Exploring what it means to be a ‘Consultant’ with Illuminate Universe!

In my pursuit of gaining experience through learning what it means to be a consultant, I came across an abundance of information and learning experiences when Deloitte paired up with Illuminate Universe. Being accepted as a Community Leader at Illuminate Universe, I had the opportunity to review the Deloitte x Illuminated work-integrated learning experience, and as someone who is almost finished with university with a bachelor's degree, I was excited to learn, understand, and share my understanding on what it means to be an effective contributor to the consulting world. Here is a review of my learning and leadership experience and what I learned.

Introduction

When it comes to what it means to ‘consultant’ any average person who is not quite familiar with the world of consultancy will give a general or broad explanation of what it means to do so, some giving suggestions that go along the lines of this kind of person being able to “give good advice” mainly or one might hear some say that they help with strategies and planning. After discovering, learning, and even putting into practice everything that has to do with consultancy, as much as these assumptions are part of it, I have come to understand that there is more to this, especially when it comes to different companies and how differently they operate from other ones. Before going into depth, we have to understand what consulting is. Through my learning and leadership journey with Illuminate Universe, I have learned what it takes to be an effective consultant. This blog contains the reviews and insights from my learning experience.

Key Insight of Strategy Consultancy

The specific focus of this blog is on Strategy Consultancy. This type is more commonly used and most useful in the business context. 

When we look at the business context, it starts with providing strategic direction, solutions that are ‘outside of the box’, and even insights that can be implemented easily. This is why the skills needed personally are a big contributing factor to succeeding in consultancy.

Practical Skills and Attributes

Now understanding how to go about being most effective in a company’s or organization’s success of their objective involves the information and knowledge on how to do so. I have come across ‘frameworks’ or structures put into place to better understand the situation and where the company stands within it. 

Most commonly used the acronym S.W.O.T, which stands for Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threat, is an example that consultants consider or use in their pre-analysis of the challenge. It is used to evaluate the company’s advantages or areas that are lacking internally and used to identify where and what to take advantage of or what to avoid due to things of the external world or market. 

Speaking of externalities, one other framework used that is highly effective is called ‘Porter’s Five Forces’ which looks at the possible determinants to consider when solving the problem. Through this, both the company and the consultant contemplate the following: 

1) Rivalry that exists between other competitors 

2) Bargaining power of buyers

3) Bargaining power of suppliers

4) Threat of new entries from other competitors

5) Threat of substitutes

Using this helps provide a bigger picture of the whole situation which can have both your client, their competitors, and the challenges faced in that one picture. 

Lastly, we have McKinsey’s 7 ‘S’ framework which goes to 7 elements used for effective organization and organizational success which is as follows: Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared values, Skills, Style, and Staff. This one is mainly used for the consultant’s understanding of the company, better analyzing their state so that one can see if improvement and advice can be accepted and willingness to change is too.

All of these are important for the relationship you as a consultant are to pick up. Not only understanding the company but where they stand in their problem, how you can be effective in that solution, and also looking at where you as a consultant stand overall.

However, even though these practical skills are definitely effective, we have to think about our interpersonal skills.

Personal Skills and Attributes

It is important to understand how to carry yourself professionally when building a trusting relationship with your client. This includes how to better understand their needs. The kind of behavior that a well-trusted consultant needs to have as well. This includes client trust; and how you can demonstrate trustworthy behaviour to make your client understand that not only are you not going to go against them and be against them but also being able to deliver and do so at the most convenience of the client. Your credibility is important to not only the client but to yourself and to your firm. Compliance; showing your client that everything is done according to whatever law, regulation, or practice is set in place. Lastly, confidence is key, especially to investors, stakeholders, or even the public who want to be reliant on this to make the right decisions. 

As part of it, consulting with a client means being an attentive listener; making sure you get every information down as possible, having to get clarification of the objective will help keep you on the right track which can be done through constant questioning and discussions, being able to identify points of the project that can be a problem or threat to the solving of the issue and making sure that all the needs and requirement of the client is documented or written down which also helps with mapping out the path to the solution. 

My personal learning experience

If I have learned anything, it is that as a consultant you are more than just ‘giving good advice’ for a certain issue, problem, or dilemma. I will be of more use than that, there is more depth to it. I have learned that going past advice-giving looks like just anything in life when it comes to making a pathway to the end goal which consists of planning, organizing, setups, and building matters just as much. Consultancy uses what they are given, what is available to use, along with the end goal or objective, to create a thorough analysis, hence, making a clear pathway to the end goal. I will be someone who will have to be able to work with the decision-makers, and the higher-ups, making effective improvements from the top down, and most importantly, as a consultant, it is important to go into the consultancy world prepared, ready with skills and the right attributes as well as attitude. Having learned and experienced this, it helped me put up a professionally good demeanor and be professionally effective.

It is understanding that there is more depth to these skills I have picked up and learned what and how specifically I need to be able to do with the communication skills, what and how I need to be able to cultivate a good demeanor and professionalism which important consider that I need to be able to use these to help understand a client's needs and communicate to them my vision of the problem.

During my training and speaking to even Deloitte representatives too, I constantly get reminded of the same thing; “It is better not to understand and come across as knowledgeable in the beginning than later on down the project because then anything that is not fully understood can be clarified in the beginning stage and then done effectively.” I found that it is better not to seem like you have it understood in the beginning just so that you don’t want to come across as incompetent at the job or you want to have your client lose confidence in you. The more questions and lack of understanding you have in the beginning the better it is to map out the solution. 

Impact on the Leadership Journey

Throughout this leadership journey, there have been an abundance of lessons I’ve learned which include my experience in research and how I have learned leadership skills in just the basics of researching. I was able to take up both the practical and the emotional skills that show true leadership when it comes to interaction with people or groups of people, especially learning how to adapt to each person differently. I have learned that for different people and their problems and conflicts come different ways of coming to a solution despite having a general outline on how to solve general issues. When it comes to consultancy, advantageous leadership skills are adaptability and flexibility. Being able to utilize this was what made it easier for me, during the research process and learning experience, to understand that people are unique in their own way whether in leadership or just as an individual, and showed me how to accommodate the difference within different people. During the learning process I was able to learn that the form of repetition in what I am doing strengthens these leadership skill set, so this would look like taking every consulting experience with the necessary mistakes so the more time you do it the more you learn and get used to the whole process and the less amount of mistake you make. Learning this has shown me how useful it will be for future opportunities and how it will enable me to learn more and effective leadership skills now that I know what it means to be a leader.

Final Thoughts and Summary

What consultancy is and what it means to be an effective consultant entails the practical skills; ones that you are able to pick up and quite simply apply through and towards constant interactions with the mains being organization, planning, communication, and execution. To add to this it is just as important to gain personal skills that can be useful to you in your career and journey. Skills that can be attained through reflection so that you are able to understand how to create a personal bond, create trust, and so on.