A Consultant Is As A Consultant Does (Part One)

A Consultant Is As A Consultant Does (Part One)

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Full transcript to the video:

Hi. My name is Glenn R Harrington.

If you have ever heard a conversation like this, then you are in good company:

 • “What do you do?”

 • “Oh, I’m a consultant.”

 • “A consultant? But what do you actually do?” 

Some people think of consultants as basically on-call workers, though the term contractor or temp might better apply. There are many people with the title Consultant on their business card, but who are actually sales reps. Some people believe that a consultant is basically a sort of advisor or coach.

If somebody tells you that he or she is a consultant, then you should know what it really means. You should also be able to tell whether the term consultant correctly applies to their work.

I have served as a consultant professionally since 1996. My expertise includes clarifying concepts. Let’s see if this discussion clarifies how to identify a consultant by their actions.

Is it coaching?

A coach guides an individual by asking open-ended questions. First, the client must identify the potential that he or she wants to fulfil. The coach then gets the client to identify how to achieve that potential. With further questioning from the coach, the client then identifies limitations affecting the achievement of their goal and how to deal with them. The coach also gets the client to identify how to recognize success. A coach would then use reminders, citing the client’s own values, to support the fulfilment of that potential.

A business or executive coach typically acts as a guide and accountability partner for the client. If difficulties must be endured or risks taken, then the client must take them on by choice.

It is easy to find a coach quick to assert that her or she is not a consultant. Intrinsic to coaching is the idea that a client does not fully invest in the process of achieving a goal, nor fully own the outcome, unless the process and the achievement originate with himself or herself. Thus, without advising, coaches get their clients to commit to their own decisions, actions, and results. Advising has no place in coaching per se.

In contrast, an advisor does not coach. Rather, an advisor first assesses a situation, gathering information and distinguishing important facts from the unimportant. He or she then aims to analyse the situation accurately in context. Next, an advisor contemplates resources available, limitations, and opportunities while considering various options to define and achieve success. With enough information gathered and enough options considered, an advisor then brings his or her expertise to bear in prescribing how their client ought to pursue success.

Some people would suggest that the description of an advisor that I just gave applies to a consultant. Having served as a consultant professionally since the first business day of 1996, I do not accept that. The role of an advisor – even though many who play that role call themselves consultants – ultimately means telling the client what to do. Consultants do this also. Yet, the role of an advisor excludes working with the client to ensure success.

There are people who pay advisors to study their situation, then report their findings and recommendations, who then find themselves unable to do everything recommended. They still have a troubled project or department or company. Now they also have instructions to solve their problems that might seem impossible to follow.

Likewise, there are people who turn to a coach for help then wish they hadn’t. For example, they come away from their coaching sessions feeling burdened. A coach’s questions require turning to yourself for the answers. That can be tiresome. Also, it can feel like an enormous burden to take on the responsibility to create success solo, or to lead the creation of success in an organization that has problems.

As a consultant, I assert that the client should not feel suddenly abandoned with a set of hard-to-follow instructions. Nor should a client feel obliged to pioneer new ways of doing things single-handedly in an organization whose people are set in their ways while those very ways sustain the problem.

Success is especially hard to achieve when it starts with impractical disruption. That is why a truly client-focused, results-oriented consultant forges a working partnership with the client to ensure that the whole process from diagnosis to prescription to action and success is realistic.

I view a true consultant as having the adaptability and professional acumen to act as a coach as and when appropriate, and to take on the role of advisor as and when appropriate. A truly client-focused, results-oriented consultant coaches and advises however best advances the client’s goal. He or she then remains involved as appropriate to foster success, and knows when to step aside as the client becomes independent.

Now that we can distinguish a consultant by what he or she does, and what a true, diligent consultant ought to do, an essential question arises: Why? What is the consultant’s mission or purpose in service to his or her clients? What facet of a consultant’s mission or purpose harmonizes with his or her clientele to foster win-win outcomes? My next video, A Consultant Is As A Consultant Does part 2, addresses this question with an example.

I am Glenn R Harrington of Articulate Consultants.