Be the Best Consultant Ever: Things That Will Make You Great

The occupation itself emerged relatively recently, about a hundred years ago, and consulting services became actively sought-after and widespread in the last quarter of the twentieth century in European countries, the USA and Japan. Thanks to the sophistication of their schemes, it became possible to conduct consulting both in real-time and remotely, for example, via the Internet, cooperating with organizations and businesspersons from various countries and cities.

Business consulting is one of the tools for the development of an organization and an essential element of its effective functioning and further development.

Business consulting based on previously conducted diagnostics of various aspects of the organizations functioning (personnel and organizational policies, financial performance, etc.), provides optimization:

• Regulatory and structural model of management of organizational units.
• The communicative structure of the company.
• Staff development models.
• Self-management of managers of companies and structural divisions.

The results of business consulting are an organization-ready resource management system, a set of organization performance indicators, engineering and re-engineering of business processes, a system for recruiting, personnel rotation and staff adaptation, etc.

In the course of business counseling, individual counseling is possible to ensure that a specialist acquires knowledge of himself, an established life and professional situation, and a tool to develop personal practical strategies for optimizing experience and professional scenarios.

Types of business consulting:

• General management: management structure, strategic planning, audit of management decisions
• Administrative management: workplace planning, risk management, management organization
• Production: a scheme for organizing the production process, production planning, resource allocation
• Financial management: accounting system, investment estimates the problem of cost reduction, profit finance income. Reserves, taxes, the solvency of the organization
• Marketing: market research, marketing strategies, sales management, product promotion
• Information technology: installation of information systems, computer audit, information. Administrative systems;
• Legal services: organization of the regulatory and judicial framework of the organization, review of legal bases of activity
• Personnel management: recruitment, personnel assessment, training, motivation of personnel, building the culture of the organization (social and corporate) structure)
• Particular services: individual psychological counseling, psychological training (personal growth), coaching – manager training, consulting on spec. Problems (with the involvement of other specialists).

The main objectives of the business consultation:

1. An attempt to wake up the internal reserves of a human and push their implementation in the right direction.
2. Based on complete and reliable information on social processes in structural units to help the manager to develop a full-scale personnel strategy of the enterprise.

In short form, the tasks facing a business consultant working in an organization or invited to improve the psychological and economic situation in an organization can be summarized as follows: assessment of the manager’s professional competence and effectiveness, determination of the employees’ professional expertise, commitment of the enterprise’s competitiveness, professional and social adaptation of employees and the manager, its assessment, identification of the motivation of professional self-improvement.

Among the best characteristics and skills that a consultant can gain for enhancing, the mentioned aspects are as follows:

• Excellent Communication Skills that help you to develop relationships with people, maintain a conversation, effectively behave in critical situations when communicating with others. Everyone needs these skills.
• Good team player with flexible approach at work means to know the how and why of things, to listen, to hear and to be able to convince, to support colleagues, to be able to defuse a conflict, to give a constructive feedback, let alone be enthusiastic, curious, reliable, flexible, intend to diversity, get to know your colleagues better, respect your colleagues, take part in corporate living, solve problems, drop the attitude;
• Service-oriented personality means that you need strategic thinking. Whatever you do, think about an eventual result. Clear guidelines only will make it to where you go on the next level and overcome any difficulties on your way. Expand your insights so you could see the whole picture and control your progress.
• Build Consensus & Commitment because business consulting increases motivation and initiative.
• Facilitating Client Learning means in-service seminars, corporate training, and online training or distance courses.
• Build a balanced relationship means to be able to appreciate the achievements of another, to accept constructive criticism and not to get offended if it is not productive. Do not expect that the partner will guess about everything. Be able to find a compromise. It is essential to become a person who attracts the right people.
• Great consultants are sociable. According to the statistics, one dissatisfied customer tells about the negative experience of interaction with a company to 16 people. To reinforce the image is necessary because customers do not like surprises. If a person sees a television advertisement showing smiling shop assistants in the store, then s/he will want to see just such specialists when s/he comes for shopping.
• Stress Resilient, and there are seven ways to become stress resilient among which are making a trust circle, rethinking your view at stressful situations, assuming measures, acceptance that change is part of life, stop making such a big deal about it and put things in perspective, develop self-confidence, find everyday joy.
• Having Resourcefulness meaning getting out of your shell, going out and trying to understand customers where it is more critical in this business than higher education or the ability to conduct research.

The occupation of a consultant has long been in demand as a severe and responsible job. Training in consulting business is based on a technique that has been tried on many consultants who newcomers were studying consulting. It is also crucial that not only the method itself is worked out, but also working documents, plans, contracts, check sheets. Due to this, training becomes active, and no fundamental knowledge is required. To date, obtaining the profession of a consultant has become perfect; such technology of exercise can be taken to the assembly line.

To become a professional in this field, you need to work on the expertise, show it, learn from experienced professionals, and interact with customers. The specialty of a consultant is an essential factor in self-study. Of course, everything changes, customers have new requirements; business criteria are becoming perfect, and, accordingly, their solutions are changing. The consultant needs to strive to improve their knowledge; this allows you to maintain the level of a professional. Self-education is not a way to learn independently, but rather a person’s willingness to learn. One of the main characteristics of a business consultant is the desire to go further, the desire to learn new things and move forward. Perhaps this is the main criterion for success.