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Mauro Piazzolla
Consultant, Italy
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What are the Skills a Management Consultant Should Have?
Hi everyone! I'm a student and I would like to become a management consultant in the future. What are the hard and the soft skills you think a management consultant must have? Why? Thanks!
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David Leaney
Director, Australia
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Hard and Soft Skills for Management Consulting
Hi Mauro, you've already demonstrated an important skill, which is asking questions. I'd recommend David Maister's books, particularly "The Trusted Advisor". David was a Harvard Business School professor, and a practitioner. Very insightful. You'll get some excellent advice from the other people responding to this post.
I'd highlight a skill that you need for yourself. Consulting as a profession will always take more than you could give. You need to manage your own time and commitments so you don't burn out. Set some boundaries for your time and energy, and take a sustainable approach. I've been a management consultant for 25 years, and I haven't always got that right.
In terms of client skills, a balance between diplomacy and candidness is key. You need to be able to provide "frank and fearless" objective and independent advice, but balance that against what is going to work, and delivering the message in a way that will be accepted. You need to be pragmatic and think about what the client's capability is to implement your recommendations. Good luck.
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Bernhard Keim
Business Consultant, Germany
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The Problem and its Solution are Always Owned by the Client
Don't push a solution to the client. Just offer him insights. He, not you is in charge to accept or reject them.
Read a good introduction into philosophy and learn proper reasoning.
Strongly recommended: Peter Block: "Flawless Consulting" and consultation books by Edgar Schein. Why are these books on process consulting so important? They teach you proper understanding of complex social systems and how to intervene to make change happen. Your future clients don't need a cook who cooks for them, but someone who teaches them cooking.
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claudio pizzi
Business Consultant, Argentina
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Skills you Need as a Management Consultant
Hello Mauro. I have detected three essential skills that a consultant should have to do a good job in a company.
First. Be clear about the differences between "causes and effects" and be able to make a good diagnosis.
Second, be a very good communicator.
Third. Develop skills to anticipate problems.
I hope the answer will serve you. Best regards.
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David Gachoki
Entrepreneur, Kenya
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Skills for Management Consultants
Having practized Management Consultancy over the years I find the following skills coming in handy.
1. Getting clarity on what the client wants and expects and discuss what your intended solution could be and how you intend to go about it.
2. Understanding all involved in the cause of the situation calling for the consultancy and all that shall be involved in the recommended solutions and ensuring you get their view point about the issue at hand so you provide a perspective of all in the proposed solutions with clear cascaded responsibilities by all.
3. Be bold on the solutions without being held back by those who may be displeased by the recommended solutions.
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David Hume, United Kingdom
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Consultancy Skills
My first piece of advice would be to gain meaningful working management experience in an organisation. If you are thoughtful and reflective as you gain that experience, you can develop firstly the understanding of what it takes and what it means to effect change in an organisation or team, then gradually add the many skills that will enable you to help clients move forward to a better place.
Already mentioned above are diagnostic skills, of which listening skills and questioning are key, you also need to have a wide repertoire of interpersonal and influencing skills to allow you to adapt to the different needs of clients, feedback skills and the assertiveness to give possibly unwelcome advice (although as Berhard Keim notes above, in most situations it is ultimately the client's responsibility to act or not).
You can't learn integrity, your reputation follows your work, but you can address any deficits in many skills and areas of understanding. Interpersonal relationships are not one-size-fits all - you may need to adopt different approaches with different clients. This is why in my view you should build enough experience and the learning that should come from that before you dive in to help others! Hope this helps. David Hume (retired management consultant).
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Chris Blackman
Business Consultant, Australia
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Essential Consulting Skills
Above all, you need an impeccable command of the language, both written and oral.
For a beginners "how to" primer, personally, I would sidestep the Peter Block book and start with Alan Weiss "Getting Started in Consulting" - the fourth edition is about to be published.
I have nothing against "Flawless Consulting" but I don't think it's helpful to someone starting out. Read both, by all means, but read Alan Weiss first.
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David Wilson
Manager, Canada
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Skills Required for Management Consulting
Hi Mauro: I agree with Bernhard. His reference to Peter Block's book is a very good starting point.
In addition, I suggest you need to listen to your clients and understand their "real" needs.
You also need to be able to say "no" to a client, should circumstances ever require you to make a tough decision. Your reputation as a honest and fair individual is what will ensure you are respected and valued as a management consultant.
You also need to decide whether you will work as an internal or external management consultant.
Finally, I would suggest you learn about time management, policy and process development, work flow charting and report writing. Regards, David.
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David Stehlik
Professor, United States
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Yes, and There's More Light to Shed on the Challenge of that Advice
@Akintunde Olusegun: This is a general challenge within consulting - selling the truth you're saying. It requires courage and a commitment to truth over emotions, but it cannot disregard the very real emotions that drive decision-making. Consultants need to be technically and people-savvy. This is what we said above in regard to communication.
You can further tie this into understanding global cultural differences. Consider the Hofstede dimensions, for instance. If you're a consultant from a high-context culture, and you have a project operating within a low-context culture, then you need to understand whether it's important or not to translate more than mere words in your client engagement. For those familiar with translation work, sometimes you translate word-for-word. Other times you need to translate idea-for-word because the original text's language uses a word for which the new text's language doesn't have the same verbal flexibility. Thus, you need to use a comparable idea to ensure the translation is more faithful to the original author's intention. In consulting, you need to have an ear for the information and also for the hearts of those individuals requesting and receiving the information. This requires a commitment to get to know the client - not to be their friend - but to truly become the kind of advisor who can have "their best" in mind during the engagement.
This approach is a bit different for the small firm consultant and the large firm consultant, and why personal ethics can shine more brightly in the small firms, IMO. Large firms experience complex competing interests, and their huge fees funnel clients. Smaller firms regularly have to work on client development, and so more values-alignment between the firm and the client occurs. They won't select a compromising client. Large firms are often searched out, and often their competency to produce profitability, not values-orientation proves determitive.
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Akintunde Olusegun
Consultant, Nigeria
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What are the Skills a Management Consultant Should Have?
In addition to the view expressed by others, management consultants must have unalloyed honesty and uncompromised integrity to their deliverables to the clients. They must also avoid unnecessary famil (...)
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David Stehlik
Professor, United States
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What Management Consulting is - and How it Proceeds
Mauro posits a dichotomy of hard/soft, into which most of the recommendations can separated. Here, I'll focus on the perceived "softer" communication side, but use the "harder" technique side to examp (...)
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