Consultant Recruitment Agency
Introduction
Consultancy is a career field that has emerged and grown rapidly in recent decades. As businesses and organizations became more complex, specialized and competitive, the need for expert guidance has become increasingly important. The role of a consultant is to provide objective advice, specialized knowledge and skills, and help businesses and organizations improve their performance. But what does it really mean to be a consultant, and what skills and qualities do successful consultants possess?
What is a consultant?
Consultants are professionals who are hired by businesses, governments, and organizations to advise on issues ranging from strategy, management, and finance to marketing, technology, and operations. A consultant’s job is to provide expert advice, solutions, and recommendations based on their skills, knowledge, and experience. Consultants work on a project basis, and their work may span from a few days to several months or even years. They can work independently or as part of a consulting firm.
What are the key skills and qualities of successful consultants?
Successful consultants possess a wide range of skills and qualities that set them apart from others. These include:
1. Communication skills
Effective communication is a fundamental skill that is essential to the success of a consultant. Consultants need to be able to communicate ideas, solutions, and recommendations in a clear, concise and compelling manner. They must be able to develop rapport with clients, understand their needs, and tailor their communication style accordingly. They must also be able to listen actively, ask relevant questions, and provide feedback as necessary.
2. Analytical skills
Consultants must possess strong analytical skills to be able to understand and solve complex problems. They must be able to gather and analyze data, identify trends, and develop insights and recommendations based on the information they have collected. They must be able to think critically, identify patterns and connections, and use logic and reasoning to develop solutions.
3. Problem-solving skills
One of the primary roles of a consultant is to help clients solve problems. Successful consultants must be able to identify problems, analyze their root causes, and develop solutions that are effective, feasible and sustainable. They must be able to think creatively, generate new ideas, and take calculated risks to achieve results. They must also be able to work well under pressure and remain calm and composed in high-stress situations.
4. Flexibility and adaptability
Consultants must be able to adapt to changing circumstances and be flexible enough to adjust their approach as necessary. They must be able to work with individuals and teams from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and levels of experience. They must be able to develop and maintain positive relationships with clients, stakeholders, and team members. They must also be able to manage their time effectively and prioritize tasks to meet deadlines and deliver high-quality work.
5. Technical expertise
Consultants must possess specialized knowledge and expertise in their area of practice. They must be up-to-date on the latest developments and trends in their field and be able to apply this knowledge to help clients achieve their goals. They must be able to use various tools and technologies to analyze data, communicate ideas, and manage projects. They must also be able to train and educate clients on how to use these tools and technologies effectively.
What are some common misconceptions about consultants?
There are many misconceptions about consultants that persist despite evidence to the contrary. These include:
1. Consultants are expensive
While it is true that consultants charge fees for their services, the value they provide can far outweigh the cost. Consultants can help businesses and organizations save money, increase efficiency, and improve their performance, which can lead to higher profits and greater success over time.
2. Consultants only work on big projects
Consultants work on projects of all sizes, from small business owners to large corporations. They can work on short-term projects or provide ongoing support as needed.
3. Consultants tell clients what to do
While consultants provide expert advice and recommendations, they do not make decisions on behalf of their clients. The ultimate decision-making authority remains with the client, and consultants are there to support and guide them in making informed decisions.
4. Consultants are only for struggling businesses
Consultants can be valuable for businesses at any stage of growth or success. They can help businesses identify new opportunities, navigate complex challenges, and stay competitive in a rapidly changing business environment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, consultants play a vital role in helping businesses and organizations achieve their goals through expert advice, specialized knowledge, and skillful guidance. Successful consultants possess a range of skills and qualities that enable them to provide effective solutions to complex problems. While there are many misconceptions about consultants, understanding their role and the value they provide can help businesses make informed decisions about whether to engage their services.
A consultant (from Latin: consultare “to deliberate”) is a professional (also known as expert, specialist, see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization.
Consulting services generally fall under the domain of professional services, as contingent work. A consultant is employed or involved in giving professional advice to the public or to those practicing the profession.
The Harvard Business School provides a more specific definition of a consultant as someone who advises on “how to modify, proceed in, or streamline a given process within a specialized field”.
In his book, The Consulting Bible, Alan Weiss defines that “When we walk away from a client, the client’s conditions should be better than it was before we arrived or we’ve failed.” There is no legal protection given to the job title ‘consultant’.
According to Institute of Management Consultants USA, “The value of a consultant [as compared to a Subject-matter expert (SME)] is to be able to correctly diagnose and effectively transform an often ill-defined problem and apply information, resources and processes to create a workable and usable solution. Some experts are good consultants and vice versa, some are neither, few are both.” Another differentiation would be that a consultant sells advice, whereas an expert sells their expertise. Other differentiations exist for Consultants vs. Coaches or SMEs vs. Team Leaders.
Consultants do not have to be subject-matter experts as consulting agreements are a form of labor contract – comparable to staffing, which a client procures for more generalized labor, whereas consulting is for more specialized labor. Thus, in contrast to advisory services, which is not a labor contract but an actual service (advisory services never become part of the procuring organization) the market for consulting agreements follows the demand for specialized labor in the form of a consulting procurement, and so while competence and experience is naturally an advantage for when looking to sell consulting services, it is not a prerequisite in the same way that it is for advisory services where the service provider per definition relies on some level of competence and experience for its relevance.
Sometimes, the word consultant applies specifically to someone or organization that provides knowledge, advice or service; whereas the contractor builds something for the client.
A study found that business consultants maintain a very humble approach in their partnership with the client and believe that the ultimate goal is to make the customer move forward. Further, consultants are conscious in amount of control and discretion which comes from the customer and understand that criticism of their role is part of the work and sometimes even justified.
The role of a consultant outside the medical sphere (where the term is used specifically for a grade of doctor) can fall under one of two general categories:
Traditionally, through the act of procuring consulting services, clients may acquire access to higher grades of expertise than would be financially feasible for them to retain in-house on a long-term basis. Moreover, clients can control their expenditures on consulting services by only purchasing as much services from the outside consultant as desired. Additionally, consultants are key persons with specific domain-skills in creating strategies, leading change (e.g. digitalization), leadership coaching, interim management (also called consultant manager), etc.
Another business-case is that a consultant may save the company money: for example, a specialist tax-consultant who saves the company 20% on its taxes, and only charges 10% in fees, enables the company to net a 10% savings. A portion of professional services in demand for clients are simply not necessary to retain in house, as they may be sporadic in nature, at which a consultant offers a reduction in payroll for the client.
In the UK government sector, since 2010 the Cabinet Office has required government departments to implement spending controls which restrict the appointment of consultants and temporary staff in order to regulate consultancy expenditure and ensure that the use of consultants offers value for money. A National Audit Office report published in 2015 recommended that all UK government departments adopt a “strategic plan” to assess their current skills and expected “skill gaps”, so that their future need for consultants and temporary staff could be better predicted.
Consultants provide their services to their clients in a variety of forms. Reports and presentations are often used. Advice can be general (high degree of quality of communication) and also domain-focused. However, in some specialized fields, the consultant may develop as well as implement customized software or other products for the client. Depending on the nature (also named mandate or statement of work or assignment) of the consulting services and the wishes of the client, the advice from the consultant may be made public, by placing the report or presentation online, or the advice may be kept confidential (under a Non-disclosure agreement or within the clients-company), and only given to the senior executives of the organization.
Consultants work for (consulting) firms or as freelance contractors. A consultant differs from a temporary worker insofar as she or he has, as detailed above, a highly specialized career and domain knowledge. This could be true for a temporary worker too, however, for example a medical consultant is unlikely to suddenly become a hotel receptionist, whereas a temporary worker might change domains and branches more frequently. Furthermore, a consultant usually signs a service-type employee contract (known as fixed-term, full-time, part-time), whereas a temporary worker will only be offered a temporary (and scope limited) contract or a work-results type contract (e. g. in Germany a specific type of contract called Werksvertrag) to fulfill or create a specific work. Additionally, a temporary worker might be directed and managed by a client, whereas a consultant is employed by a company (or self) and provides services for a client. The consultant may not be provided work-related instruments or tools, but only the necessary infrastructure and accesses the consultant needs to fulfill the statement of work, e. g. access to internal IT networks or client-side laboratory. Moreover, a consultant might engage in multi-project services (matrix organization) for the client or for internal projects/activities at the employer firm.
The consultant’s career path is usually not at the client’s side, however the consultant will very likely be introduced into the client’s organizational program or project structure.
Novel collaborations of expert-contractors or independent consultants especially in ICT sector exist, e.g. ThoughtWorks.
A consultant’s activity can last anywhere from an hourly consultation, to a one-day service, three months, 12 months or more. For complex projects, a longer period is needed for the consultant to analyze, resolve the root cause, get to know the stakeholders and organizational-situation, etc. Usually the engagement has set legal boundaries under given law to avoid (specifically for freelance-contractors) the problem of false self-employment (see also Umbrella company). The person at client location is sometimes called a Resident. By spending time at the client’s organization, the consultant is able to observe work processes, interview workers, managers, executives, board members, or other individuals, and study how the organization operates to provide hers or his services.
In some settings, a consultant is signing a specific contract and is hired as an interim manager or executive with advanced authority or shared responsibility or decision making of client-side activities, filling a vacant position which could and cannot be filled with an internal candidate. This is often the case by the client-organization due to other constraints, such as corporate compliance and HR-processes, which lead to prolonged hiring paths beyond six months, which is often inacceptable for leadership roles.
Research and analysis can occur at the consultants’ offices (sometimes called back office) or home-offices or via remote work. In the case of smaller consulting firms, consultants typically work at the site of the client for at least some of the time. The governing factor on where a consultant works tends to be the amount of interaction required with other employees of the client. If a management consultant is providing advice to a software firm that is struggling with employee morale, absenteeism and issues with resignation by managers and senior engineers, the consultant will probably spend a good deal of time at the client’s office, interviewing staff, engineers, managers and executives, and observing work processes. On the other hand, a legal consultant asked to provide advice on a specific property law issue might only have a few meetings at the client’s office, and conduct the majority of his work at the consultant’s office and in legal libraries.
Similarly, the growth of online, highly skilled consultant freelance marketplaces has begun to grow.
Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in remote work and demand for online-work skills to continue business or operations.
Also known as ICUs – Internal Consulting Units, which are departments or specialists groups created by or maintained by usually larger companies for their own consulting service needs along the business chain. ICUs might be internal or own-run businesses.
The following qualities are found to be helpful for a successful consulting career.
From Accenture blog, one of the main IT consultancies in the world, the following factors play an important role:
Bronnenmayer et al. investigated, by applying a structural equation model, and due to little empirical research, the management consulting’s success factors from a client perspective. It is found that Consultant Expertise, Intensity of Collaboration and Common Vision have strongest performance impact on success.
Sindermann and Sawyer conclude in their book The Scientist as Consultant, that a consultant is successful, if she or he has “achieved a viable mix of technical proficiency and business skills” with “technical proficiency” meaning excellence in competence, credibility, effective networking with colleagues, and ability to negotiate.
According to management consultant Dirk Hartel, the following ten objectives or rules are key to a successful consulting career:
Consultants are often outsiders to the client organization. On one hand, this means their work methods, expertise, behaviors, etc. differ from the client-employees and organizational, and is exactly what the client needs, however it can also be a considerable disadvantage for a successful engagement and may lead to a less intimate cooperation with the client’s business.
Next to general challenges, domain-specific challenges for consultants exist. In palliative medicine consulting, emotions, beliefs, sensitive topics, difficulty communicating and prognosis interpretation, or patients expectations despite critical illness are some of the challenges faced by the consultant.
According to Kelman, “One danger is that [the counselor] does not recognize the control that he is exercising over the client’s behavior. The other is that he is so convinced that he is doing good for the client that he does not realize the double-edged nature of the control he is exercising.” A consultant therefore needs to be aware and in control of her or his manipulative influences in particular counseling settings.
Hartel mentions several challenges that are based on the types of consultants, including a consultant in a short-term role, as integrator, as driver, as project manager or methodology guru, know-how expert, or as scapegoat.
In case of consultant as integrator, the consultant has the challenging task to resolve, negotiate, facilitate, mediate political situations in companies to move forward, such as different opinions, critical characters (persons), difficult relationships or interfaces, goal conflicts, power games, etc.
In case of consultant as scapegoat, the consultant, who is external to the company, is the one to announce difficult company decisions such as layoffs or reorganizations, but it is important that the consultant acts professional and competent, not just as “Rambo in suit”.
Consultants may face several organizational challenges, e. g. internal consultants are faced with the paradoxes to maintain a good balance between knowing the internal company structure and at the same time staying neutral and objective, keeping a marginal position between the client and the provided service. Further, depending on the hiring company’s understanding how to work with a consultant, the consultant might be seen as disruption to the inhouse employees status.
General issues faced by a consultant can be stress, productivity issues with meetings, general “technostresses”, high-paced and changing business environments and situations, etc.
In case of corporate and industrial consultants, the role is further challenged to act and become the “translator of information” from various different client-company cultures and procedures (processes) and between her or his employer-side team, managers and leadership team. What is an important goal to the current client is usually not similar for any other client due to multiple variations in company size, history, product, program, organizational structure, leadership, etc. Hence the consultant must be excellent in sensing and communicating between different layers in the organization and further across it, while maintaining authenticity, integrity and trustworthiness with all parties involved.
Independent consultants (contractors or freelancer) usually need to fulfil taxation requirements given by laws, specifically challenging employment status to avoid ‘disguised’ employment.
Compared to contracting, consulting can be seen as being “in business in your own right”, not controlled by your client, etc. placing a consultant “well outside” of e. g. IR35.
Alan Weiss provides 20 “factors” for consultants in the US (IRS), which are similar in other countries, to avoid or understand in terms of their business activity. Amongst those, the consultant is not supposed to be instructed by the client, should not receive similar training as employees, has the right to sub-contract, should not be integrated into the organizational structure, etc. to avoid legal-status and taxation issues.
There is no single qualification to becoming a consultant, other than those laid down in relation to medical, psychological and engineering personnel who have attained this level-degree in it or professional licenses, such as Chartered Engineer.
Consultants may hold undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, professional degrees or professional designations pertaining to their field(s) of expertise. In some fields, a consultant may be required to hold certain professional licenses (e.g., a civil engineer providing consulting on a bridge project may have to be a professional engineer). In other types of consulting, there may be no specific qualification requirements. A legal consultant may have to be a member of the bar or hold a law degree. An accounting consultant may have to have an accounting designation, such as Chartered Accountant status. Some individuals become consultants after a lengthy and distinguished career as an executive or political leader or employee, so their lengthy and exposed experience may be their main asset.
Various accreditation bodies for consultants exist today:
Accredited practitioners in all fields (incl. medical) can be bound by a Code of Ethics or Code of Conduct.
Ethics in the field of business consulting and organizations is still a subject under research.
A thorough discussion of ethics in the field of consultation is given in Lippitt & Lippitt (see also 2nd edition in English). Here the authors mention several guidelines and definitions including Shay, the Association of Consulting Management Engineers (1966), American Society for Training and Development (1977), Academy of Management (1976) and conclude their own codex with the following attributes (see below). Additionally, the authors mention the difficulty in applying the codex and scenarios of how to track adherence and how to judge violations in accordance with other bodies, such as APA (American Psychological Association) and CSPEC (or CSCE) (Committee on Scientific and Professional Ethics) and conclude that “The most important aspect in the formulation of a code of conduct however, is the recognition of a fundamental moral standard. Only then is compliance with the rules guaranteed.”
There exist various forms, types and areas or industries of consultants. The following list provides some examples:
Further prominent thinkers are also listed in the Strategy portal.