CHAPTER 4

PROFESSIONAL ATTRIBUTES
OF MANAGEMENT
CONSULTANTS

In an article of Professor J. Owen Cherrington of Brigham Young University, he enumerated the

professional attributes of consultants. According to this renowned academician, a management
consultant must possess the following broad areas of skills:

I. Technical skills

These include understanding and experience in a technical discipline – such as

information technology, marketing, engineering and organizational behavior.

II. Interpersonal skills

These include personal attributes that make an individual amiable among people and
effective in accomplishing desirable objectives trough people.

III. Consulting process skills

These involve the ability to understand and use the following approach in solving
business problems:

a) Identify the cause of problems or inefficiencies

b) Identify alternative solutions
c) Select the most desirable alternative, and
d) Implement the chosen solution

DISCUSSION:

I. Technical Skills

Education Requirements

The education required to obtain the necessary technical skills for management
consulting depends on the area of specialization. Some generalizations can be made,
however, concerning the amount of education required, the common core requirement
and experience possessed by most consultants.

A. TECHNICAL TRAINING

a) Length of Education
 A bachelor’s degree is a perquisite and many, if not most people going into
management consultancy today have one or two graduate degrees. Undergraduate
programs generally teach the “how” for the uncertainty and ambiguity inherent in
business problems.

b) Type of Education

Educational programs usually include a technical degree and a general degree. For
instance, a person might obtain a general business degree at a bachelor’s level and
specialize in information technology after earning a master’s degree in computer
science and information management.

B. COMMON CORE REQUIREMENT

Regardless of a person’s area of specialization, the following common core courses

should be included in the educational program.

1. Communications
2. Mathematics an statistics
3. Computer data processing

II. Interpersonal Skills or developed Attributes

In addition to education and experience, several personal attributes are critical for the
success of a management consultant. These are:

1. Intelligence or capacity for logical thinking reasoning

This refers to the consultant’s degree of mental organization and development that
enables him/her to absorb and relate facts in a logical and orderly fashion and to
reason inductively and deductively.

2. Integrity

This pertains to the number of attributes, such as moral and ethical soundness;
fairness; equity; ability to distinguish between right and wrong; honesty;
dependability; freedom from corrupting influence or practice; and strictness in the
fulfillment of both the letter and the spirit of agreements made regardless of
personal considerations.

3. Objectivity

The consultancy must have the ability to grasp and to represent facts, unbiased by
prejudice. He/ She is also independent.
4. Understanding of people (human relations; empathy)

The consultant must have the ability to anticipate human reactions to differing
situations; to establish and maintain friendly relations and mutual confidence with
people at all levels; and to recognize and respect the rights of others.

5. Judgment

This refers to the management consultant’s ability and reasoning power to arrive
at a wise decision, a course of action or a conclusion, especially when only
meager or confused facts are available.

6. Courage

This refers to the consultant’s strength of mind and character that enables him/her
to encounter disagreement, difficulties, and obstructions with firmness of spirit
and determination, and to consider them as challenges rather than something to be
avoided or feared; the ability to stand by one’s convictions regardless of pressure.

7. Ambition

A management consultant must have the desire and motivation to earn and obtain
full recognition for the attainment of professional status.

8. Psychological maturity

This pertains to the consultant’s ability to view situations in perspective and to

take action needed on a calm and controlled basis without being diverted from a
sound, logical and ethical course by outside pressure.

9. Physiological equilibrium

A consultant needs a high-energy level to (1) support his/her intellectual and

emotional activities, (2) enable him/her to withstand pressure and frustration, and
(3) avoid physical illness.

10. Relationship – building skills

a. An ability to build rapport and trust with the client

Rapport is hard to define – but it is easy to recognize. Two people have a

rapport when they communicate with ease and work together effectively.
It is clear that they have a trust in each other and a commitment to each
other. Rapport is not confined to face-to-face communication. It is a
feature of all communication as well.
b. An ability to question effectively

Questioning is one of the fundamental communication skills. Questioning

is not only a way to get information (though this is important). It is also a
way to build rapport and to control the direction of a conversation.
Effective questioning skills are an important plank in any manager’s
leadership strategy. They are especially important for the consultant.

c. An ability to communicate ideas succinctly and precisely

A consultant brings a special level of expertise to a business. He or she

must offer something the business cannot offer itself. This may mean that
the consultant is working in an area with a high technical content, for
example finance or marketing. Areas such as these and many others have a
language all their own. The consultant must be cautious about using this
language directly to the client. After all, the client is not interested in the
consultant’s knowledge of a technical area but in his or her ability to use
that knowledge in a way which creates value for the business.

A consultant has most impact when he or she talks the same language as
the client. Ideas must be related in a way that is succinct and precise and
uses no more technical jargon than the client is comfortable with.
Converting technical ideas into plain language is not always easy. But it is
important and is a skill of its own which can develop with practice.

d. An ability to negative objectives and outcomes

A consulting project must have definite objectives and outcomes. The

value the project is expected to deliver to the client business must be
explicit. However, the consultant and the client do not always agree, in the
first instance at least, on what those outcomes should be. The client may
not have a clear idea of what is wanted for the business. If he or she does
have a definite idea it may be beyond the scope of what the consultant is
in a position to offer realistically. It may be that the consultant is not
convinced that what the client is demanding as an outcome is absolutely
right for the business. Such disagreements can often occur with student
consulting projects where the client’s expectations are very high and there
is a need to reconcile commercial with educational outcomes.

Whatever the source of any disagreement, the project outcomes must be

defined and agreed by consultant and client. This is a process of
negotiation that results in the formal project brief.

The need to negotiate is not an admission that there is necessarily a

conflict between the client and the consultant. Rather, it is a recognition
that the consultancy exercise will work best when both client and
 consultant have clear expectations as to what will result from the
consulting exercise and what the responsibility of both parties will be in
achieving them. The consultant must be aware that disappointment in
consultancy (for both client and consultant team) results more from
unclear expectations than from poor outcomes.

e. An ability to convince through verbal, written and visual mediums

In business, having good ideas is not enough. Ideas must be used to

encourage people to follow them as courses of action.

They must be used to encourage the business’s managers to implement

plans and its backers to make supportive investment decisions. Ideas must
be communicated in a way that convinces people they are good and worth
implementing. This conviction comes as much from the ‘how’ of
communication as from ‘what’, that is, from the form of the
communication as well as its content.

Conviction results if ideas are communicated in a manner that is

appropriate to the audience; for example if the communication uses the
right language, is of the right length and adopts a proper style. This
applied to communication in any situation and whether the medium is
verbal, visual or written.

f. An ability to use information to make a case for a particular course of

action

Of course, ideas must have some substance if they are to deliver real
value. Communication of ideas must be backed up with information. This
includes both facts and interpretation of facts. The logic of that
interpretation must be clear. Different people in the client business will
seek and will be convinced by different corroborating information, at
different levels and presented in different ways. Some information will be
included in an initial communication. Other parts may be kept back as a
response to questions and challenges.

Knowing when to use particular information, and how to use it to

convince, is an important communication skill for the consultant,
especially as a constant’s ideas are likely to be under close security by the
client business, certainty more so than those of internal managers.

g. An ability to develop selling strategies

Effective selling calls for s definite, well-develop and quite well-

understood set of skill. Selling of goods and services is a specialist
management activity. However, all managers are involved in selling their
 ideas all the time. Consultants must certainty sells their ideas. But they
must also sell themselves and their own organizations as providers of
ideas. This is a particular challenge for consultants involved in general
management rather than some specialist area. A business may readily
accept that it lacks technical knowledge in product development,
information technology or finance. However, few businesses will readily
admit to being deficient in general management skills.

The consultant can draw on a variety of formal selling skills. These must
be used appropriately though. Consultancy, as a ‘product’ does not usually
respond to a ‘hard sell’ approach. Rather, a formal selling approach should
be used as the tactic in a well-thought-through selling strategy. This
strategy should aim to communicate what the consultant can genuinely
offer the client and be used to build a long-term, mutually rewarding
relationship.

h. An ability to work effectively as a member of a team

Many consulting tasks (especially those of major significance) require a

team effort. As a minimum they will demand that the consultant and client
work together. Usually they will involve an extend management team in
the client business. Often the consulting task will have significant resource
implications and will be complex to deliver. The scope of its demands will
go beyond the capabilities of one individual, certainly in time and perhaps
in technical knowledge. Delivering the project will require the consultant
to work as part of a team.

Good team working is essential for business success and not just in
consulting. It is a skill in itself. It demands many things. It requires, for
example, a careful definition of individual roles in relation to the tea as a
whole. It also requires well-honed interpersonal, motivation and conflict-
resolution skills. Most of all, perhaps, it demands a willingness to align the
interests of the individuals who make up the team with the overall task the
team must address. This requires an ability to advocate individual interests
and yet, when necessary, to compromise individual concerns for the
interests of the group as a whole.

If team is to develop a product coherence through which its members can

make individual contributions, it must be actively managed

i. An ability to listen effectively

As an active part of communication, listening represents a skill that can be

improved. Some points to improve one’s ability to the mind to drift.
1. Actively concentrate on what is being said. It is easy for the mind to drift.
2. Keep track of, and mentally summarize, the key themes in what is being said.
3. Keep an ear out for particularly relevant ideas or facts.
4. Identify and mentally record key phrases.
5. Notice the speaker’s use of metaphor and imagery.
6. Use your own paralanguage and body language to encourage the speaker (this
does help active listening – try it).
7. When appropriate, ask questions to explore key points further.
8. Summarize the speaker’s points and ask him or her to confirm your
understanding.
9. If possible, support active listening with note taking. The project log is a good
place to keep such notes.
10. Avoid concentrating on preparing your own response while the other person is
speaking. Don’t feel you must answer right away. It is perfectly acceptable to
take a few seconds to reflect on what has been said and then respond. In fact,
this will make it clear that you are concentrating on what the speaker is saying
and will motivate them.

You will find that with a little practice active listening, far from detracting
from your ability to prepare responses, positively enhances it, not least
because your responses will be relevant to the other speaker.

j. An ability to demonstrate leadership

Leadership is an ability to focus and direct the individuals in an organization

in a way that brings the whole organization benefits. Leadership is perhaps
the most valuable commodity a senior manager can offer his or her
organization. Leadership draws together a variety of relationship skills – not
least articulation of vision, motivation and communication – into a coherent
behavioral strategy.

It should not ne that a consulting team can have only one, permanent lead
and that remainder of the team must be followers. Such an assumption lies
behind many intragroup conflicts. Leadership is not an inherent and fixed
property of an individual. It is situational; that is, it arises out of the
conditions of a particular situation in which people interact in a particular
way. Leadership may shift between members as the project evolves and the
situation changes. The individual who shows leadership for the team may not
be the same person who shows leadership towards the client business or
towards people from outside the team offering support to the project. In
professional consulting, as in business generally, leadership up the formal
reporting hierarchy, from subordinate to superior, may be as important as
traditional leadership down it.

A consulting project is one of the best opportunities a student will be given to

recognize the nature and value of leadership, and to develop leadership skip.
 The project management, analysis and relationship skill areas do not work in
isolation. They must operate in conjunction and in balance with each other.
Relationship building must be aimed at delivering negotiated outcomes.
Good project management skills offer a base on which can be built a trust
that outcomes will be delivered. And so on.

Common Barriers to Effective Communication Between the Client and the

Consultant

Consultants need to be aware of specific types of barriers that may hamper

communication between him/her and the clients. Diagnostic ability is extremely
important because it allows consultants to understand the circumstances surrounding the
communication situation and the pitfalls that may affect it.

The following are the most common barriers and the recommended approach that may be
adopted by the consultant to avoid or correct them:

1. Know –It – All-Attitude and/or prejudice of some personnel of the client

It is very likely that the consultant will encounter an individual who is a “know-it-
all” and anything the consultant says will be probably rejected by this person. The
consultant should try to develop as cooperative and supportive climate and should
approach the person from his or her own perspective. Use well-though-out and
logical reasoning that leads up to a particular action. Disagree, if necessary, bur
do not denounce overtly the position of the individual to improve any future
working relationship with him or her.

2. Inability to understand technical language

This may arise when the consultant interacts with a nonexpert client and
employees who are unable to understand technical language.

The consultant should exercise care when using words that may be misunderstood
by the receiver and seek immediate feedback when necessary in order to ensure
that the meaning the receiver gives to a technical word is what intended by the
sender.

3. Inadequate background or knowledge

Closely related to the technical language barriers are background or knowledge

difference. When dealing with clients or client employees who have varied
backgrounds and expertise, audience analysis is essential. The consultant should
have patience and empathy for the receiver. Provide additional information for
 clarification and be prepared to explain things more thoroughly to individuals
who need explanation for better understanding.

4. Resistance to change

Effecting change within individuals including concerned managers is generally a

different task. They have a natural tendency to resent change when it is perceived
as a threat to their work and this tendency can affect communication. The
consultant should seek the support of the client and its employees and encourage
their input regarding the proposed change. If change is recommended, explain it
in a positive manner in order to reduce their anxieties. By being open and by
encouraging participation, you will provide a better climate for implementing
change.

5. Information overload

Any individual has a limit when dealing with information and exceeding this limit
can hamper effective communication of information. Try to guide clients by
helping them manage their time, set priorities and delegate works responsibilities
to others. If an individual, for the moment, appears to be overloaded with work,
try not to give additional assignment to him/her. An idea may be rejected no
matter how ingenious it is. Exercise good judgment and timing when confronted
with this situation.

11. Project management skills

a. An ability to define objectives and outcomes

An objectives state what the project is going to achieve for the client.
However, not every statement is a good objective. A stated objected must be
subject to a critical review. Is it well defined? Will the organization know
when it has achieved the objective? Is the objective achievable, given the
external market conditions that face the business? It is realistic, given the
business’s internal resources?

b. An ability to develop formal plans

A plan is a course of action specified in order to achieve a certain objective.

Critical aspects of planning include defining tasks, ordering them and
understanding the resource implications of the task sequence; in particular,
identifying who will be responsible for carrying out the tasks and the financial
implications of their activities. A plan must be properly articulated and
communicated if it is to work.

c. An ability to sequence and prioritize tasks

 Even a simple plan will demand that different people carry out a number – often a
considerable number – of tasks at different times. Those tasks must be
coordinated within the shape of the overall project. Timetabling will be important.
It will be possible to carry out some tasks only after others have been carried out
first. Some tasks must be given priority over others if resources are to be used
effectively. Prioritization must be undertaken both by individuals and between
individuals on the project team.

A project in which tasks order and priority have been well defined will be
delivered in a shorter time period and at lower cost than one where they have not.

d. An ability to manage the financial resources that are to be invested in the

consulting project

All management activity demands that money be spent. Keeping track of that
expenditure is critical management responsibility. Profiles of expected
expenditure – budgets – must be set before the project starts so that the resource
requirements may be understood. These budgets must be managed. Actual
expenditure must be monitored against anticipated expenditure. A project, no
matter how good its outcomes, runs the risk of disappointing the client if it turns
out to be more expensive than anticipated.

For these reasons developing awareness of budget management issues and

recognizing the skills necessary for managing them are valuable parts of the
consulting learning experience.

e. An ability to recognize the human expertise necessary to deliver the project.

A particularly important aspect of recognizing the human expertise necessary to

deliver a project is to understand how the various members of the consulting team
can specialize their roles. Consultants must work as part of the team at the client
business.

Productive team working is crucial success. One area where team working and
project management skills meet is in deciding who will do what. Not every
member of the team can or should attempt to undertake every task. It is unlikely,
given people’s individual preferences that they would wish to. A lot of value can
be created by differentiation activities and allowing an individual in the team an
opportunity to specialize his or her contribution.

f. An ability to manage personal time

The management of personal time is an important aspect of project management.

They are worth investing in. Not only do they allow time to be used productively,
they also mean that last minute panics are avoided. This reduces stress. Relaxed
 management is more effective, engenders confidence, and makes learning easier
and much more enjoyable.

12. Analysis skills

a. An ability to identify what information is available in a particular situation

Decision –makers demand information. A good decision – maker is active in

auditing the information that is available to be used in a decision – making
situation. However, at an immediate level it will demand effective questioning
with those experiences of the business and its situation to get them to share the
information they have (and which they may not even know they have!). This
process involves both problem definition and questioning skills.

b. An ability to identify what information is needed in a particular situation

Having identified what information is available in a situation a consultant must

decide which information is pertinent to the decision in hand. The information
that is needed to make the decision an effective one must be distinguished from
that which is merely a distraction. The balance will lie in the nature of the
decision, its significance to the consulting project and the business, and the type
of information available.

c. An ability to process that information to identify the important relationship within

it

Information on its own is not much use. It must be processed in order to identify
the important relationships within it. Drawing conclusions demands an
understanding of patterns of relationships and casual linkages that connect
businesses, their customers and their environments.

d. An ability to draw meaning from that information and use it to support decision –
making

Once connections have been made and conclusions drawn it is necessary to

identify the impact of those conclusions on the courses of action open to the client
business and their significance to the consulting project.

This process of information has both ‘private’ and ‘public’ aspects. The private
aspect involves a detached and reflective consideration of what the information
means and what, in consequence, is the best option of the business. The public
aspect demands using information to make the case for a particular course of
action, to advocate particular options, to convince others of the correctness of that
course and to meet the objections. These two aspects do, of course, go hand in
hand.
 The ‘intuitive’ side of analysis is often supplemented by the use of formal
techniques that can help business decision-making.

e. An ability to recognize the business’s profile of strengths, weaknesses and

capabilities.

All businesses are different. They develop strengths that allow them to deliver
certain sorts of value to particular customers in a special and valuable way. They
have weaknesses that leave them open to attack by competitor. A variety of
conceptual frameworks can be used to guide the exploration of a firm’s strengths,
capabilities and weaknesses.

f. An ability to recognize the opportunities and challenges the environment offers

the business

A business’s environment presents a constantly shifting kaleidoscope of

possibilities. Some offer new opportunities to serve customers better and so grow
and develop the business. An ability to evaluate the opportunities and threats its
markets offer the business is a fundamental prerequisite to devising rewarding
consulting projects and defining their objectives.

g. An ability to assets the business’s financial situation

Financial performance is a fundamental measure of a business’s success. An

analysis of a company’s financial situation offers a route to understanding its
performance in its marketplace, the risks to which it is exposed and the resource it
has available to invest in the future. Financial analysis is easiest and most
rewarding when undertaken with the guidance of formal ratio methods.

h. An ability to evaluate the business’s markets and how they are developing

A market is the total of demand for a particular god or service. The growth of
business will be sensitive to the development of its markets.

An analysis of trends in the business’s markets, combined with a consideration of

the firm’s capabilities, can be used to define consulting project outcomes that
make a real contribution to the business’s development.

i. An ability to assess the business’s internal conditions.

The business must have internal conditions that are flexible and responsive to new
possibilities and have the resources needed to innovative in an appropriate way.
The business must have the capacity to grow in response to those possibilities or
be able to hold of the resources include human skills as well as productive
capacity.
 j. An ability to analyze the way in which decision-making occurs within the
business

Generally, businesses rarely recognize good ideas instantly and pursue then
without question. Usually a consultant must convince the client business that what
he or she is suggesting is a real opportunity. To do this an effective consultant
must understand decision-making in the business and use this knowledge to his or
her advantage. This demands knowing who is involved in the decision-making in
the business and use this knowledge to his or her advantage. This demand
knowing who is involved in the decision-making process and the roles different
individuals play. Analyzing the decision-making processes in the client business
is a first stage in building relationships with individuals in the business.

III. Consulting Process Skills

Most engagements undertaken by consultants will involve the solution of problems. Hence,
the consultant should have the ability to apply the analytical approach and process in this
problem – solving exercise. This process consists of four areas:

1. Problem definition phase

This phase has the purpose of full describing the underlying problem. It begins
with the initial recognition of a symptom pointing to the problem and ends with
the complete description of the problem.

2. Identification of Alternative Solutions

This is described as the fact-finding and analysis which involves the gathering of
facts needed to solve the problem and analyzing these facts in order to clarify the
requirements of the best solution.

3. Selection of the most desirable alternative

Also as the solution development phase, this involves the selection of the optimal
solution to the problem and developing a detailed plan of action. This plan of
action should include the rationale for its selection; expressed in terms of benefits
and advantages, the schedule of its installation and the needed resources.

4. Presentation

5. Implementation phase

This phase has the purpose of putting the detailed plan into operation and should
be the least difficult to do if the previous phases have been performed well.
It may, however, involve a high degree of logistic complexity. In some situations,
the deviations due to changed circumstances in the environment may become so
great that there may be a necessity to recycle back to previous phases.