Yash Dogra_Consulting_Oct'11

Consulting is a process to give advice to someone and whoever gives advice is a consultant like physician, lawyer, teacher etc. One important aspect of a consultant is to be authoritative without having authority. The job of a consultant is to provide solutions and it is client’s responsibility to implement the solution.  Client knows what the departure and arrival pint for a problem is and a consultant’s job is to help client to navigate to the destination. I learnt the following main aspects of consulting:

• First meeting with the client is very important as it makes or breaks the contract.
• Our body language like posture, gesture, dressing etc. should be good as it makes our first impression in from of the client.

The consultant should show a genuine interest in the client’s problem and should step in his shoes. He should ask open ended questions with an intention to understand the main pain area of his organization. A consultant must possess these qualities - understanding the problem of client and what he is saying, a structured approach, listening with patience, good communication and articulating skills, a good homework of the organization

A consultant should use these 5 questions to understand the problem:

1)      What are you trying to do?

2)      What are the outcomes that will testify whether we are successful or not?

3)      What would go wrong?

4)      What countermeasures do we take responsibility for?

5)      What and how often is the review process?

We should make sure that these questions are answered correctly and we have all the information related to these questions. We should be at a binding terms with the client to solve the problem collaboratively.  If there is any confusion we can play role reversal in which client and consultant changes the role. Another important thing for a consultant is to maintain a good relationship with the clients. We should break the ice by enjoying the people around us and the environment, being curious to what people says, being attentive and respectful to the person and always asking open ended questions. After a relationship is developed with the client, a consultant needs to add value to the work. A consultant should fill the gap between value creation and value realization by using an authentic behaviour. A consultant should learn how to say no and should show the right picture to the client. A consultant should understand the problem by having answers to these question like  what the problem appears to be, what is others contribution and clients contribution to the problem. Consulting can be in three ways:

1.       As an expert

2.       For client

3.       With client

The best is working with client in which accountability of both is equal. Feedback is also very important as we can reflect back and can understand which areas are needed more attention.