Art and Science of Consulting - #1

As part of a recent panel discussion, I was asked to share my perspective on the major qualities that play important role in making a ‘Rockstar’ consultant. There are just so many attributes – hard and soft skills that are required to be successful in consulting and it’s common to find people who are champions at some and completely ignorant of another.

That got me thinking and I decided to share my thoughts around ‘Art’ and ‘Science’ of consulting - Science would be something that can be templatized and even a beginner could experiment with eventually getting mastery, while Art would usually take deep experience and understanding of people and business before once can ACE a skill.

Let’s start by talking about the first attribute.

Decision Making - What Decisions can you really make?

The French philosopher, Albert Camus reminds us that “Life is the sum of all your choices.” Similarly, the life of a Technology / Business consultant is a result of the choices and decisions made while on the job. While the schedule and planning of the deliverable may be pre-determined by the Program Managers, the execution of the same lies in the capable hands of a consultant. An aspiring individual should be able to take well-calculated decisions and execute an assigned task with minimum or no supervision.

The Science of Decision Making:

While making any decision, it is necessary to clearly understand the objective at hand, so that your thoughts are aimed at a desired end result. Consider various options and see which approach would be best, by anticipating the consequence of said direction. Post execution, it's important to reflect on the lessons learnt so as to make better decisions in the future . Although every client situation is unique, this thought process will perfect your trade and allow you to be perceived as a flawless consultant in the very first interaction itself.

There are multiple tools to help take decisions like SWOT Analysis, Cost Benefit Analysis, Pareto Principle, Feasibility studies, etc. Read more about these here .

As part of every project, there are a lot of repetitive but necessary steps like Account set-up, Templatization, Failure Analysis etc. which can be automated or in some instances even delegated. In the event of a complicated custom requirements, involve the Solution SMEs to figure the best options to provide value to customers. One may also use the Decision-Matrix to decide which ones to own & what can be achieved via collaboration.

The Art of Decision Making: The Grey Area.

While some decisions are routine, few problems have no obvious right answers. The Art is in knowing when to take a decision & recommending one among couple of equally good alternatives. Prioritisation is an asset to one’s decision making ability, so as to make sure the actions focussed on are truly productive. For Example, a client during a project may request for a setup that may be beyond the scope of the product. A very common scenario but something which doesn’t usually have a direct yes or no answer. Rather, It is vital to evaluate the impact on the client’s business and also the associated complexity. If the requirement is out of product roadmap, one should analyse the business impact, understand key value addition to customer and evaluate different solution options or workarounds. Complicated solutions may be discussed with Solution SMEs before presenting the options to the customer .

As professor of Business Ethics at Harvard Business School, Joe Badaracco, says “In the end, if it’s still not clear what you should do, then you go with your gut. But people tend to do it backwards, and start with their gut instead. You don’t want somebody trying to figure out what makes economic, legal and ethical sense in a complicated situation without thinking it through.”

Do share your thoughts. Happy Decision Making!

#decisionmaking #leadershipskills #consulting

Randeep Jaidka has spent 2 decades working as a consultant across multiple domains and industries and is passionate about SaaS, Customer Engagement and People.