The Consultant in me!
Who is a Consultant after all? As per an old saying, well not so old, A Consultant “uses the customer’s watch to tell him the time and then keeps it as well”! So this basically ushers us into defining Consultants as some kind of a necessary evil? Well, we may be directionally correct (Consultant’s lingo, simply put, essentially wrong!), but there is more to do in Consulting than just being an expendable resource one would like to do away with.
My various responsibilities in the past few years have required me to exhibit certain traits that are generally seen in Consultants, but then, those may just be some feeble similarities and nothing more. I am very active in Social media and forums so when preparing for my entrance exams for MBA in 2010, it was a given that I would often look for advice (and give it when needed by my fellow “competitors”) on those forums. Apart from that, I always “consulted” my close friends appearing for GMAT etc on the application process and the bells and whistles of effective communication. The whole idea of helping others is not always driven by purity of soul and heart- sometimes it is needed to give you that much needed assurance about your own understanding of problems and capabilities to solve them.
Moving on, once I joined MBA, I have been constantly involved in mentoring various aspirants- online and offline, colleagues, juniors and even the ever worrying parents of these people (Yes, there still are some MBA aspirants in India who cannot talk for themselves, but need their mummy/papa to do the talking!). Being in Admissions team of the college, I have spent hours on the phone telling an aspirant about the various career paths he/she may choose and sometimes solved (or at least try to) their personal problems too.
Does that make me a Consultant? Not quite, maybe some kind of “Problem solving Baba” at best, but I need not feel bad because of it. (Till now) I do not charge anyone for my services so that makes me a not-for-profit, freelance Career (and technology…and relationship.. and life) Consultant! While writing this piece,
I realized in retrospect what I do in the above high sounding claims of mine are somewhat close to:
1. Listen- You can’t advise until you listen. So, I first let my customer (will use this term) do the talking. A good consultant, in my opinion, must inherently be a good listener – in fact a better listener than a communicator.
2. Probe and ask questions to develop a solution- Many a times the problem isn’t what it looks like. Some people just say or define the problems they have in a way that is too generic and sometimes erroneous. Taking the problem on its face value might not lead you anywhere. Consultant, thus, is like a doctor- need not define the actual problem in the same way the customer says. Rather, more relevant questions need to be asked to clearly define the problem.
3. Consult, and not force- I can only advise people of what is a probable solution to them that deems best fit to me, but should always leave the final decision on them.
In the light of the above, I think here is a part where I differ from a Consultant- I do not have enough research, data, and simple/complex models to solve customer’s problems. In that sense, I am yet to graduate to that level. But so far, so good!
My various responsibilities in the past few years have required me to exhibit certain traits that are generally seen in Consultants, but then, those may just be some feeble similarities and nothing more. I am very active in Social media and forums so when preparing for my entrance exams for MBA in 2010, it was a given that I would often look for advice (and give it when needed by my fellow “competitors”) on those forums. Apart from that, I always “consulted” my close friends appearing for GMAT etc on the application process and the bells and whistles of effective communication. The whole idea of helping others is not always driven by purity of soul and heart- sometimes it is needed to give you that much needed assurance about your own understanding of problems and capabilities to solve them.
Moving on, once I joined MBA, I have been constantly involved in mentoring various aspirants- online and offline, colleagues, juniors and even the ever worrying parents of these people (Yes, there still are some MBA aspirants in India who cannot talk for themselves, but need their mummy/papa to do the talking!). Being in Admissions team of the college, I have spent hours on the phone telling an aspirant about the various career paths he/she may choose and sometimes solved (or at least try to) their personal problems too.
Does that make me a Consultant? Not quite, maybe some kind of “Problem solving Baba” at best, but I need not feel bad because of it. (Till now) I do not charge anyone for my services so that makes me a not-for-profit, freelance Career (and technology…and relationship.. and life) Consultant! While writing this piece,
I realized in retrospect what I do in the above high sounding claims of mine are somewhat close to:
1. Listen- You can’t advise until you listen. So, I first let my customer (will use this term) do the talking. A good consultant, in my opinion, must inherently be a good listener – in fact a better listener than a communicator.
2. Probe and ask questions to develop a solution- Many a times the problem isn’t what it looks like. Some people just say or define the problems they have in a way that is too generic and sometimes erroneous. Taking the problem on its face value might not lead you anywhere. Consultant, thus, is like a doctor- need not define the actual problem in the same way the customer says. Rather, more relevant questions need to be asked to clearly define the problem.
3. Consult, and not force- I can only advise people of what is a probable solution to them that deems best fit to me, but should always leave the final decision on them.
In the light of the above, I think here is a part where I differ from a Consultant- I do not have enough research, data, and simple/complex models to solve customer’s problems. In that sense, I am yet to graduate to that level. But so far, so good!
Courtesy: Nikhil Sinha
Batch: 2011-13