Consultants: Savior or Satan?

When you hear the word Consultant, what feeling does it evoke? Help, outside opinion, snoop, threat? Consultants are often a way to achieve a goal or fix a problem that can’t be achieved with existing staff or resources. If you aren’t the one who hired the Consultant, you may feel that your leadership may be questioning your work. In fact, typically a Consultant will just reaffirm what you had been telling leadership all along, you don’t have enough staff, you don’t have up to date technology, you need a bigger marketing budget.

A Consultant can be a remarkable ally as long as you are honest with them and see them as an ally, not a threat. The key is to not be defensive when they begin asking a lot of questions. Outside perspective is often times just what a company needs to set a course for the future. See it as an opportunity to get things done that you had not been able to do yourself.