Qualities of effective internal consultants

A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He spots a man down below and shouts,
"Excuse me, I was supposed to meet my friend 30 minutes ago but don't know where I am."
"You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 40 feet above this field. You are between 46 & 48 degrees N latitude and between 52 & 56 degrees W. longitude."
"You must be an engineer."
"I am, how did you know?"
"Well, everything you have told me is technically correct but I have no idea what to make of your information and I am still lost."
"You must be a consultant."
"I am, but how did you know?"
"Well, you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep and you expect me to solve your problem. You are in exactly the same position you were in before we met but now it is somehow my fault."

Ten challenges of internal consulting

internal consulting is challenging! In many cases you will be working with people who cannot:

1. see the point of your project - they can tell you at least 10 other things that need sorting out first
2. believe that you have the knowledge to deliver - if you did, why do you keep asking all the questions
3. understand why, with their experience, they aren't project leader
4. trust you because there is always a hidden agenda
5. give you any time or resources because there is real work to be done
6. imagine that you won't steal their ideas and pass them off as your own
7. accept that the current approach is wrong when it has 'worked fine' for so long
8. support somebody from your department as a matter of principle
9. acknowledge that somebody within the organization could have the same breadth of perspective as an external consultant
10. accept that there is no implied criticism of him and so no need to defend the status quo

Being a prophet in your own land is not easy! And that's before you even begin to wrestle with the substantive issues and tackle the actual problem.

Skills and Perspectives

1 technical skills

An internal consultant will normally have some expertise in a particular area. This may be discrete and relatively well-defined - training needs analysis - or it may be more amorphous - management.

2 interpersonal skills

internal consultants must be:

• good communicators - questioning, listening
• persuasive and capable of winning both hearts and minds [influencing module]
• able to develop trust
• capable of overcoming resistance and promoting change [leading change module]
• astute in dealing with conflict
• assertive
• empathic, understanding the role of feelings in driving behaviour
• able to present ideas clearly and with impact [presenting module]

3 consulting skills

Effective internal consultants follow a 6-step consulting process [consulting module] and are competent in each phase:

• contracting
• analysis and diagnosis
• leadership and management - including innovation, problem solving and decision-making [problem solving module]
• recommendations
• implementation
• evaluation

4 strategic, financial and organizational

internal consultants are aware of the distinction between being efficient and effective. To be effective, internal consultants need to understand the broader business perspective. This means having:

• strategic perspective - how do recommendations fit with current strategy and do they anticipate future changes? Do they leverage and support current core competencies? How do they impact intangible performance drivers - culture, brand, relationships etc? [strategic module]
• financial perspective - how is working capital affected by recommendations, what is the return on investment, is shareholder value created? [financial module]
• organization perspective - have opportunities for synergy been exploited?

5 self-management skills

In our effectiveness module we address some of the personal challenges of being an internal consultant:

• self-awareness
  • thinking styles - where are their strengths and weaknesses and where are the risks of bias
  • emotional intelligence
  • personality - recognising their own internal drivers
• time management skills
  • vision and goal-setting
  • planning and prioritising
  • overcoming obstacles
• ability to use business 'tools' and knowledge of enabling technology
  • basic Excel
  • project management
  • presentation aids
  • internet / intranet - surveys, discussion fora, wikis, virtual meetings etc