Anuj Thakur Consulting Skills 9th Oct 2011

Consulting is all about giving advice or showing the way for e.g. if someone ask us the way to a particular place and we tell him the same then it is his choice or decision to follow that advice from me or not. Consultants navigate the client to his arrival point from the departure by showing him the way regarding the same.

Anil Sir explained why the first meeting with the client is very important because in consulting first impression is the last impression stands very tall so Consultants should dress up in a very professional way and should take care of how they walk, talk present and even how and what they eat.

Consultants

·          should have high resilience so that they can be patient listener

·          should be very mindful so that they can understand what their client is really talking about  

·          should have good communication

·          should have done all the research regarding the client and its industry

·          should be able to structure the interaction and the way the formal discussion takes place

These qualities are a must because these are the prerequisite to become a good and a professional consultant since lack of any one of these can lead the engagement with the client to all new problems. Anil Sir also told about the 5very important question which a good consultant should ask the client

1.        What are we trying to do?

2.        How will we know that we are successful?

3.        What would go wrong?

4.        What counter measure do we take responsibility for?

5.        Who, how often, when, where is the review process?

These questions guide the Consultant to understand the issues its clients are facing.

Role reversal is the way in which consultants understand the issues or the problems Client is facing but they are not able to understand by getting into their shoes and vice versa. We all were divided in groups of 8 participants and were asked by Anil Sir to practice this exercise and discuss all the possible solutions to the live scenario faced by him in one of his assignment.  Relationship building is very important part of consulting which help consultants to break the ice and help to deliver the best results.

There are three types of consulting

1.        Working as an expert

2.        Working for client

3.        Working with client

Anil sir explained that working with the client is the best way to follow since it gives the Client confidence and understanding that the consultant is very much interested and involved in the assignment.