
- Limited desire to continue to grow and learn.
- No recognition that your consulting practice is a business.
Average is just average. Is that what you want to be? Or do you want to go further and beyond? Your choice…
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