Mini Series - Consulting 101

Listening ..... And?

So my first post attempting to explain consulting left you with a one word answer: Listening. Well that was obviously a bit of a cop out, but it makes a point. Consulting means a lot of things but at its root it comes down to a couple of very simple ideas. What else is consulting? Well since we're called consultants and not psychiatrists, and since we charge for our time we must provide some service to our clients... right?

To go back to the jokes, we probably don't. Or if we do, it costs you more for us to explain it.

We don't just listen (though often thats the part most over-looked) we respond, we reiterate and we provide expertise. We reiterate what we hear so that we understand what we we hear and often so that we can rephrase a client's problem. Often the simple act of rephrasing a problem can be enlightening. We then offer some expertise in correcting the problem. as an HR management consultant I help companies by strengthening their HR departments and thus their employees and thus their bottom line. My expertise I could say is in HR Strategy, Change Management or Talent Management. What are those things? How do you become an expert in Talent? Well that will have to wait for another post.

Consultants listen, elucidate the client's problem and offer expertise ....but that isn't really answering it all either. Hmm.