1. ELSAM MANAGEMENTCONSULTANTS
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Understanding a Consultant and Consulting skills
Abstract
Consulting is the process of giving advice or performs other services of
professional or semi-professional manner in return for compensation. In
consulting you are boss of your own as you pick your own hours of work by
deciding when you work and when you do not. In consulting you decide whom
you wish to work for and whom you do not work for, as well as whom you do
and do not work with. Also in consulting, you set your own fees. This article
provides basic understanding of the consulting, consultant and consulting
skills for every person who wants to make an incredible business of consulting.
Introduction
Who is a consultant?
Consultant is anyone who gives advice or performs other services of a
professional or semiprofessional nature, in return for compensation. Any
person can become a consultant regardless of the area of interest or expertise
this is because everyone has unique background, with special experiences and
interests which are in demand by certain individuals or companies at certain
times. A consultant can be an individual, a group or an organization. Any
consultant is there to give advice to the client concerned without exercising
direct control to the client as the client is the one who has final say on the
matter in hand. To be a consultant you need the following:
1. Build an effective relationship with client
As a consultant you need to understand who the client is, and
understand their business issues, goals and priorities. Always
understand who is your real client, the culture within which the client’s
works and what factors are influencing his/her decisions or behaviors.

2. 2. Understand each client’s current needs from business, technical and
personal perspectives.
As a consultant always strive to see the world through client’s eyes. You
should always think beyond what client is thinking so that you can get
more confidence from the client
3. Clearly define both your role and that of the client.
Being a consultant you should always set your expectations related to
the services you are going to perform and ways forward to accomplish the
assignment. You should always be clearly on what you will do and what
you will not do and what to expect from the client.
4. Visualize success- shave a vision for the results you are working to
achieve.
As a consultant you should make sure you make the client have the
mental picture of his/her desired results of the engagement, this will
help to bring a common goal shared vision between a consultant and
client.
5. Coach and advice on issues and solutions. Let the client decide.
As a consultant your great job is to bring about issues to your client and
to seek a way forward to the solutions of those issues, the client is
always the one who will have the final say on the solutions given. A
consultant job is only to advice and never takes the direct control.
6. Be action and results-oriented; deliver business results.
Being a consultant you must help your clients reach their project-related
goals. This means getting positive results and creating new possibilities
for client success.
CONSULTING SKILLS
Consultant needs to have a broad set of skills and styles to get the job done.
Consultants must be adaptable, flexible and multitalented as the way to deliver
services to their clients. These are some of the most skills that a consultant
needs to have in a way of doing a consulting work:
1: Bedside manner; this refers to how you get along with your client, by
taking much consideration on how you talk to your client. As a consultant you
have to have a pleasant bedside manner, so that your clients have confidence
in what you say.
2: The ability to diagnose problems; as an outstanding consultant you
need to have the ability to diagnose the problem correctly so that you will be

3. able to solve your clients’ problem than adding to the problem your client
already have.
3: The ability to find solutions; a consultant needs to diagnose the
problem correctly this will help him/her to recommend the proper actions to
correct the situations the clients have.
4: Technical expertise and knowledge; consultant needs to have
technical expertise which comes from his/her education, experience and the
personal skills developed, the technical expertise and knowledge will help a
consultant to make a major contribution to the benefit of their clients.
5: Communication skills; the best way to succeed in any consultant job
is to learn how to communicate with your client in all proper means possible.
Poor communication always will lead to failure to deliver the best service your
client need from you. A good consultant is the one who knows and have that
ability to communicate with his/her clients.
6: Marketing and selling ability; as a consultant you have to learn to be
a good marketer and a good sales person. Any consultant has to sell
himself/herself, so the best way to sell you as consultant is learned within a
period of time
7: Management skills; as a consultant you need to be a good manager
in how you manage the whole consulting business and run various clients
project. This skill can be learned within time, for someone to be an outstanding
consultant has to learn how to manage a consulting business and various
project.
Lastly as a consultant the first thing is having analytical skills, second; you
need to be sensitive to others, then; a consultant need to be tolerance to
consulting lifestyle, which may require intensive hours of work on some
projects, finally a consultant needs to have a strong personal drive to be
successful.
Prepared by Grace Godfrey, Business Consultant at Elsam Management Consultants. You may
contact her for more details through grace@elsamconsult.com