2/7/2014
Successful Consulting Relationships
Categories: Innovation
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article consists of excerpts from a paper entitled “Factors for consulting engagement success,” written by Asst. Professor Ron D. McLachlin and published in the MCB University Press.
Experts list the following six characteristics as the qualities of a successful consulting relationship:
- Consultant Integrity
- Client Readiness & Involvement
- Clear Agreement
- Client Control
- Consultant Competence
- Fit
Consultant Integrity includes personal characteristics such as motivation, loyalty, confidentiality, ethics, objectivity and honesty. Interestingly enough, integrity also includes a refusal to undertake certain actions, such as misrepresenting capabilities, claiming to be able to help in situations where help is unlikely, accepting business when there is not a good fit, or going along with hidden agendas. A consultant also demonstrates good integrity by putting their client’s needs first, walking away from a project rather than doing it wrong and considering whether the problem asked to be solved, is what most needs solving.
Client Readiness and Involvement should be initiated by the consultant. If the service provider allows their client to distance themselves from the project, they will never succeed. After all, it’s the client’s problem the service provider is dealing with. In order to ensure success, each project should be constructed to produce a plan that a client is apt to be ready, willing and able to implement.
Clear Agreement The types of promises a consultant could make are almost limitless, ranging from changes in attitudes in a client organization to the proper management of a project. Consequently, a particularly important factor for engagement success is a clear agreement between consultant and client, in which both sides agree on the outcomes to be delivered. For a professional service like consulting, quality is defined as the difference between client perceptions and client expectations of the service. A clear agreement helps both the client and the consultant ensure service quality. It helps the client by forcing some clear thinking about promises and expectations and it helps the consultant to lower unrealistically high client expectations so that the service quality is positive.
Client Control suggests that consulting assignments should be limited, as many disasters centre on consultants who are given vague assignments over unlimited time spans. A limited assignment gives focus to a project and offers incremental success rather than aiming for that one big solution which is too difficult to implement.
Consultant Competence A consultant must hit the ground running because clients want immediate knowledge and experience. Competence may be demonstrated by the ability to communicate effectively with a company president as well as plant-floor employees, or maintaining a good balance between theory and practice. Competence also includes thoroughness. When a consultant takes the initiative to research a client’s needs before a meeting, so as to be prepared with not only questions but potential solutions, they are being thorough. Likewise, when a service provider makes the effort to visit a client to ensure that certain projects are progressing properly in their absence, this demonstrates thoroughness too.
Fit refers to a variety of issues, but essentially it means hiring a consultant with the style and approach necessary for a particular assignment. There should be a fit between the capabilities of the consultant and the expectations of the client. There must be a reasonable match of personality, management style, personal chemistry and belief systems. In other words, if you find that your thinking and the consultant’s thinking are not on the same wavelength, it’s not going to work.
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