7 qualities of an effective consultant.

In my article on 8 things that a consultant can do for you, I explained that a consultant must have an area of expertise.

The expertise can come from education, experience and personal skills.

The consultant should be ready to use his expertise to educate, motivate and solve his client challenges objectively within a limited time frame.

The aim of this article is to present 7 qualities of an effective consultant.

Indeed,  there are qualities that a consultant must have to be very effective. Some consultants possess all the qualities and others can develop ones that is lacking in them. These qualities are explained below:

1. Professional

Consultants should hold themselves to the highest standards of ethics, confidentiality and integrity to be effective.

Being a consultant, one may come across much information about one’s client, it is necessary to treat them confidentially in order to earn the client’s trust.

The effective consultant will hold on to best practices, always ready to go beyond the expected, refused to be ruffled and always looking calm.

It is important for consultants to understand the responsibilities of their role, as well as the practices and parameters of the engagement.

Some clients may have different opinion of the role of a consultant, it is necessary to clarify the client’s expectation and deliverables right from the beginning of the engagement.

Some clients expect the consultant to be a god and recommend solutions that will fix everything that is wrong with their organization; others expect one to be nothing much more than a glorified mechanic called in to fix the machine.

Clarifying what you can and cannot do, and what you are willing to do, are paramount concerns before commencing work.

Without being professional, a consultant can easily begin to behave like an employee, this can backfire and create a negative situation for the engagement and damage the consultant’s credibility.

2. Have a good rapport with clients

An effective consultant must be committed to creating a meaningful impact with his work by operating professionally in all his/her client engagements.

This will enhance his/her opportunities to produce results that are outstanding.

A consultant must ask the client the right question and listen intently in order to avoid spending resources (time and money) on wrong priorities.

A consultant must establish great rapport with clients and get along with them.

You may have an excellent idea; it is not so much about what you say but how you say it that matters.

It is necessary that a consultant understands the client’s business and operations in order to produce the right and workable solution.

For example, “I don’t know”  may be the correct answer to a client’s question but “I do not know, but I know people who do know” is a better answer to the question.

Thus, a consultant must be passionate and pragmatic to have good rapport with clients. An effective consultant will try to contact another consultant that can help the client.

An effective consultant like any other consultant serves he client by doing the necessary to identify their needs, provide and implement the right solution. This is critical to success but it necessary to present the solution and manage all the activities in the engagement professionally.

3. Ability to diagnose problems and find solutions.

Primarily, a consultant is engaged to find solutions to the client’s challenges.

Therefore the consultant’s ability to diagnose the problem correctly is extremely important because he/she must explain to his/her client that there is the need for him to explore the problem before starting to solve it and this may lead to redefining the problem as the study proceeds.

In order to provide a good solution, the consultant is required to have good judgment when different solutions to a problem and should not jump to conclusions.

A consultant should take time to diagnose the problem, consider the facts and get feedback from their peers and management before reaching a decision.

This will lead to suggesting the right solution to the real problem that the client has.

The solution is provided in the form of findings and recommendations. The consultant may be involved in the implementation of the solution in order to enable the consultant to translate his recommendations into action plan, identify its impact on the organization and if need be amend where necessary.

4. Expert Knowledge

Clients engage external consultants to solve their challenges because the client expects the client to have expert knowledge to solve the problem and make a major contribution for the benefit of the client.

An effective consultant will have a broad level of knowledge in the area of expertise and is ready to research more to find the right solution.

The effective consultant is always current by gathering information (by reading newspapers, journals, magazines, informative websites), through networking with fellow consultants, know how to apply theory into practice and be skillful in using appropriate tools to function efficiently in the engagement.

5. Good Communication Skills

The main function of a consultant is to provide information for their clients and this is the main reason the client is requesting his/her service.

Therefore, the consultant should have excellent oral and written communication skills.

Also, the effective consultant must have effective presentation skills.

For a consultant to communicate effectively, he/she must know the language and terms widely used in the client’s organization.

It is also necessary that he understands the operational terms in the organization.

The effective consultant communicates to the client in a language and form that they can understand.

6. Resource Management skills

There are many resources involved in a consultant’s engagement such as time, people, and money and so on.

An effective consultant must have good resources management skills to reduce waste and utilize the resources optimally.

Consultants should look for ways to adjust their work style to accommodate the schedule, budget and overall requirements of their engagement.

This is particularly true when faced with pressure to maintain high quality performance within finite time and budget constraints.

On managing people, the consultant must be a good team player.

Consultants must demonstrate that they are team players and are willing to learn from team members, genuinely valuing the input and expertise of others.

It is important to establish a collaborative relationship with peers.

An effective consultant must be resourceful. Due to the face that, the consultant may not be an expert in all aspects of an engagement, he/she must know when to enlist help from other consultants, bring in reinforcements and where to go to find them.

This is the reason consultants actively maintain a network of talented people in their area of expertise and in other, related areas where you might need help, use the abundance mentality.

Sharing opportunities with other consultants will enable the client to benefit from the combination of strong minds, talents and skills and reciprocal opportunities may come to you.

7. Reputation and influential

A consultant’s reputation may be as important as his/her expertise and skills.

So, a consultant must protect his public reputation above everything else because he may never get a chance to repair it, if it is damaged.

Consulting involves a high level of accountability, responsibility and integrity. Sometimes, a consultant may find out that a client’s operations and methods are quite unethical and it is his responsibility to correct the client.

This will depend on the consultant’s ability to influence the client to buy into his plan, idea and strategy.

This involves navigating through situation with dexterity, read between lines and knowing how to enlist the allies and manage adversaries softening and effectively.

It is always necessary to have a pre-meeting with key stakeholders to buy into your ideas before the main meeting in order to have a successful meeting and make your client look good.

This is a way to make your ideas their ideas and get the right solution.

Finally, if the consultant could not influence the client to become more ethical, then it is time to walk away and stop the forward movement.

Thank you.

Augustus Zekaryah

Questions or suggestions?

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the content of this article, please do not hesitate to share them with us through filling the comment form below:

Also, if you enjoyed this article, please share it with your friends. If you would like to read more articles like this, then enroll on our email list by ticking the box below to enable you receive our future articles in your inbox as soon as they appear on this website.

Other articles published by the author in this series at https://firstplus-ibs.com.ng that may be of interest are.

1. Consulting
2. 8 things a consultant can do for you
3. Benefits of e-learning
4. 9 reasons why your business needs a website
5. How ICT can solve Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges

As you read them drop a comment because your feedback is very important to us. It will help us to improve. Regards…

About the author

Augustus is a management, banking and business computing professional with over 20 years of documented success in the field. Augustus is recognized for the application of software to solving business problems, Software Project Management, Enterprise Architecture Strategy, and Delivery of learning solutions with focus on adaptability, Development and execution of business plans, General management and administration, Operations management and  Best practice development. Augustus founded and manages FirstPlus Integrated Business Solutions (https://firstplus-ibs.com.ng) as a Software and Business Consulting outfit that specializes in Software development and integration, E-Learning development, Business and Marketing Planning, Consulting and training.Augustus brings to his work a high level of energy, passion, commitment and humour. He is married with children.