You're a management consultant looking to develop your technical skills. How do you get started?

While you build competence in those areas, you can start off at doing. Keep at making presentations, contributing and hands-on practice. This will help build experience and confidence.

Top Tip: Engage in a skill-audit workshop or seminar. These interactive sessions are designed to help professionals critically evaluate their skill sets in a structured environment. Facilitators often use engaging methods like skill matrices or competency frameworks that can reveal insights into your professional capabilities you might not have considered. Additionally, participating in such workshops offers the opportunity to receive direct, constructive feedback from experienced facilitators and peers, providing a comprehensive perspective on your current skills and areas for improvement. This approach not only aids in self-assessment but also enriches your understanding of how your skills align with industry demands.

No, you can't do that. If you profess yourself as a "management consultant" trying to develop a technical skill, then you're not a management consultant. Show us your track record for at least 20 years honed in real corporate setting, before you can advertised as an alleged consultant. The market is too intelligent to put up with you.

I would categorize the need in 3 ways : 1) Skills to learn to improve the service you provide 2) Skills to learn because the industry is changing, you have to adapt (eg. focus on AI/ML) 3) Skills to learn because you are passionate about it, could be strategic for future use or a niche service you can offer. Before starting to learn new skills, it would be good to understand the “why”. See how it will add value to your business.If it’s a gap, then it’s a need, and it’s urgent. If it’s to compliment a service then it’s important but not urgent. If it’s a passion and it can be used later in the future, then it’s “nice to have” and can wait. Prioritize what adds value and manage time around when it needs to be done based on urgency.

First of all, I would clearly define what technical skills entail, and then I would create a plan on how I may learn, how I may practice, how I may assess these two parts; so that I may put them into practice for management consulting. There are many things that you may do to improve such skills. Attending seminars and workshops is one way to go, however I would look into the validity, the credentials as well as the success rates of these seminars and workshops; since I truly believe that one should learn from someone who has done it with a highly successful track record and experience. On top of this, I am a firm believer in self-education; so I would educate myself and practice in low-risk settings.

One thing I have found helpful is not just about credibility or how popular one resource or certification could be. It’s about its perceived credibility as well. Look at the market you are in and entering, if the market requires you to gain certain “degrees, certifications” and it’s a barrier for entry to land the service job then you have to benchmark and match what is “required”. It is a balance because what is required doesn’t always mean the best way to keep and acquire the skill. If the standard is the best way to get the skill, choose that. But if it lacks the ability to provide you with what you need to really learn or mismatches your learning style, I suggest you compliment it with other resources.

One pitfall to avoid when choosing resources for learning technical skills is relying solely on passive learning methods. While online courses, books, and webinars provide valuable information, they lack the interactive and practical components essential for deep understanding and skill mastery. To counteract this, complement your learning with hands-on experiences that challenge you to apply what you've learned in real-world scenarios. This could be through projects that offer immediate application opportunities or by engaging in communities and forums where you can discuss, query, and get feedback on your understanding. Ensuring a balance between theoretical knowledge and practical application enhances retention and skill proficiency.

You need to choose the right resources to give you enough momentum in your search for appropriate career-relevant technical skills. As a Management Consultant, you must possess required technical acumen to deal with complexities in a fast changing technological world. These resources could be technical online courses, training programmes, webinars as well as popular technical journals depending on how you want to learn, your availability and budget. You can also look for internal or external opportunities to get hands-on experience, such as joining as an intern with an expert or volunteering for an observer role in a live ongoing project. Whatever may be your choice, make sure that the resources are credible and aligned with your goals

One important approach to your continuous learning of technical skills in Management Consulting domain is to apply what you already learnt. This facilitates the possible midcourse corrections you need to bring in your ongoing project. Learning technical skills doesn't make real sense unless and until you apply and validate them. Which means you need to use these technical skills and knowledge to solve real problems, create value, and improve your processes. You can also possibly share your insights and outcomes with your colleagues, stakeholders or network, and get feedback and recognition. This will help to understand your strengths as well. Needless to add,this will help you to demonstrate your credentials and build your confidence.

If unsure where to focus efforts, don't hesitate to reach out to supervisors, colleagues, and even juniors for insights. Each individual can offer a unique perspective based on their experiences and observations of your work. Continuously seeking feedback and actively engaging in learning opportunities will contribute to the ongoing development of technical skills as a management consultant. Remember, growth is a journey, and embracing a proactive and open-minded approach will lead to continuous improvement.

If you are a management consultant there are two types of areas where you need to constantly learn and re-learn. 1. Functional Skills: Your firm may already have frameworks in place to tackle problems (diagnosis, data analytics, prioritization, etc.) Learn and periodically keep up. Beyond your firm (eg. if you freelance), explore what is out there. Generative AI provides now literally hundreds of commercially available tools to structure and tackle consulting-type problems. 2. Industry skills: you have to be fully read up on your area of focus. I suggest subscribing to a various news sources (Wired, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review, etc.), dedicating 30+ min/ day to it. Apps like newsletterss.com help declutter inbox for this content.

Dedicating time to learn about AI's functionalities, limitations, and best practices for interaction will not only streamline your workflow but also place you at the forefront of innovation in your field. The journey to AI proficiency may seem daunting, but the rewards are substantial. Embrace the learning curve, and watch as your proficiency in AI transforms your approach to business consultancy, leading to unparalleled excellence and success.

As a management consultant a very important skill is to be curious. Try to be a team member in multiple technology related engagements where technology is being evaluated for fit and business growth. Multiple such engagements should give you a solid understanding of technical skills along with knowledge of how such decisions can impact business. Reading about how certain technologies impact businesses in a positive way, understanding those from a functional standpoint will help you excel. Thirdly, ask questions to your team members who are subject matter experts. This is a very good and fast way to learn and apply the knowledge.

Undoubtedly, mastering the effective use of AI is one of the most sought-after and beneficial skills to acquire. A common misconception is that one can simply pose a question and expect the AI to decipher their thoughts. However, the fault often lies not with AI, but with our own imprecise inquiries that are too vague to yield specific answers. By refining our questions, we can significantly enhance the relevance of the responses we receive. It's essential to understand that AI operates within the parameters of the information provided. As a business consultant, the ability to leverage AI effectively can dramatically improve your analytical capabilities, decision-making processes, and overall performance

To enhance your grasp on newly learned technical skills and contribute to organizational growth, consider teaching an introductory course to your colleagues. This method not only solidifies your knowledge through the act of teaching but also promotes a culture of continuous learning within your team. Preparing and delivering such a course sharpens your ability to simplify complex topics, thereby honing your communication skills. It simultaneously elevates the overall skill set of your team, encouraging innovation and teamwork. Sharing your learning experience and challenges can motivate others to pursue their skill development, amplifying the impact across the organization.

In my experience to gain technical skill as a management consultant, one needs to identify the Key areas and accordingly enrol for the best programs available from the top institutes and once the program starts, it’s important to focus on learning key technical skills from the subject matter, experts, and peer to peer learning. It is also important, to take up a project related to learning specific technical skills and accordingly complete the project which adds value to your learning, experience and outcomes for the organisation.

Why do you need new skills for? What skills? When? How? for Whom? from Where? You need to answers this questions first before start any training. If you want to keep up, you're already late. If you want to create new value for your customers, what they need you to know that they cannot get for themselves? If you want to differenciate from competitors, identify what they know and look for something else. It is always GREAT to learn something new, but learn something that can add value to your practice, not just because everyone is doing it.