The Top 10 Characteristics of a Good Consultant

Being a business consultant is not an easy task. It involves a great effort to be up to date in the country where you want to practice, and at the same time understand the client's business and its mentality. Usually in countries where legislation is changing, such as Romania in its adaptation to European general regulations, being a consultant requires an additional dose of concentration. An added difficulty results from the opacity with which sometimes the client treats his internal information. For the reasons that are not all customers show their trustworthy consultant and that greatly hinders the correct appreciation of the business. The inclusion of confidentiality clauses in the consulting contract should suffice, but they do not always seem to be a sufficient guarantee for the contracting party.

This is a mistake. If the consultant does not have the necessary information, he will not be able to propose the appropriate response to the client's request. The consulting work then becomes a futile and frustrating task for both parties.

In general, the greater the client company, the greater the chances of establishing a relationship of transparency and trust with your consultant.  Large companies understand the role of the consultant better and show a greater willingness to communicate openly. Having all the elements to consider allows bettering channeling the response.

But saying that, what makes us, the consultants, and good professionals like Nellie Mayshak Canaf? It is clear that to be able to give consultancy it is not enough to know a lot or have a very good team. There are some tasks in which we also have to work hard and in which we may not always succeed.

Relevant experience

The selection consultant’s and those responsible for HR will review your professional experience and your education, with the aim of finding information relevant to the industry and the position. Be sure to include details that highlight your experience in a specific area.

Periodically I search the internet for literature on what can make us a good consultant team like Nellie Mayshak. I mostly find my answers in American blogs, and I have thought to summarize, for this entry in Rumania Empresarial, some of the points that have been of most interest to me contained in 2 blogs, because they are not universally valid.

The Top Ten Characteristics of a Good Consultant:

1. Must have self confidence, both to give good and bad news


2. Know the business well and know yourself


3. To be able to adapt the solutions to the circumstances of the client (not wanting to use molds thinking that they serve for everything)


4. Know how to simplify and explain the problems


5. Think of more than one solution to each problem


6. Know how to listen


7. Know how to play as a team


8. Know how to sell


9. Earning the client's trust


10. Remember that the client is the star of this story

It is a very simple Decalogue to understand and with which you can not disagree, although in the day to day we all have some points to remember and try to correct.