Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Mystery: What Consultants Do



Children know what teachers, police officers, firefighters, artists, and doctors do. They know about truck drivers, authors, musicians, astronauts, chefs, lawyers, carpenters, soldiers, sailors, ministers, and cowboys.

They probably don't know about management consultants.

When they grow older that list of known jobs and professions will also grow as accountants, psychiatrists, literary agents, software designers, interior decorators, and movie producers make an appearance. Management consultants - those renegades - remain a position of mystery to some and indifference to most.

[One comment which I've often received after coaching executives and managers: "I didn't know there were people who did this."]

This produces a marketing nightmare for those of us in the management consulting field. The job is one which can be entered easily and immediately. As with "free-lance journalist" it is often a synonym for anyone who is between jobs. As I tell aspiring consultants, get a telephone and a business card and you're pretty much in. 

Staying in is the trick.

I like that anarchy and shy from programs that would deign to declare who is and who is not a management consultant. Let the market decide. Granted, the term is sloppy. Nowadays, sales clerks and call center employees are called consultants. No wonder people get confused when a management consultant strolls in the door. Due to the various specialties, they sometimes get scared. You don't have to look far to hear whispers of the dark day the firm brought in consultants (they spit out the word) to start what is quaintly called a "reduction in force." No doubt those experiences started the line that consultants are people who stroll about the battlefield shooting the wounded.

Fortunately, my work is much more positive. I help executives, managers, and employees who are already "pretty good" get to "much better" and even "great." I diagnose hidden organizational problems which frequently are attributed to a person but are more accurately linked to a procedure. I write handbooks, policies, and manuals; train; facilitate; investigate; and advise. 

And often I am hired to deliver hard truths such as "No, you are not the best manager in this organization" and "You are making things worse." It is not uncommon for my message to be one which people already secretly know and yet no one wishes to voice.

There are also those mysterious moments when the client thinks the problem is A but a fresh look finds it really is Z.

Our main competitors are inertia and complacency. [How can you know you couldn't get better if you don't know what better is?]

In the BBC series "Sherlock" the modern-day person of Sherlock Holmes describes himself as a "consulting detective." I can identify with that. Many of us in the management consulting field may be "consulting managers" or "consulting leaders."

I'll tweak that a bit: Leadership Advisor.

Perhaps some fine day the kids in elementary school will know what that means.

5 comments:

CincyCat said...

As much as I love my current occupation, your description of a management consultant sounds like my dream job.

Michael Wade said...

CincyCat,

That's nice to hear.

When it is good, it is very, very good and when it is bad it may qualify as a form of derangement.

Michael

Michael Wade said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dan in Philly said...

You are a consultant's consultant, Michael :)

Michael Wade said...

Daniel,

You are most kind.

Michael