Which Of These Three Consulting Roles Do You Take With Your Clients?

Do you know that David "Screaming Lord" Sutch, as leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party in Great Britain, was the longest serving party leader until he hung himself in June 1999? This fascinating fact may seem to be irrelevant on the surface, but it can be important for you if you consider how many consultants are quietly hanging themselves by having confused notions about how to work with their clients. And instead of working WITH their clients as peers, they often end up working FOR their clients as subordinates. They have serious positioning issues. In 2002 as I was going through my Certified Management Consultant accreditation, in the course material we had a section on why companies hire consultants. The number one reason was: "Lack of muscle power to perform tasks." Based on conventional wisdom, buyers hire consultants when you have neither manpower nor inclination to do certain work, and get some consultants to do it FOR you. Originally the idea behind consulting was about giving advice and guidance for clients, so they can solve their own problems better, more quickly and more effectively. It was about giving clients new perspectives, skills and  tools, so by hiring consultants once, they can both solve their existing problems and learn from the consultants how to do it the next time without re-hiring them. Then came the gigantic accounting firms who poked their noses into business consulting and ended consulting as we knew it. These large firms re-shaped consulting and turned it into situational elbow grease. Instead of helping their clients to solve their own problems, that is, teaching them how to fish, they started contracting themselves out as outsourced labourers, doing work for their clients, that is, catching a fish. This approach worked, and still works for these behemoths because they can come to their clients with legions of junior staff to do all sorts of work. And since many of them charge hourly rates, the idea is to scoop up as much work as possible at competitive hourly rates, and then descend armies of inexperienced juniors on their clients and do the work that clients could easily do for themselves. Let's not go into the damage and disasters they have caused to their clients over the years by disempowering them, but instead let's discover what roles are open to consultants in their client work, depending on how they want to position themselves. They have different levels of "catching fish for clients" and "teaching clients how to fish" components. Role of "The Expert" This is actually what buyers say to consultants: "We have this big, hairy, ugly problem, but we have neither the time nor the inclination to solve it. So just come and do it FOR me. Do whatever it takes, and keep me informed, but don't hassle us with the details and don't waste our resources. You are responsible for everything and I will judge you at the end." So, let's see where the relationship falls flat on its face. Buyers remain passive throughout engagements, and dump all responsibility and a little bit of authority on consultants. Consultants accept the role and do the work. Every now and then they ask for some assistance from buyers, but basically they do clients' projects using their own resources. The control of implementation is in the consultant's hands. The buyer is barely involved. There is no collaboration, for the expert is supposed to solve the problem without "bothering" the buyer with the details. There is no transition of skills, for the emphasis is on quick fix. The buyer's role in this kind of "relationship" is to judge the consultant after the event. The problem with the expert role is that it overlooks the human element of problems, that is, the commitment of people at the client's organisation. People say: "If it were important enough for us to get involved, the boss would be involved too." In this role consultants become independent. Typical expert roles are that of many lawyers, accountants, web designers and engineers. They basically say: "My trade is so complex that no ordinary mortal would understand it anyway, so you'd better get out of my way and let me do it FOR you." Role of "The Hired Gun" If the role of the expert is not bad enough, the role of the hired gun is even worse. This is actually what buyers say to hired guns: "I have this big, hairy, ugly problem, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to solve it for myself. I know what to do and how to do it, so as long as you are cheap enough, come in and do it as per my instructions." In this "relationship" buyers retain total control and expect hired guns to passively react to buyers' demands. Buyers make every decision and define every step of the project. Buyers take full control of the project, but dump full responsibility on their hired guns. The client's mantra is: "I'm in charge and you're fully responsible for the results." But separating control and responsibility is like a virgin hooker, an oxymoron. So, if the buyer makes the wrong diagnosis, and something misfires as a result, the consultant gets blamed for all the adverse effects. Mind you, when the project pans out nicely, the buyer is likely to take credit for everything, since he is the mastermind behind the whole gig, whereas the consultant was just a workhorse to do the brawn work. In these situations consultants hardly ever recommend anything, for they reactively follow buyers' instructions. There is no collaboration but a very rigid master-slave relationship. While in the "Expert" situation the buyer inspects and judges the consultant's work at the end of the assignment, in the "hired gun" role the buyer very closely scrutinises the consultant's work. Questions like: "Can you do it faster?", "Do we really need that?", "Can you save money on this and that?" and "Can you work on it over the weekend?" are pretty common. Buyers' commitment is fairly low, and they expect consultants to produce "miracles". Buyers know all they have to do is to bark orders and crack their whips, and their well-trained consultants, on short leashes, will sit, lie or even fetch small logs. Typical hired gun roles are that of many IT consultants, web designers, graphics artists. They basically say: "I don't care about your objectives and goals. Here is your computer, website or a logo, give me your money and get lost. So, they position themselves as competitively priced contract labourers. Role of "The Collaborator" This kind of relationship is based on mutual trust, respect and the notion that clients' issues can be solved by synergistically blending clients' content skills with consultants' process skills. Buyers in collaborative relationships fully understand the "you get what you pay for" and "What you put in is what you get out" adages. Consultants empower and enable buyers and their people to solve their own problems leveraging on consultants' skills, resources and connections. Buyers' people are actively involved in projects at every single stage. Buyers and consultants become interdependent. They share accountability, risks, however, final responsibility lies with buyers, for they make the final decision. The need for control disappears and gets replaced by joint decision making. Both parties have the right to suggest, recommend, provoke, object and argue. This is the only relationship that has the vision for long-term, that is, to solve problems, so they remain solved, and, hopefully, never surface again. This is the only relationship that can also raise standards, instead of merely restoring the status quo. On Summary Consulting at its best is a collaborative process. You can do it only WITH clients not FOR, TO or AT them.  Ideally, consulting firms should provide one single consultant to guide the client's team through the improvement process. One single consultant works with the client's internal implementing team, with the buyer's constant involvement. And the good news is that if you practise value-pricing, you can still charge for the value you bring to the table. As a consultant, you're still a conduit to higher profits, lower costs, higher talent retention, lower client attrition, better brand, higher reputation, better media appearances, etc. And this is what matter not the number of hours. As Jim Rohn says, "Nobody can do your push-ups for you", so make sure you show your clients how to do a push-up and then you let your clients do them, so they can get better as a result of doing it. 2009-05-04T12:54:05Z

2009-05-04T17:44:47Z