Business Insights

Often when businesses face a change in direction, they look to a business consulting company for help. Finding a consultant who can honestly deliver that help with knowledge, efficiency and integrity can be a challenge. If you think your business could benefit from the help of a consultant, here are some things to consider when interviewing potential candidates.

First and foremost, a consultant must be able to listen. If a person can’t take the time to listen to what you have to say, it is highly unlikely they will ever understand your needs and objectives well enough to help you. Unfortunately, there are consultants out there who talk the talk but fail to hear what others have to say.

A management consultant should offer you a service, not a product. You are searching for help with problems within your business and you need someone who will work to solve those problems, meet the needs of the assignment, foster morale, or help plan new agendas. Be wary of someone who wants only to sell you this program, or that book, or this software. While all of these are great resources to have, a consultant must also provide guidance and teaching first.

Be wary of a consultant who boasts that “I can turn your company around” or some such exclamation. A consultant’s job is to empower your management and employees to implement change, make wise choices and design a plan to reach goals in the future. A wise consultant will help you to recognize how the company got to where it is and demonstrate how to make the right choices to accelerate improvement.

Obviously you will want to work with a consultant who has had plenty of diversified experience. A big caveat here is to avoid the temptation to search out a consultant with experience only in your industry.  In order to be truly effective a consultant must be able to offer a wide range of approaches to problem solving that can only come from having worked in many different situations.

When your business is failing, the last thing you or your employees need is someone telling you what a mess you’ve made of things or point out all the wrong choices you’ve made.  If a consultant starts out telling you things like, “boy, have you been doing things the wrong way” or is very patronizing, saying things like, “let me tell you how it should have been done,” you should definitely end the interview then and there.

Last but not least, a potential consultant will come to you with an open mind, waiting until all of your concerns and issues have been presented before offering any advice at all.  If a consultant appears to arrive at your door with a readymade, cookie cutter, one size fits all attitude to improvement, that is not the consultant you want!

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.OneCoach.com as the original source).

Leader, manager, business coach, or consultant; whatever your title, if you are in a position that requires you to motivate and inspire others, there are certain attitudes, behaviors and personal attributes that you need to make your endeavors successful.  Here are 10 questions any good leader must be able to answer in a positive way.

Am I able to recognize differences among my staff or team members in order to work effectively with each one? Being able to see these differences and respond accordingly, allows a leader to motivate on an individual level for better results.

Do I encourage suggestions and input on procedures from everyone? In order for people to feel motivated to make change or improve, they have to have some ownership of the process and believe their contributions are important.

Am I able to allow individuals to solve their own problems? A leader’s job is not to do everything but to impart the necessary knowledge, tools, and skills to others so they can do what needs to be done.

Do I understand the personal goals of each of the people on my team or in my employ? Everyone has their own motivations for doing things.  By understanding what makes people work, we are better able to find ways to keep them moving ahead.

Do I provide consistent and appropriate rewards and praise where deserved? Everyone needs to be recognized for their efforts and contributions.

Am I able to identify slackers or non believers and take necessary actions to either bring them on board or find other areas for them? It is almost impossible to reach a goal when some team members just don’t want to participate.

Do I consistently try to find ways for people to grow, learn, and develop on the job? Success breeds success.  The more people learn, the more they are inspired to learn, and the more they accomplish, the harder they will work toward future goals.

Do I make being available to individuals, management, and other team members a priority? It’s impossible for a leader to be invisible and make progress.  The more approachable you are, the more comfortable your team and employees will be with asking questions and making suggestions.  Good communication is vital to the success of any project.

Can I motivate the team as a whole towards a goal while at the same time recognizing individual efforts and contributions? While each individual’s efforts are invaluable, the team as a whole must learn to work together to make effective change.

Am I successful at promoting communication, understanding, respect, and support among the people I work with? In order to achieve success and accomplish desired goals, both team members and individuals need a leader who can create a working environment that encompasses these skills.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.onecoach.com as the original source).

This content is excerpted from an interview that OneCoach CEO John Assaraf conducted with business consultant Mitch Axelrod, author of The New Game of Business. A previous excerpt from this interview, about when to give your product away for free, is here.

The game of business has permanently changed, says Mitch Axelrod.  Here are some of his new rules:

Don’t fall in love with your products and services.  Of course, you have to like and believe in what you sell.  But when you become overly enamored of what you produce and sell, you can easily become blinded to what the marketplace actually wants.

Instead, shift your attention to the people who buy your product or service.  They will tell you what they want and need, and they will help you improve your products and services to better serve those needs. 

Ultimately, your customers determine your success in the marketplace.  Passion is good.  Enthusiasm is good.  But never fall in love with your product or service at the expense of your customer base.

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Growth is the lifeblood of entrepreneurship and business success. It is also the lifeblood of our economy. It is why we at OneCoach are dedicated to teaching and empowering growth. But growth requires work, change and transformation. Perhaps most importantly, growth requires personal transformation in the leadership of the organization.

Most small-business owners have enough knowledge, experience and resources to get themselves into business. However, few have the depth and breadth of knowledge, experience and skills to remain capable as a leader as the business grows– unless they grow too. Growth brings increasing demands, of:

• complexity
• management
• human systems
• financial management
• competitive response
• planning
• training
• development
• technology and information management
• and leadership itself.

Hence, the leader must transform to adapt to all of these changes. The leadership skills, experience and methods that were appropriate for a three-person startup operating out of a garage will not serve a 100-person firm or a multicultural international enterprise. Business growth constantly puts a leader in new positions that require learning, new perspectives, new skills and new stamina. If the leader relies upon what has served in the past, it may not serve in the future. Unfortunately this realization may come too late, unless the leader is ready and prepared for change, expecting, waiting and preparing for it rather than being forced into it or surprised by it.

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