In this post I’ll talk about what a good consultant should look like and the skills needed to accomplish his or her job.

The key consulting skills needed

• Tremendous good listener
• Leadership initiative
• Ethic/ experience
• Consulting (industry) awareness
• Commercial/marketing awareness
• Empathy/ sense of humor
• Good communicator
• Self-awareness
• Some academic background

These are essentially valid for all types of industry.

The purpose here (this post) is to help you identify the good and avoid the poor (bad) consultants, as well.

Business consultants can be selected or picked by:

a) their portofolio;

b) best practices;

c) testimonials;

d) shared white-papers/cased-studies;

e) online mentions;

f) word of mouth.

These are the more current ones, but there is more.

How to recognise a good consultant?

Other skills that a good consultant have:

• Open mind and self critic
• interpersonal and communication (both oral and written) skills
• ability to work as part of a team
• prioritise issues
• quick thinking and problem-solving
• creative and innovative
• strategic thinker with planning and/or project manangement abilities;
• availability and flexibility;
• diplomatic but able to say no;
• analytical skills;
• Super organised with ability to cope under pressure.

There are two types of consultant:

a) One who has lots of experience in one industry.

b) The other type of consultant has numerous specialties. Example:  business strategy, WiFi mobile consulting, CRM specialism, Cloud expert etc.

How to be a good consultant?

Few clients when hiring a good consultant will pay attention to the top five only. But that will depend on the person really. But if you want to tick all the boxes, then try to learn or improve all the skills listed above.

Whatever the specialism you are seeking, a solid consultant will need to listen to the client and be able to gather the main project issues and topics and summarise it at the end of the meeting. Do not forget, that there’s other elements to consider such as:

• business situation,
• project dependencies;
• the audience’s problems,
• team’s needs
• scope,
• timing and costs.

All of the above should be considered.

Once this is collected then he or she should then offer a detailed overview of what they think your project needs.

The empathy to read client’s mind/ doubts is a super quality to add to the mix. This is a very rare skill that many lack, unfortunately.

In essence,  when looking to hire or interview an expert consultant you should take on board the above but also get further advice and professional assistance. So make sure you know exactly what you need for your business, informing your recruiters/team about what a good consultant is.

Often the answer lays on the business needs but also on the new role’s description. I would recommend anyone to focus on the business specific’s needs but also on the activities that the person will need to cover.

Other practical considerations

Below are additional items you should consider when selecting and/or hiring a good consultant.

• Personally pick and interview the candidates yourself.
• Ask for a portofolio.
• Read the consultant’s recommendations/track record before the interview. (if senior role).
• Check his or hers manners, avoid arrogant people. If they are not polite be careful.
• Can you develop a long-term relationship with your consultant?
• Does the consultant fully understands the basic concepts and priorities of the project?
• Will the consultant be able to communicate with external teams/groups?
• Can the consultant gather the project’s requirements in a timely and fashionable manner?