5.project consultant skills By Allah Dad Khan

2. Project Consultant Skills
BY
ALLAH DAD KHAN
Provincial Project Director CMPII MINFAL
Pakistan
03329221298

3.  Great consultants adapt to new projects, work cultures
and colleagues easily. They come in, they fit in and
they get the job done. Their soft skills and technical
expertise allow them to take on their roles quickly and
easily.

4.  Great consultants work hard and they work smart.
They know how to accomplish the best results in the
shortest possible time with as little friction as possible.
Great consultants are problem solvers: bring them in
and the work gets done.

5.  Great consultants are confident about their skills and
expertise. They expose a natural collaborative
leadership and they leave their egos at the door. Great
consultants are team players: they put company goals
and team spirit first

6.  Great consultants don’t give up. They accept frictions,
unforeseen circumstances and negative feedback, they
learn from them and they move on. They will analyze
and learn from every setback in order to prevent it
from happening again.

7.  Great consultants never stop learning. They need to
stay on top of the developments in their fields of
expertise. It is their job to bring the latest knowledge
and skills to the table when others can’t.

8.  Remember MacGyver, the hero of the popular TV
show? He could solve any problem with his mind and
his Swiss army knife. The same goes for great
consultants; they use skills and knowledge from
previous projects to solve new problems and
challenges.

9.  Great consultants see the big picture and the small
parts that can make it better. Consultants bring a fresh
view, and as such they can offer surprising insights
that can solve problems and boost the client’s
business.

10.  Great consultants listen first and they speak second.
Their primary goal is to help other people and
businesses. Great consultants build trust because of
their will to help their clients accomplish their goals.

11.  To help people achieve their business goals, a
management consultant must hear what her clients
say. Besides physically acknowledging your client's
communications, you also need to read between the
lines to perceive what else the client means or wants.
Not all clients know how to articulate effectively. A
management consultant must ask the questions --
based on what she has heard -- to draw the client's
needs to the forefront. Be an active listener. Look the
client in the eye as she speaks and repeat what she says
to ensure you understand her concerns and to let her
know she has your full attention.

12.  People do not operate, think or communicate at the
same level. Each person has his own way of sharing
information. One quality of a successful management
consultant is the ability to translate complex ideas into
simple terms in a way that others can understand.
Conversely, if the management consultant works with
the executive level of a company, he cannot sound as if
he just came in off the streets. Thoughtful, directed
communication is a key trait of a management
consultan

13. 
Consultants should always keep in mind that client
relationship should remain at a professional level. It is
sometimes easy for consultants to take on an
“employee attitude,” which in many environments can
backfire on the consultant and actually create a
negative situation for the project.

14. 
Consultants should look for ways to adjust their work
style to accommodate the schedule, budget and overall
requirements of the project. This is particularly true
when faced with pressure to maintain high quality
within finite time and budget constraints.

15. 
Consultants are required to have good judgment when
confronted with a problem. We should not jump to
conclusions. Consultants should take time to consider
the facts and to get feedback from their peers and
management before reaching a decision.

16. 
Consultants must demonstrate that they are team
players and are willing to learn from team members,
genuinely valuing the input and expertise of others. It
is important to establish a collaborative relationship
with peers.

17. 
The consultant should have excellent oral and written
communication skills. Since we are often viewed as the
subject matter expert (SME), we should be able to
communicate our opinions effectively. In addition to
English, it is beneficial to know the language widely
used by the employees of the company. In some
countries, the documentation may be in a local
language. Ideally, the consultant can easily read this
language without employing any translators.

18. 
Clients typically approach an external consultant for two
reasons: 1) the client expects the consultant to have more
expertise than the organization’s internal resources or 2)
because clients do not have sufficient time to solve their
own problems or implement their own projects. As
consultants, our level of knowledge should be broad
enough to know when to ask questions and/or where to
research to find solutions. At all times, the consultant
should remain current by reading journals, magazines,
informative websites and through networking with fellow
consultants. We should know how to apply theory into
practice and also be skillful in using appropriate tools
(software, professional journals, etc.) to function efficiently
in the job.

19. 
During the consulting process, consultants will meet
different people with unique characteristics. Some will
be verbose, others reticent. Having excellent listening
skills will encourage all to talk freely. This leads to
more information sharing which, in the end, can make
the consulting process more streamlined.

20.  Your work is defined by the rigid parameters set out by
proposals and contracts, but you must still be light on
your feet as you operate with the whole world in a state
of flux. Try to keep your proposals more open-ended
to handle unexpected issues that will inevitably crop
up as you progress with your work

21. 
It is important for consultants to understand the
responsibilities of their role, as well as the practices
and parameters of the job. You may notice that each
client has a different take on what the role of a
consultant entails. Clarifying your client’s expectations
and deliverables beforehand may possibly be the single
most important task one undertakes.

22. 
Saying “I don’t know” is often a very good answer to a
question. An even better answer is “I don’t know, but I
know people who do know.” Consultants do not know
everything, and should not be expected to know
everything. Saying, “I do not know” will not damage
your prestige. As an example, if your client has a
problem related to legal issues, try to consult with a
legal consultant to help your client find a solution to
the problem.

23. 
Protect his public reputation above everything else—
he will not get an easy chance to repair it if it is
damaged. If necessary, walk away from situations or
contracts that could potentially damage your
reputation. Consulting is not simply contracting by
another name; it involves duties of care and levels of
accountability, responsibility and integrity that may
well be greater than those of the client. If that proves
to be the case and you find a client’s operations and
methods are not ethical, then it is time to walk away.
Be selective about the clients for whom you work.

24.  Some people enter the field viewing it as a stopgap between
paid employment, while others view consulting as offering
independence that will be a welcome relief to the
stultifying atmosphere in the organizations where they
have worked. Whatever your reasons, you need the
financial sustainability to allow you to survive for a period
of time – say six months – while you search for contracts. It
is possible, of course, to ease into consulting while working
part-time in a paying job, but she suggests that because you
are not so hungry for work you may not try as hard to find
it. You may also get stuck, perhaps permanently, in what
she calls “the great divide” between the employed and self-
employed, preventing you from self-actualizing in either
role.

25.  Consultant must be strong and confident about his
abilities, but also low maintenance, ego in check.
Although a hired hand for the organizations he work
with, he must be a leader, motivating others and
working in a collaborative way to nudge clients to
solutions they might not have reached on their own

26.  He has to be smart, well-trained and experienced –
and have the educational credentials to back you up,
be it an MBA or specialized training in your specific
field of focus. “Competition for management
consultants is likely to remain keen, and those with
the most education and experience will have the best
prospects,” she writes. Maturity and lots of contacts
from a long career can be helpful; younger individuals
have youth on their side but should expand their
portfolio through as many varied experiences as
possible

27.  You need courage, energy, vision – and spunk. “It is the
capacity to go against the common view, to walk into a
room of fractious stakeholders who don’t support the
evaluation and don’t want to hear about the findings.
It is the ability to land in a strange town at midnight,
scrape the snow and ice off your rental car, and locate
your motel without the benefit of a map. It is being
able to get up the day after you have lost the best
proposal you have ever written and start all over again,”
she notes