Tuesday

What makes a good consultant?

5 Comments July 14, 2009 – 10:05 am | Permalink |  Print This Post |

Last week when I was in Dallas, I happened to meet an ex-colleague of mine. After the usual pleasantries, he asked me, “What are you up to these days?” I told him that I am into Consulting. He started laughing and said, “Do not get me wrong. A consultant is someone who will look at your watch and tell you the time.” I did not know how to react.

On my way back to India in the British Airways flight, I started pondering over his comment. Why is there mistrust in the minds of people when they see a consultant? May be some consultant has misused his position to make some fast buck.  I am not saying that all consultants are like that but this must have surely happened somewhere.

As I delve into what makes a good consultant, let me define a consultant. In a layman’s language, a consultant is someone who is an expert in his field, has the ability to have a deeper understanding of your problem and who is able to recommend a solution. To take an example, I go to a travel agent and ask him to book an air ticket from Delhi to London. In this case he is a Service provider and not a consultant. The same travel agent will act as a consultant if I go to him and say that I want to plan a holiday. He looks at the possible destinations in the given time span, researches on hotels, looks at possible itineraries and finally comes with some options with a recommended approach.

I have seen many of the IT folks claiming themselves as consultants. Well, some of them are but majority of them are service providers and good executioners as they do what the client asks them to do. In the true sense, instead of doing what they are asked to do, good consultants actually have a proactive approach in suggesting to the client how they can improve their processes to reduce the total cost of ownership.

With consultancy comes responsibility. A good consultant should be responsible and accountable for his actions and should never try to suggest something to make a quick buck. You can make some quick money but you lose respect and trust which are very important for a consultant.

One more trait of a good consultant is timeliness. A good consultant is expected to deliver results in the time allocated to him. If that means putting in extra effort for preparedness, he needs to do it. And finally he needs to come up with options with pros and cons. A good consultant will recommend an approach but should not try to dictate an approach as this has the potential to cause a suspicion in the client’s mind.

What I have talked about is an indicative list and not an exhaustive one. Please let me know your comments. I may be reached at sandeep_chatterjee@infosys.com.

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