Developing and Using Consultancy Skills

Peter Cureton

• Publisher: CIPD - Kogan Page
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781843984269
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Developing and Using Consultancy Skills supports students and practitioners in their understanding of the meaning of consultancy and the skills required in consulting in a learning and development context. It covers all the stages in the consulting process and provides guidance on engaging with the client, clarifying the nature of the issues, agreeing the research areas and analysing feedback. Developing and Using Consultancy Skills also includes essential coverage of common problems with client-consultation relationships and how to overcome these as well as discussion of ethics and consultant behaviour. Essential reading for anyone studying the intermediate CIPD L&D qualification, this guide will not only equip students for their studies, but also for their role as L&D professionals in the workplace.

REFLECTION

Review the approaches to consultancy and use search engines to discover how they have been used in differing contexts.

How relevant are the ideas to your own specific context?

Record your reflections in your CPD log.

Skills in consulting

The skills that consultants need are shown in Table 1 and they are linked to relevant areas of the CIPD Profession Map. Each will be considered in summary form as this ebook does not permit an in-depth exploration. Readers should refer to other CIPD texts that cover skills in greater depth. The 2014 Watson and Reissner text, Developing Skills for Business Leadership, and Valerie Anderson’s 2013 text Research Methods in Human Resource Management: Investigating a business issue, although written for a postgraduate audience, are also appropriate at intermediate level and should be consulted by L&D professionals.

Table 1 Skills in consulting

	CIPD behaviours
Building rapport	Role model
Establishing credibility	Personally credible
Financial awareness
Commercial awareness	Curious
Investigation	Courage to challenge
Questioning
Listening	Skilled influencer
Negotiation and agreemen	Decisive thinker
	Collaborative
	Driven to deliver
CPD and being reflexive	Role model and an essential requirement of being a CIPD member and a professional

EXERCISE 3

Using a ten-point scale (ten is highly developed, one is no ability), rate your current level of skills. If you have already rated yourself using the CIPD Profession Map, draw on it for this rating.

1. What do you conclude from this?
2. What areas do you need to develop to build your consultancy skills?

Record your reflections in your CPD log.

Building rapport

Initiating an effective relationship with a client helps the project to develop effectively. The popular expression ‘you do not get a second chance to make a first impression’ is perhaps harsh, but it can be difficult to build a relationship after an awkward start. The client will need to recognise the L&D professional as a consultant and understand the contribution that they can make. However, rapport is not just needed at the start, it should be maintained throughout the duration of the project. Do not be too keen to probe the issue too soon. You may need to ‘break the ice’ in a new personal relationship. Rapport can be established by discussing general areas of potential common interest such as current business issues or issues in the external environment. So start with gentle questions to begin to view the context within which the client works and the issue is located. A mantra that I used in a previous sales context was ‘people buy people first, goods and services second’. Good levels of rapport will enable clients to trust the L&D consultant and discuss areas requiring improvement as well as those of strength.

It is worth considering potential differences between external and internal consultants. External consultants are more likely to have an assumed credibility in a client’s perception. They will have been engaged by an organisation due to reputation and experience built through their track record of previous projects. After all, without credibility they could not survive for long in business. Internal consultants may feel the relativities of power that often exist between different departments – so-called organisational politics. L&D as a function tends not to be associated with strong organisational power, so an internal consultant will need to have and develop emotional intelligence, a sensitivity to others and resilience, and recognise how their behaviour can affect others and not draw on past perceptions. A more detailed consideration of emotional intelligence can be found by reading the work of Daniel Goleman (1996). This is especially important in situations where the client has worked with the L&D professional previously, or perhaps has been their manager. They may have memories that could influence their perception of the individual as a consultant, although they ought to take some credit for contributing to an individual’s development that has resulted in her becoming a consultant.

Finally, rapport can be built by acting as a role model. This means acting consistently with integrity, showing impartiality and not favouring specific departments of individuals, and demonstrating independence. A professional L&D consultant will not compromise when giving her opinions and will balance personal and organisation aims.

Establishing credibility

CIPD defines personal credibility as ‘builds and delivers professionalism through combining commercial and HR expertise to bring value to the organisation, stakeholders and peers’. A consultant can establish credibility by using their experience without overstating it and without false modesty. Inexperienced consultants may sometimes not wish to reveal a lack of expertise to a client in the belief that to do so may mean that they do not secure a contract or work agreement. I have found that honesty about experience is more likely to establish credibility as the consultant is neither ‘an expert’ nor a ‘doctor’. It is equally mistaken to understate experience. A professional should always use the skills and experience at her/his disposal and commit to work that is within her/his range of experience. To do otherwise will not only ruin credibility but damage the rapport that has been created. Advice and guidance needs to be offered in a collegial manner and, over time, an L&D consultant can build a reputation as a reliable source of information.

Financial awareness

Beyond drawing on relevant experience, a consultant can develop personal credibility by discussing a project in a currency that is universal to any organisation – finance. Being financially aware will help an L&D consultant to stay focused on measurable outcomes and the overall cost effectiveness of an L&D project. It would not be a successful project if the cost of an L&D intervention was greater than the savings produced!

The project outcomes shown in Figure 2 should be illustrated with specific monetary benefits. For example, if customer complaints cost an organisation £100,000 before a consultancy intervention, it should reduce afterwards. If current productivity is 50,000 units, it should increase after the consultancy intervention. Of course, these very general examples assume that the exact measures are known and this can be a challenge for the consultant.

As it can sometimes be difficult for L&D consultants to determine clear financial measures, there are two accountancy tools that can help – notional costing and sensitivity analysis. Notional costing is a best-guesstimate of how costs will behave and sensitivity analysis allows one to alter the guesstimate – so-called ‘what-if’ scenarios. I have found from experience that it is good practice for an L&D consultant to ask for the client’s view of notional improvements or savings as it gives them a stake in the project. Sensitivity analysis allows a range of different outcomes to be considered. As a stakeholder, clients will support an L&D project if it is questioned by senior management.

REFLECTION

1. In the examples used above, if the cost of customer complaints and the value of unit production are known, what do you think that a client might estimate for the performance improvement? This will produce the notional improvement.
   Now conduct sensitivity analysis by considering if the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• Introduction and Overview
• The Meaning of Consultancy
• Definition and Types of Consultancy
• Skills in Consulting
• Stages in the Consulting Process
• Engage with the Client
• Clarify the Nature of the Issue(s)
• Agree the Research Area
• Feedback Results
• Common Problems with Client–Consultant Relationships
• Ethics and Consultant Behaviour
• Concluding Thoughts
• Multiple Choice Questions
• Answers to Multiple Choice Questions