What is the Consultant Role About?

The consultant role encompasses much more than just expertise and the ability to deliver a project. Clients often have specific needs when hiring consultants, but other factors come into play in daily operations. Our experience shows that customer satisfaction, and ultimately the potential for contract extension, is influenced by softer factors as well.

With Feedbach, you can gather feedback in the categories of competence, knowledge sharing, impact on the work environment, and collaboration skills. This captures the essence of the consultant role! Here we go through the four categories and explain why each of them is important.

Competence

As a consultant, you are typically hired to solve a problem, and it is expected that you have the competence to contribute to this problem-solving. Possessing the necessary competence is perhaps the most crucial consultant skill.

This does not mean that consultants are expected to work independently from the start. It typically takes a few weeks to get familiar with routines, systems, and solutions. Often, you also need to learn new technology that you may not have prior experience with, but with some experience and a learning mindset, this usually falls into place within a few weeks.

Additionally, having experience from other clients, industries, and solutions means you can still contribute, ask good questions, and challenge established truths along the way. This brings us to the next consultant skill: Knowledge Sharing.

Knowledge Sharing

Sometimes you are hired solely to do a job, but often clients want you to bring new impulses and contribute knowledge to the organization. As a consultant, you usually have experience from other actors in the same industry, other industries, with different technologies and solutions, etc. The ability to convey this knowledge effectively is an important consultant skill.

Sharing knowledge can be done in several ways. The simplest is to contribute to meetings you are invited to, understand the issues, and look for experiences that can add value to the discussions and share these experiences if appropriate. Other methods include offering to present various topics to larger or smaller groups, arranging open seminars, etc.

Communication skills are also an art that can be improved. Whether taking courses in presentation techniques, learning some coaching skills, reading books on pedagogy and teaching. These are different tools that can be used in various contexts to convey your message effectively.

While sharing your knowledge, it's also important to respect the client's choices and solutions. There are likely good reasons why things are as they are, and as a consultant, you probably have less experience with the solutions than those who have worked there for a while. You have less context than they do, and it can be awkward if you recommend other solutions that clearly fall short. Present your suggestions, but be aware that you might not see the whole picture. You must be able to accept being wrong and being corrected. Using humor can be helpful in these situations!

Impact on the Work Environment

It is a great advantage if you can deliver a positive contribution to the work environment. Participate in social activities and invest time in building relationships with your colleagues. Show interest in others and integrate yourself into the work environment to blur the line between employee and consultant as much as possible.

Be a team player and adapt to the systems and routines at the workplace. It may not be the consultant's role to address challenges with open office layouts and free-seating arrangements in the first week of the assignment.

Collaboration

The final category is collaboration, which involves the ability to be part of a team, strengthen the team, and support other team members. We've already touched on knowledge sharing, and when hiring consultants, clients often want external contributions that expand the organization's practices and competencies. Be aware of this and incorporate it into your professional development.

In a performance culture, it is important that everyone is allowed to contribute their ideas and opinions, and it is the diversity of ideas that distinguishes a good team from an average one. Be mindful of this and actively include those who may not naturally step forward. Give others space, see them, and ask for their input.

It's about making others shine, even consultants from competing companies. Regardless of whom you work with, the best results are achieved if the team functions well, and it's your job to ensure that it works as smoothly as possible.

The Consultant Role

In our opinion, the consultant role is much more than just solving a problem or producing a solution. It largely involves collaborating, enriching a team, contributing to a positive and safe work environment, and developing the people around you, whether they are the client's own employees or consultants from other companies.