What is a consultant supposed to do?

In a nutshell, consultants provide expert opinions, analyses and recommendations to organizations or individuals, based on their own experience. Essentially, they are objective problem solvers and provide strategies to prevent problems and improve performance. With strong customer participation throughout the process, there will be plenty of opportunities to help members identify learning needs. Often, a consultant can suggest or help design opportunities to learn about work planning methods, work group assignments, goal-setting processes, etc.

While the effective professional is concerned with executive learning throughout the hiring process, it would be wise not to cite it as an explicit objective. Managers may not like the idea of being “taught to manage”. Talking too much about customer learning seems presumptuous, and it is. In short, consultants solve complex business problems using their experience and knowledge in specific industries or functions.

This can range from reducing costs to increasing sales or evaluating a new market that the customer is considering entering. Consultancies don't exist without clients, so a significant amount of time is spent generating new business. As you develop and move up the consulting hierarchy, you'll spend more time attracting new clients or selling projects to existing ones. As a younger consultant, you're expected to help with some research, calculating numbers, or developing presentation materials.

Be a team player Developing a collaborative relationship with colleagues and clients is imperative to being a great consultant. Working well with other people not only strengthens your skills, but it can also allow your consultancy to grow. It is also due to my experience supervising beginning consultants and to the many conversations and partnerships I have had with consultants and clients in the United States and abroad. Reasons such as “my client lacks the capacity or courage to take the necessary measures” or “this consultant did not help translate the objectives into action” are given.

Many consultants will be able to help you determine the scope and budget of your project as part of a free consultation. These business consultants take inventory of your current business model and discover the best way to produce the same high-quality results at a fraction of the cost and time. This interaction can also help you test things out and determine if the consultant is right for your company's needs. It is common for consultants to share and develop knowledge within the company by publishing work in an internal knowledge database of the company or presenting to their colleagues the lessons learned in consulting contracts.

Too often, it's the customer who most needs help defining the real problem; in fact, some authorities argue that executives who can pinpoint the roots of their problems don't need management consultants at all. When listening to a client's concerns about a department, the consultant must relate them to what is happening elsewhere. While you can hire an independent professional, you can also hire the services of a specialized firm for your consulting needs. Typical salaries for consultants don't vary much between companies and only change slightly from year to year.

In the same way that consultants help define the problem, they also help to achieve consensus around the solution. Therefore, a useful consulting process involves working with the problem as defined by the client in such a way that more useful definitions naturally arise as hiring progresses. Consultants facilitate learning by including members of the organization in task processes. In addition to the numerous types of consulting, there is also a need to consider the size of the consultancy firm to join.

With the variety of responsibilities and day-to-day projects, attractive salaries and continuous learning, a career in consulting can certainly be attractive...