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- Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
"What is the most important attribute a freelance consultant must have? " Is it communications skills, a package of up-to-the- inute techniques, or the ability to project manage effectively? " All of these things are necessary. But I encourage you to read this book through a different lens. The most important attribute, in my world, is the ability to market oneself- products, pricing, promotion and routes to market. This book will support you on that journey." Martin Shervington, author
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2005
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“Carol Harris’ Consult Yourself, is a must-read for all those seriously considering leaving the corporate environment and starting their own consulting practice. She clearly outlines the preparation, planning and actions that need to be done to succeed. Her approach, integrated with NLP, will enable you to harness your conscious and below conscious strengths. And she has lots of useful tips for even the most seasoned consultant.”– Shelle Rose Charvet, author of Words that Change Minds.
“Carol Harris has written a book that covers all you ever need to know about consultancy. The book is excellent – it describes brilliantly what a consultant has to demonstrate to become successful.”– Roger Walker, Consultant People Agenda Network.
“Consulting can mean all things to all people. Not after reading Carol Harris’ book – she breaks the topic right down into its constituent parts so it is quite clear what is being talked about. Readers, whether part- or full-time consultants already – possibly with a big firm and considering going it alone – or those thinking about entering the field for the first time, can see at a glance what the options are, what is involved in each and the pitfalls. The book spells out how to get started and, essentially, how to do the job. The totally seamless integration of NLP thinking into the explanations of the necessary skills and techniques adds a valuable dimension and Harris never resorts to jargon or fad. Anecdotes keep the tone personal, practical, down-to-earth … A sharp knife through the fudge and gobbledegook that’s talked about consultancy today. Harris paints a crystal clear picture of what it means to be a consultant – from what rates to charge to responding to tenders to how to do the job. The consultant’s consultant.”– Susanne Lawrence, Deputy Chairman, Personnel Publications Ltd.; Chief Executive, Indigo Publishing Ltd.
“I wish Carol Harris’s book had been on the market when I first set up my business many years ago. Her new book is comprehensive, dealing with many of the more difficult issues of setting up and running a business.”– Philip Atkinson, Director Transformations UK Ltd.
“Carol Harris has written a book for all consultants, whether the would-be sole practitioner or the seasoned, big practice consultant wanting to re-calibrate what he/she is doing … Down-to-earth, practical advice, distilled from a now maturing profession, is combined with information on trends within a profession undergoing enormous change. Readers will find the book written in an accessible style and, if they want more information on a particular topic, the pointers to other authors and professional, support organisations are there … Readers will be challenged by new and thought-provoking ways of thinking. Any consultant will have his/her understanding of their profession enhanced by this book, whether it is read from cover to cover or used as a source of ideas and approaches on a more casual basis.”– Ian Barratt, Chief Executive, Institute of Management Consultancy.
“I commend this book to all those who are not afraid to look within for guidance on the external consulting journey.”– Barry Curnow, Vice-Chairman, International Council of Management Consulting Institutes; Principal, Maresfield Curnow School of Management Consulting.
“Consult Yourself is a ‘must have’ book for anyone considering consultancy as a new career. Although targeted at independents, the book is a veritable asset to all aspiring consultants. … Subtly and wisely, Harris draws the reader into critical self-analysis, introspection and educated reasoning, for consultancy is not just about on-the-job skills. This she achieves by using proven tools of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) in an acceptable and impactful way. Well-written and logically developed this is a book for reading and then referencing time and again. If you are considering a career in consultancy, read this book and act on your learning.”– Angus McLeod, author of Me, Myself, My Team and Performance Coaching.
“The only guide to consultancy that anyone could need, covering the why, what, who and how of building and sustaining a successful career in consultancy. The messages are clear, sincere and very readable… and they make complete sense. Any consultant – new or experienced – will learn a lot. I wish it had been around when I started out.”– Graham Willcocks, MCMI, FCIPD, Chairman, Development Processes plc; Director, Wesley House Consultancy.
“What is the most important attribute a freelance consultant must have? Is it communications skills, a package of up-to-the-minute techniques, or the ability to project manage effectively? All of these things are necessary. But I encourage you to read this book through a different lens. The most important attribute, in my world, is the ability to market oneself – products, pricing, promotion and routes to market. This book will support you on that journey.”– Martin Shervington, author of Peak Performance through NLP and Don’t think of purple spotted oranges.
“I can honestly say that Consult Yourself is one of the best books I have ever read on consultancy skills and is an absolute must for anyone considering giving up full-time employment to set up his or her own consultancy business. I wish I had been able to read this many years ago as Carol so correctly explains that it just is not enough to be an expert in a specialised field. She makes the reader consider the full picture of being able to market and promote your business, dealing with cash flow problems, clearly defining your business and for those being self-employed for the first time the pitfalls of self-management and self-motivation. Consult Yourself should be a must for all consultants no matter what their experience, a superb publication that I could not recommend highly enough.”– Mike Palmer, Managing Director, Professional Training Solutions UK.
“True guides in how to establish, promote and control a consultancy business are rare. Consult Yourself is an essential book not only for every consultant and consultant-to-be but for trainers, facilitators and other change professionals alike. Unlike other books that take an either-or approach to focus on tools or personality of the consultant this book has it all. Starting with the prerequisites of you as a person and the foundation of your business, to self-management strategies as well as essential consultancy techniques and a wealth of resources Consult Yourself is holistic, paying attention to each and every aspect of a successful consultancy. A must-read!”– Wiebke Koch, Lecturer in Strategic Business Management, International Business School Berlin; Consultant, ‘Entrepreneurship in the Knowledge Society’, Freie University Berlin; Director, SynerGenius Consulting.
Consult Yourself
The NLP Guide to Being a Management Consultant
Carol Harris
Illustrated by Roy Elmore
Contents
Title Page
Biography
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1What Is Consultancy?
Chapter 2Consultancy and You
Chapter 3Becoming a Consultant
Chapter 4Defining and Establishing Your Business
Chapter 5Controlling and Promoting Your Business
Chapter 6Enhancing Your Business
Chapter 7Consultancy Techniques
Chapter 8Self-Management
Chapter 9Managing Work Effectively
Chapter 10Building Effective Relationships
Chapter 11Facilitating Change Through Influence
Chapter 12Client Interfaces
Chapter 13Helping Others Develop
Chapter 14Business Writing
Finale
Resource List
Bibliography
Index
Copyright
Biography
Carol Harris is a Certified Management Consultant and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultancy, as well as a member of the Richmond Group, a leading UK consortium of independent consultants. She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Member of the British Association of Communicators in Business. She has been active in the Institute of Management Consultancy, serving on the Women in Consultancy special interest group, helping with membership development, running IMC accredited courses and contributing to the Institute’s publications.
Carol established her independent consultancy practice, Management Magic, in 1986. Management Magic’s expertise is in human resource management, organisational development, change management, teambuilding, training, development and employee communications. The practice offers consultancy and training services to the public, private, charitable and voluntary sectors. Management Magic specialises in the application of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) to business, and Carol has been Chair of the Association for Neuro-Linguistic Programming in the UK for four years and Editor of the Association’s international magazine Rapport for ten years. Management Magic offers NLP-based in-house training in various parts of the UK, and also runs open courses in London and Wales, where, in addition to enhancing their business skills, delegates can enjoy exploring the local countryside, eating home-cooked meals and meeting the resident rare-breed pigs and piglets.
Carol is the author of The Elements of NLP; NLP – New Perspectives; Think Yourself Slim and Networking for Success and has produced the Success in Mind series of audiotapes on various aspects of personal effectiveness. She is also the Editor and publisher of Effective Consulting, the international magazine for independent management consultants.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people and organisations for their help with this book:
The Institute of Management Consultancy in the UK for their general help and for permission to use extracts from their publications, including Inside Careers, published in conjunction with Cambridge Market Intelligence Ltd.
Management Consulting Information Service, which conducts salary surveys on behalf of the IMC, for providing me with some of the information on UK salaries.
The Kennedy Information Research Group in the USA for providing information on salary/fee rates and billing practices.
Kennedy Information LLC for permission to reproduce information on the top USA consultancy firms.
The AMCF for permission to quote from its publication Operating Ratios for Management Consulting Firms: A resource for Benchmarking.
Management Consultant Decisions International for permission to reproduce the foreword to their 2000 edition.
William M Mercer for permission to use information from their joint study with Cranfield School of Management, European Trends in HR Outsourcing.
Russam GMS for permission to reproduce information from their publication Interim Management: The Russam GMS Market Research Report.
Don Leslie, of Beament Leslie Thomas, for supplying some of the information on consultancy recruitment practices.
Paul Harris for helping with the research on industry information.
Philip Atkinson for sending me much useful information and chatting on the phone.
Nick Cotter and Calvert Markham for supplying one or two anecdotes.
And everyone else who has contributed to my own experience, enabling me to produce this book.
Finally, I would like to dedicate the book to my mother, Sylvia Leibson, who was regarded by all her friends and acquaintances as the best unofficial consultant they knew.
Foreword
This is a welcome and timely book. The title Consult Yourself is apt and points to the importance of learning to become a reflective consultant and a reflexive practitioner of consultancy: reflective in thinking about professional practice and reflexive in learning from experience and feeding that learning back into future client work.
Consultants must use their whole selves, body, mind and spirit in the service of the client and the consulting journey. This consulting truth was enunciated nearly two decades ago by Peter Block in Chapter Two of the first edition of his legendary A Handbook of Flawless Consulting, which was entitled ‘Techniques Are Not Enough’.
We have been waiting ever since then for a practical handbook, a do-it-yourself guide or consultant’s survival kit that tells consulting practitioners how to master themselves in the service of the client/consultant relationship, whether in private practice or corporate life. Here it is! Carol Harris is herself a Certified Management Consultant, an experienced Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultancy and a thoughtful consulting practitioner. She has now written the “workshop manual” for how to go beyond techniques to live the consulting life as a journey of inquiry, learning and self-development, as a joint venture with the client.
There is a sense in which we are all consultants now. The end of lifelong careers, the downsizing and restructuring of organisations, and turbulent change in markets, have led to the need for consulting skills as the survival edge in the post-employment labour markets of the digital economy where self-employed, freelance and consulting engagements are the daily bread of work.
There are life cycles in the consulting business. There are life cycles in client-consultant relationships. There are life cycles in consulting careers, whether employed, self-employed or leading the portfolio life of the third age. Consulting skills are life skills, survival skills. There are principles and proven practices that govern these life cycles of the consulting journey. And Carol Harris sketches them well, giving good, down-to-earth, practical guidance about what to do and how to do it. These guidelines are more than common sense – they blend good theory with best practice and provide a map with which to navigate across the territory of service provider-client relationships, teaching and learning for life.
Many aspiring internal consultants turn to NLP in order to accelerate the professionalism of their consulting services. Many external consultants turn to NLP in order better to understand the process aspects of their own psychology and that of others. To the extent that this magical book helps the practitioner to look within, to their own psychology, as the basis for understanding what works in their relationships with their colleagues and with clients, it is pointing to a fundamental truth and requirement of consulting endeavours. I commend it all those who are not afraid to look within for guidance on the external consulting journey.
Barry Curnow Vice-Chairman, International Council of Management Consulting Institutes; Principal, Maresfield Curnow School of Management Consulting. London, December 2000.
Preface
Over the years, many people have asked me how they could become independent consultants. Most of these people were experienced professionals in particular fields and now wished (or had no choice but) to change direction, although a few were starting out on their careers and had little work experience under their belts.
My immediate response to the ‘new starters’ was usually to tell them that one doesn’t take up consultancy in the way one does other jobs – that is, feel attracted to it, do some training and launch into a career. I felt that consultancy was something to be done only when one had sufficient experience of a particular function, sector or process to be able to pass on one’s own knowledge and skill to others. And, to a large extent, I still believe this.
However, management consultancy is now such a rapid growth area that it is commonplace for young graduates, or specialists with only a few years’ work experience, to be taken on by the large consultancy practices, which then mould them to their own image. There sometimes seems to be a sharp contrast between this route to consultancy success and that of the seasoned professional who turns to consultancy after many years in line management, a functional specialism or business development.
There are many different routes to consultancy success, but they have in common the requirement for excellent skills in order to help others grow, develop, innovate, solve problems, manage, lead and achieve business results. Although the focus of this book is the independent consultant, the chapters that follow will take you through a range of consultancy issues and ideas. I hope they will give you food for thought, whatever your route into consultancy.
I have used various concepts in this book, many of them – as the title indicates – from NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). Although I have kept the book as jargon-free as I can, I have indicated at the end of chapters the terminology for the NLP techniques used so that those who are unfamiliar can track them back and, if motivated to pursue them, learn more about their origins, applications and practice. The application of all the techniques mentioned is, of course, far broader than their usage here.
So use the book in whichever way suits you best; either read it from start to finish, or dip in at those points that attract your interest the most. And if you have any interesting consultancy anecdotes to recount, do get in touch – I like collecting tales of endeavour and result.
Author’s note: Throughout this book I have used the term ‘consultancy’, as it is the word used in the UK to describe both the industry and the function. In the USA the term ‘consulting’ is used instead and readers may prefer to substitute this if it is more familiar to them.
Chapter 1
What Is Consultancy?
This chapter introduces a range of topics including the origins of consultancy, its purposes, the kind of people who can be consultants, the issues faced by consultants, what clients want from consultants (and vice versa), and consultancy elements and processes.
How Can Consultancy Be Defined?
There are two ways of considering the field of consultancy. There is the ‘technical’ definition – consultancy as a formal business activity. There is also the more commonplace definition – consultancy as an activity that takes place on a daily basis between people in all contexts.
The first definition encompasses many discrete processes, for example: ♦Management consultancy, ♦Medical consultancy, ♦Design consultancy, ♦Financial consultancy, and so forth.
The second definition covers activities such as an employee asking a colleague for ideas on how to tackle a task, a teenager asking an older friend for advice on relationships and a new house purchaser asking a neighbour for the addresses of local garden centres.
In this book I concentrate on the first definition of consultancy, that is, the formal processes in which people engage in business. I will be focusing especially on management consultancy, with brief glimpses at consultancy in other fields. The Management Consultancies Association (MCA) in the UK defines management consultancy as ‘…the supply of independent advice and assistance to clients about management issues’.
How Did Consultancy Originate and Develop?
Probably consultancy in its informal sense has existed for as long as people have been together in social groups. However, the origins of consultancy as a business practice are quite recent. The impact of the Industrial Revolution gave rise to ‘industrial engineering’, aimed at improving efficiency and productivity and, in the UK and the USA, some early consultancy activities were in evidence in the late 1880s; their origins being in management costing and accountancy. The 1920s were probably the starting point for modern consultancy as we know it and, in the decades that followed, many firms came into existence, with the 1950s being the real growth times for the consultancy industry, linked to postwar business expansion/reconstruction, technological advancement and growth in developing countries.
The early period of consultancy featured many consultancy products and processes, many of them trademarked ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions to problems. Some of these products, and their associated ‘Here’s the solution, now what’s the problem?’ approach have still survived, although nowadays consultancy tends to be much more client-focused and flexible, offering approaches and processes rather than guaranteed solutions.
Although there were some periods when consultancy services fell in popularity – the early 1970s in Britain being one of those times – consultancy survived and grew. Today it is one of the most popular work sectors for both employed and self-employed people.
The Management Consultancies Association survey of consultancy trends showed that, in the UK, between 1960 and 1998 there was a steady rise in the number of consultants employed by MCA firms, from around 1,500 in 1960 to almost 15,000 at the end of 1999. Bruce Petter, Executive Director of MCA, has said that management consultancy is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United Kingdom.
Revenues in the UK now exceed £6 billion, with exports well over £1 billion, and consultancy services offered include IT consultancy, IT systems development, strategy, financial services, project management, production management, human resources, marketing, economic/environmental and outsourcing.
Management Consultancy magazine reports annual growth rates of around 20% in consultancy, with a good proportion from fee income overseas. Growth appears higher in financial services and manufacturing and lower in central and local government, and much of the growth is in IT and project management. According to the MCA, over 90% of the FT–SE 250 companies employ MCA firms on a repeat basis.
According to the Federation of European Management Consultants, FEACO, there are now 200,000 management consultants operating in Europe. Some 75% of these are based in just five countries: Germany (62,500), UK (35,000), Italy (32,000), Spain (16,000) and France (15,400). The northern European market seems to be the ‘most mature’ and the UK and Germany represent the largest management consultancy markets (around 60%). And in a research project carried out by one training organisation in the UK, it was estimated that there are over 10,000 one-person consultancies offering people skills development, and over 300 companies in the same field.
In his foreword to ‘Management Consultant Decisions International 2000’, Gil Gidron, Chairman of the Federation of European Management Consultants, said:
Consultancy is undergoing an unprecedented period of growth and it has become one of the most dynamic and strategic industries as a result of the added value it generates and its contribution to the competitiveness of companies and institutions.
The economic, business and social environment is changing rapidly. Factors such as the globalisation of markets, the increase in pan-European operations, the deregulation and liberalisation of some industries, the wave of consolidation and concentration, the new opportunities arising from technological development, monetary union and, above all, the e-economy, are all influencing the demand for consulting services.
The management consultancy industry in Europe now represents 200,000 professionals and a market worth more than 25 billioneuro is not only important in size, but also in what it represents for the economy, for consultants are wealth creators who capitalise on change.
The 1980s required delivery excellence in consultancy. The objective was to deliver quality on time and on budget. In the 1990s a different dimension was added. Clients not only required delivery excellence but were interested in value created through implemented business solutions. Now, at the beginning of the new millennium, clients want to add another dimension: speed. Modern change is characterised by speed and consultants will be competitive only if they manage to successfully deliver value at superior speed. Accelerated change will be the common denominator of the twenty-first century.
In this context, consulting firms have to change rapidly to maintain their competitiveness. In the future they will be required to develop new skills and capabilities in two areas; those of envisioning and realising new business models and those of adapting and transforming human performance in the economy.
All of these changes will require new profiles of consultants, diverse compensation models, different financial and organisational structures and new client ‘relationships’ that will allow consulting firms to be competitive.
I am optimistic about consultancy in the new environment. In a world of unlimited business opportunities generated by these new electronic channels, management consultancy should be a point of reference and a source of innovation for all organisations across the world in the twenty-first century. The new challenge for consultancy is to be at the forefront of changes, delivering value to clients at superior speed.
Why Is Consultancy Needed?
There is a range of reasons for the growth in consultancy services; some of these are as follows:
Specialisation and the pace of change
The world of work has tended to become compartmentalised, with people knowing ‘more and more about less and less’. Because of this, no one person in an organisation can know everything, nor can they keep up to date with developments in all fields. This means that there is an increased demand for the services of specialists who may be too expensive to afford on a full-time basis, or whose expertise is needed too infrequently to justify their permanent employment.
Downsizing, outsourcing and virtual working
As companies streamline their activities, many departments are reduced in size. This leads to more use being made of resources outside the organisation. In some cases activities are carried out by contractors rather than permanent staff; in others, networks of contacts are used to boost internal resources. Consultants may also be used for a period while in-house skills are being developed in employees. Whichever of these reasons applies, there is a growing demand for help from people outside the organisation.
Differing perspectives, collaboration and challenge
It is very easy to become complacent, fail to see new opportunities and fall into a rut. Having access to people with new ideas and having one’s approach scrutinised can lead to a healthier and more productive way of working. It may not be easy to accept the viewpoints of others, but keeping an open mind can lead to surprisingly useful results.
What Is a Consultant?
Just as there are two definitions of consultancy, so there can be two definitions of a consultant. The first is a person who has ‘consultant’ in, or implied in, their job title; the second is anyone who provides information, advice or assistance to another. Again, I will be taking the first definition in this book. Within this definition, there are a number of recognisable consultancy roles; I will mention a few of them here.
Internal/external
An internal consultant is one who provides a service to other members of the same employing organisation. Not long ago, this term would have been unusual, but it has become more commonplace over the past couple of decades. There are various reasons for having internal consultants. For example, internal consultants are more likely than outsiders to understand the nature of the business, and to have well-established relationships with people within the organisation; also, in some very large firms, it is more cost-effective to provide consultancy internally than to buy it in at high daily rates. The tendency within businesses to designate discrete functions or departments as individual cost centres for financial control purposes has meant that internal consultancy can become a transferable cost. This has a number of implications. One is that the cost effectiveness of the service is more likely to be assessed. Another is that, when purchasing departments weigh up the benefits of using one source rather than another, internal consultants are more likely to face competition from external consultants.
An external consultant is one who is brought in from ‘outside’ for a specific project or time period. This is probably how most people understand consultancy, and the growth of external consultants has been one of the business success stories of recent years. There will be further discussion of the internal/external consultancy dimension later in this chapter.
Specialist/generalist
Specialist consultants offer services in one or more areas. These may be functionally oriented (for example finance, IT, HR, marketing) or they may be sector or industry oriented (for example public sector, voluntary sector, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing). Specialist consultants are likely to have worked previously in the particular areas they cover and will need to keep up to date with developments in their field. Specialism brings advantages of relevant knowledge and expertise; the downside can be a narrow focus that limits understanding of broader business issues.
Generalist consultants are able to take an overview of business activities. They may well have expertise across a range of functions and sectors and may therefore have a breadth of understanding that can be a great asset to clients. Generalisation may, however, make it more difficult for such consultants to define their particular assets (or ‘unique selling points’, to use marketing jargon) and they will be competing in the marketplace against many others with a similar range of services.
Process/analytical/strategic consultant
Process consultants work collaboratively with their clients to help them handle important issues. This kind of consultancy is not so much about offering solutions or providing guidance, but is more about facilitation and development – helping clients enhance their own capabilities and skills. (The old adage ‘Give a person a fish and they have a meal; teach them how to fish and they have meals for life’ is a good analogy for this kind of consultancy.) In the past ten or fifteen years, process consultancy has tended to be most popular.
Analytical consultants are more content driven, working on current operational activities, and are often brought in where there is a particular problem to be solved, for example a production breakdown that can be ‘fixed’. In these cases the consultant acts as more of a specialist adviser/troubleshooter, providing expertise that is not available within the organisation. Although both process and analytical consultants have roles to fulfil, it is likely that the process consultant, in the long run, is better able to help the clients enhance their own capabilities rather than just giving them a ‘solution’ to a problem.
Strategic consultants work on high-level, long-term issues to help their clients develop and achieve their overall business aims.
Interim manager/project consultant/‘outsourced’ services
While the majority of consultants work on specific assignments on an independent basis, some act as interim managers or executives for client organisations.
An assignment-based consultant is brought in to conduct an assignment or project for the client. The consultant tends to be slightly at arm’s length, advising and guiding. An interim manager or executive is more ‘hands on’, taking an operational role within the client organisation and helping implement action rather than simply recommending it. It could be argued that this latter role is not a true consultancy role, but many clients benefit as much from such injections of assistance as they would from the services of a purely external consultant. For those readers who are happiest with seeing a total project through from start to completion, interim work may be more satisfying and give more of a feeling of involvement and commitment.
As well as interim or project work, activities may simply be ‘outsourced’ so that an external person is brought in to carry out tasks; this is sometimes considered to be consultancy but may simply be purchasing subcontracted services rather than the provision of consultancy advice. Outsourced work can be a good source of additional income for consultants, although it does seem different in kind from much consultancy work.
There is an enormous growth in outsourcing, and in a recent survey ‘Trends in HR outsourcing’, Cranfield School of Management (in association with William M Mercer) surveyed almost 4,000 organisations employing over 200 employees throughout Europe (excluding Germany) and showed that organisations throughout Europe made great use of external providers. Training and development was generally the function with the highest use of external providers (an average of 77%), followed by recruitment and selection (59%); pay and benefits (30%) and outplacement/downsizing (29%). Overall, the outsourcing process tended to be used on an ‘opportunistic’ basis rather than as a result of deliberate strategy. In a table showing the geographical spread of organisations outsourcing three or more services, the top three countries were Belgium, the Netherlands and France, with the UK next and then the other countries in the study.
The authors of the above study did comment that the word ‘outsourcing’ is ambiguous, so, in their survey, they simply used the term ‘external providers’ (also, in some languages the word ‘outsourcing’ is difficult to translate, which adds to any possible confusion).
Sole trader (solo)/partner/associate/employed consultant
There is a wide range of organisational types within the field of consultancy. Sole traders work on a self-employed basis, offering services to their chosen market. Some consultants work in partnership with others, perhaps one other person, or possibly several; the term ‘partner’ is also used for senior members of larger consulting firms, who generally have a stake in the business. Many consultants work in association with others, either personal contacts or through organisations set up to offer consultancy services through a network of affiliated people. Others work as employees of various-sized consultancy firms.
There are advantages to both consultant and client in each type of organisation and, if you are considering a career in consultancy, there are various issues to consider when deciding which route is most appropriate for you to take. In Chapter 3 I will be discussing how you can either set up on your own as a consultant, or get a job in a larger consultancy firm.
Local/national/international
Some consultants operate in a small geographic region, some within one country, while others work across a broader geographical range. Within the larger consultancy firms, consultants will often be sent overseas on assignments for periods of time; equally, many sole traders or smaller firms will have an international focus.
Working nationally can build up particular expertise in the needs and characteristics of a ‘local’ market, whereas operating internationally can give either a specific expertise in particular cultures or a broader understanding of comparative business issues.
What Kind of Person Can Be a Consultant?
If you take the ‘informal’ definition of consultancy, anyone can be a consultant. If, however, you take the ‘formal’ definition – someone who is a consultant professionally – then, although probably most people could be a consultant, in practice there are certain factors that make it likely that such a career will appeal to, and work better for, people with particular attributes.
Chapter 2 deals with how to assess your personal potential as a consultant and will give you some ideas about your own suitability for a career in consultancy.
What Issues Are Faced by Consultants?
There is a wide range of issues that come up in consultancy. Many of these have an ethical element and many consultants, especially new ones, find it hard to know how to handle them. I will be covering many of these issues (together with other topics) in the chapters that follow; the list here is just a selection to give you a taste of what will follow in the chapters ahead.
The issues are not in order of priority, but similar issues have been grouped together.
Business development issues
Self-management issues
Work issues
Relationship issues
Client management issues
Ethical issues
Cultural issues
Development issues
In the skills chapters I will be taking you through various issues facing consultants and giving you practical ways of anticipating and dealing with them.
What Trends Are There in Consultancy?
• The MCA (Management Consultancies Association) says that overall issues facing the consultancy industry today include: ♦New organisations entering the field; ♦Regulatory legislation (including disaggregation issues – that is, the separating of auditing and consultancy services); ♦Mergers and the rise of e-business (in the current year, the MCA assessed that over 17% of their members’ revenues were predominantly e-business related).
• Barry Curnow, Past President of the IMC in the UK and currently Vice-Chair of the international management consultancy organisation ICMCI, says that two trends that will become even more prominent in the future are: ♦Globalisation and ♦Virtual consultancy.
• The AMCF (Association of Management Consulting Firms) US report on consulting industry results (see Bibliography) says that: ♦Women have moved ahead in consulting firms, with almost a quarter of management consultants in responding firms being women (compared with a fifth in 1993); almost two-thirds of junior partners are women (compared with just under half in 1992) and just over a quarter of senior partners were women (compared with a fifth in 1993); ♦Minority groups make up around a third of the entry-level positions, although only 6% of senior partners; ♦The highest demands for services were in compensation and benefits and health care consulting, while production management and strategic planning growth decreased.
• FEACO (Federation of European Management Consulting Associations) says, in its latest survey of the European management consultancy market (December 1998), that: ♦The majority of member firms predicted that IT work had the best prospects, followed by corporate strategy and organisation development and financial and administrative systems; ♦The key markets were seen as financial services, retail and international business; ♦The key drivers for the industry were predicted to be intensification of competition through globalisation, privatisation and deregulation, rapid advancement in IT and e-commerce, mergers and acquisitions. (Members also reported on the outlook for service areas, by country, and this information is available in the full report, or in extract form in Management Consultant Decisions International 2000).
What Are the Elements of Consultancy?
Consultancy can often be recognised through its elements; here are a few that are common to many consultancy activities.
‘Problem’ issues or development needs
Before a consultancy relationship can be entered into, there needs to be some requirement that has to be met. Sometimes there is an actual problem, in other words something that is causing concern, preventing achievement or stopping progress – for example, lack of finance, interpersonal conflict or a technical process breakdown. In these cases, the way forward may not be apparent; people may simply know that something needs to be done. At other times there is an identified need for intervention or development – for example, rearranging shift patterns to cope with an increased product demand, or a requirement to train staff in new practices. In these cases, some analysis has been carried out so that people are aware of the issues involved and are beginning to grasp their impact. And sometimes there is a need that has not been expressly clarified, but which still presents as an issue to be addressed – for example, a sense that a change of direction may be needed, or an awareness of a shift in the success of an organisation.
Parties to the interaction
Generally there are two distinct parties involved in a consultancy interaction; a supplier and a client. Within this framework there may be more than one person involved on each ‘side’; there may be a management team which is the client, and there may be several consultants involved if the activity is substantial. However, there can also be ‘self-consultancy’, where a person assesses and works on their own issues, or debates issues with himself or herself (“Part of me would like to do … but part of me would prefer to do …”; “On the one hand I could … and on the other hand I could …”).
Transfer of knowledge/expertise/advice
For consultancy to be effective, there should be some transfer of resources from one party to another. The resources may include knowledge, skill or information and the transfer may be conscious or, on occasion, unconscious. What I mean by this is that in some cases the transfer may be made explicit, so the client knows exactly what he or she is gaining from the process, but in other cases the recipient may be unaware at the time of any gains, although these might subsequently become apparent, or may even benefit the client without that person really knowing why. Explicit transfer is likely to be perceived as more valuable, as it is apparent what kind of benefit has been gained by the receiver. If unconscious transfer processes are used deliberately, care must be taken as this can be a powerful process and should not be attempted by the untrained.
What Consultancy Processes Are There?
There are numerous processes involved in consultancy, with their associated models, frameworks and techniques. Some of the processes are patented or trademarked, but many have simply slipped into general usage and their origins are sometimes shrouded in the mists of time. It can be very helpful to follow existing approaches to consultancy, but I believe the most successful consultants are constantly devising their own approaches and solutions and continuously reinventing and redeveloping how they work. In this way they stay up to date, move ahead of the competition and become known for innovative and resourceful handling of client issues.
I will be dealing with consultancy processes and techniques in some depth in Chapter 7.
An Example of a Consultancy Framework
One simple framework for consultancy that I have found makes sense to many people was developed by the then Manpower Services Commission and used within the Civil Service in the UK as ‘a consultancy approach to getting things done through others’. I can no longer trace the original documents or authors, so am unable to credit it further. This framework has five elements, but I have adapted one of them because I think the original version does not quite cover what goes on.
The framework as it was originally devised uses a mnemonic (EDICT) and has five stages, as follows:
E ntry
D iagnosis
I nfluencing
C ontracting
T ransition
I have changed the third stage to ‘Intervention’ as I believe influencing goes on at all times, whether we are aware of it and use it consciously, or not. This is acknowledged by the authors of EDICT, but I do not believe it is truly reflected in the model.
So, taking the adapted version, this is how it can be described.
Entry
This is a stage where the consultant is making a first entrance into the consultant/client relationship and building a working relationship. Entry is characterised by activities such as initial contact, ice-breaking, finding common ground, developing rapport and trust, gaining credibility, reducing ambiguity, overcoming concerns and exchanging basic information. At this stage the emphasis is on defining roles and building a working relationship, rather than on carrying out formal consultancy ‘work’. Entry is built each time contact takes place with a client and it deepens the working relationship; total credibility and trust may only be achieved over a period of months or years.
Diagnosis
This is the stage where analysis of the situation, its causes, the people involved and any other relevant issues takes place. Diagnosis can happen in discussion, through research, through thinking and so on. It involves elements such as listening, questioning and reflecting. The purpose of diagnosis is to gather sufficient quantity and quality of information on which to base a judgement, including the ‘key levers to change’. Diagnosis includes content (what you need to find out) and process (how you set about doing it). It is important at this stage not to jump to conclusions and make premature suggestions for improvement; it is simply a fact-gathering and investigation stage.
Intervention
This stage is about developing appropriate strategies for getting client commitment, facilitating movement and making changes. The changes may come through proposals, recommendations, guidance, collaboration, implementation and so on and include the development of appropriate strategies for gaining client commitment. The consultant may take a more or less active part in intervention work, depending on the assignment; and problem-solving, benefit demonstration, commitment maintenance and influencing may take a high profile during this phase.
Contracting
This is about agreeing/confirming roles, responsibilities and relationships; it is also about enhancing trust and support. The authors of EDICT say it is “… a continuous process towards developing a clear plan of action”. Although it is placed near the end of the EDICT process, contracting may run in parallel with intervention, or it may come before or after it, depending on what is being contracted. This dispersal of the contracting function is not made entirely clear in the model.
Transition
This is about “… managing the client relationship in a manner that ensures the achievement of objectives and … considers the longer term objectives”. It also ensures moving from one situation to another. As an assignment ends, the consultant will need to move on to other work and the client will need to move into a more autonomous role in implementation. Transition may involve follow-up, maintenance, or support activity, depending on circumstances. Transition can be a difficult time if the client has become over-dependent on the consultant; it can also be a sensitive time if the consultant is (for whatever reason) reluctant to leave the client to his or her own devices. Transition may lead to re-entry, and the start of another assignment or a further stage of activity, in which case the whole cycle may begin again.
The EDICT cycle does not always run in a linear manner; stages may cycle, or be omitted or repeated, depending on circumstances. It also does not cover some important elements, such as the research you need to do before the entry stage. It is, however, a simple concept and one that sums up much of the activity that takes place within a consultancy relationship.
What Are the Differences Between Internal and External Consultants?
In the same way that external consultants differ in what they are like and in what they do, internal consultants also vary. There can be differences between the roles and activities of internal and external consultants, and there can also be some particular constraints on the internal consultant that tend not to be faced by the external consultant. I would like to consider some of these issues here.
What is an internal consultant?
The same definition may be used as with consultancy in general: i.e., a person may be an informal or a formal internal consultant. An informal internal consultant is simply someone who is consulted for advice by others within the organisation. A formal internal consultant is one who has ‘consultant’ as part of their role definition and has official responsibilities to help others achieve their goals.
In their roles as managers, coaches, mentors and facilitators, people may take on aspects of a consultancy role within an organisation, but the true internal consultant has very a specific role in helping the organisation adopt, or adapt to, change. Internal consultancy can be a challenging role, for a variety of reasons, which will be explored in the paragraphs that follow.
Where does an internal consultant fit in?
Internal consultancy can take various forms. In larger organisations there are internal consultancy departments, running into tens, and occasionally hundreds, of people. In smaller organisations, the internal consultant may reside in any one of a range of specialist functions – for example IT, HR, training – or may be found elsewhere in the hierarchy – for example reporting directly to the chief executive. In multi-site businesses the internal consultant may come from a different location, or business unit, and still be regarded as internal to the business as a whole.
Comparing the internal and external consultant
In respect of what they do, there are many similarities and also many differences between the internal and external consultant. Here are some of the issues involved:
• The external consultant often has more apparent credibility (nobody is a prophet in their own land!). It may be harder for the internal consultant to be taken seriously, as he or she is probably well known within the organisation and specialist skills are often more valued if they seem to come from ‘experts’ outside the organisation. Internal consultants may also be seen as allied with particular factions or approaches and may be regarded with suspicion because of this. Against this, however, the internal consultant already has many internal contacts, knows the systems, procedures, attitudes and values, and so has less groundwork to do than the external consultant may.
• The internal consultant may have reporting relationships with others within their organisation that may make them less ‘free’ to act than an independent consultant from outside would be. The internal consultant may also experience some conflict if their own manager is not the initiator of the particular assignment; the manager and the initiator may have differing interests or demands and, at times, it may be hard for the internal consultant to reconcile these. Of course, being inside an organisation and having established working relationships may also make it easier to get ideas adopted in some instances.
• There are other stakeholders in the internal consultant’s immediate working environment, for example the sponsor or initiator of the project on which they are working, the recipient of the initiative and any others within the organisation who have an interest in the changes being brought about. Although all these people may still have an interest if an external consultant is brought in, the working relationships and personal investments may be substantially different.
• Sometimes there are people referred to as ‘champions’ within an organisation. These are people who either sponsor or, often, are simply extremely supportive of an assignment and do their best to promote it at any opportunity. There can be operational problems if the internal consultant and the project ‘champion’ go around giving different messages, or carrying out overlapping tasks, and this relationship needs to be managed skilfully.
What does an internal consultant need to consider?
Arising from the points above, there are several issues that need to be given attention if an internal consultant is to be successful. These include:
• Having clear role definitions and reporting responsibilities, so it is obvious who is responsible for what and whether the internal consultant is a service provider or a thought leader.
• Knowing who are the important people to deal with and having open access to any people who are important to the conduct of the assignment, even if this would normally be unusual for a person at the consultant’s job level.
• Having open access to any information required for the conduct of the assignment.
• Having all the consultancy skills that apply in any consultancy role, including problem definition, information gathering, analysis, interpersonal and facilitation skills and the ability to present evidence and recommendations and, if appropriate, help ensure implementation.
• Acting as a liaison point with any external consultants so that there is dovetailing of interests and activities.
• Understanding internal political issues and having the sensitivity to take them into account in any work conducted.
• Avoiding being seen as aligned with either management or staff – an independent stance is important if the consultant is to be able to function effectively.
• Marketing internal consultancy services so that they are known about, understood and valued by others within the organisation.
What Do Clients Want from Consultants?
All consultants will tell you their own version of what is important to clients. However hard anyone tries to generalise on this topic, each client is different, each consultant is different and the dynamics between the two will vary according to many different factors. In writing this book, I decided to consult some of my own clients, some other consultants, some consultancy organisations and some users of different consultancy services about what they felt was most important in choosing a consultant and having a client/consultant relationship.
I deliberately left it open for each person to respond in their own way as I did not want to bias their thinking with my own preconceptions about the topic. In the event I obtained an interesting set of opinions. Have a look at the following responses and see how they correspond to your own expectations, or experience, of these issues. Most of the comments relate to management consultancy, but a few are from other fields, and I have given these first:
Medical consultancy
Doctors believe there are three essential elements in a consultant/client (patient) relationship; they are referred to as the three A’s of: • Availability. • Amiability. • Ability.
These three factors are perceived, in the medical profession, as having just that order of importance. In other words, a consultant’s skills are often felt to be less important than their responsiveness to the patient. If they can be contacted easily and develop a good rapport with their patients, their reputation is good. If their ability is excellent, but they are poor at interpersonal relations and hard to get hold of, opinions of them may take a nosedive. Other factors mentioned in the medical context were empathy and listening, patience and transfer of information.
Design consultancy
A key factor here seems to be accessibility. In common with the medical consultants, designers are often expected to be on call 24 hours a day. Because clients often want design work done rapidly, especially in the field of graphic design, a fast turn-around time matters to them. Being available when the client wants you is frequently of prime importance.
IT consultancy
The main points in this kind of technical consultancy seem to be fourfold: a good understanding of the particular client’s problems, experience of the issues raised and their possible solutions, good interpersonal skills in order to get on with clients and not antagonise them and good project management (and, where appropriate, implementation) skills in order to achieve results.
Financial consultancy
In this field, the main needs seem to be for good, speedy and accurate advice, at a price that can be afforded, and a person who will work in the client’s best interests. There was also some perception that, whereas small independent consultants would work for their clients’ interests, the larger consultancies could be more worried about their own reputation than about their clients and, if there were any ‘grey areas’, they could interpret them against their clients’ interests.
General management consultancy
There was a very varied set of responses here. Although some common principles run through most of them, the actual top priorities did vary considerably from client to client. The following are some of the points made by individuals, grouped according to topic. As many of them are from my own clients they may, of course, reflect my own client base rather than consultancy purchasers in general, although I think this is unlikely:
Experience and Expertise
Particular specialist expertise
A good track record to give the client reassurance, and up-to-date experience – including sector experience – are required, although most consultants themselves do not believe that sector experience is so important as long as specialist and process skills are good. Experience may be in paid work or as a consultant; it does not always matter to the client as long as the experience is practical, relevant and up to date.
Having both good process skills and professional subject knowledge
Being able to manage processes and facilitate interactions between people is important. However good the consultant, if they can only offer specialist expertise and not process skills, they are likely not to be favoured. Conversely, knowing their subject well is basic to effectiveness so that process skills are balanced with a depth of knowledge and information about the topic concerned.
Breadth of understanding beyond the client’s own industry and their own experience
Practical experience across a range of contexts is sought after. Although specific sector experience is important, the ability to conceptualise more broadly, and to apply knowledge gained in different contexts, is also valued. This means a balanced approach where there is a focus on more than one element. A real understanding of both the client’s business and of the business world in general is appreciated.
Being good at what they do
Actually delivering results matters. However good a consultant looks and sounds, and however wonderful they make the client feel, business results are what count in the long run.
Credibility
Establishing their credentials for doing the work.
Delivering what they profess to do
Keeping to agreements is important, as is providing everything that has been promised and not just part of the discussed package.
Offering practical solutions and delivery to the business
Past practical experience is seen as a good indication of expertise, and carrying out activities which have a relevance to client needs is important. Being able to give ideas over and above what the client would have thought of is a valued asset. Not just giving off-the-shelf solutions – ‘I have the solution; you must have the problem’ – ‘Been there, done that and got the answer’.
Encouraging client ownership
Being able to leave the client believing they can get on with implementation is vital. It is also important for client staff to see their own view in what the consultant produces.
A balanced approach
Being objective and impartial is another important element. It is good to have personal opinions and ideas, but they need to be kept in perspective and the total context dealt with.
Bringing current best practice to the work area
Keeping up to date and knowing about developments in the particular field is important.
Having appropriate qualifications
One good qualification tends to be seen as better than none, but numerous ones may give the impression of ‘qualification fatigue’. One comment, however, was that it was sometimes difficult for clients to know exactly what qualifications indicated: e.g., is a particular professional body hard to join or is it simply expensive?
Quality assurance
Keeping the people with the purse-strings happy matters. Having a good client list and good qualifications are important factors in this process.
Having basic marketing skills
Being able to demonstrate what makes you different from anyone else, being able to understand the client’s problems and showing the benefits rather than just doing a sales pitch were points made.
Providing a skills transfer to staff
Enabling staff to take responsibility for, and carry out, appropriate activities is appreciated. In other words, allow your skills to be given to others, rather than kept as consultant mystique.
Relationship skills
Some kind of bond
Having a sense of connection. This may mean that the consultant will call just to talk on a personal level, without there necessarily being a work connection. Clients generally need to like the consultant if they are to work with him or her.
Trust
Knowing that the consultant will respect confidentiality, do what has been agreed and act appropriately.
Being a good team player
Being able to get on with client staff and work with any others associated with the assignment is an important element.
