Consulting, especially in complicated energy infrastructure areas, requires considerable skills and constant self-development. Usually, learning takes place along with working. Thus, mistakes are the best teachers in each profession. I prepared some anti-rules that show what not to do in professional consulting.

✕ Always expect your client to be rational.

✓ Clients are patients who seek solutions for their businesses. They cannot know everything about their assets and how to manage them properly. In turn, they appeal to consultants who help them seek the correct solution and be professionally prepared for each problem remedied.

✕ Your plan should be 100% effective.

✓ Asset management frameworks are fully personalized and must be effective, but not all issues can be addressed at once. Consultants solve problems consequently, and this process is time-consuming. It is much more effective to solve 50% of the appeals and then revise the other 50%.

✕ Even if you don’t know how to solve the problem, continue to try.

✓ Although consulting is a profession that requires constant knowledge broadening, consultants are not supposed to know everything. If a consultant faces a problem they lack skills/knowledge about, it is much better to hire someone who is experienced in it. Sometimes, giving up rather than giving numerous ineffective tries is better.

✕ Neglect your clients’ background; it is useless knowledge.

✓ Detailed examination of the client’s business is the first and foremost in consulting. It demonstrates their values, capability, and mistakes that can be avoided. How can you solve a problem not knowing its rules? Bear in mind this essential question.

✕ Develop your own solution; the company’s experience doesn’t influence each client’s case.

✓ Clients appeal to your company precisely due to the company’s expertise. They chose you because of the recommendations or frameworks you provide. Moreover, previous experience and mistakes offer clear directions for future solutions and facilitate implementation.

✕ Neglect customers’ feedback; you’re a professional, you know better.

✓ The thing each person should remember – there is always a room for improvement. Clients’ feedback is the most straightforward but effective method to find the company’s weaknesses and strengths. They also provide other perspectives that broad understanding of the company’s processes, employees, and values system.

Consulting is a sophisticated profession with numerous demanding challenges but also enormous opportunities. Each company, though, is unique. The company develops rules and key milestones depending on its aims, methods, working environments, and approaches. However, these universal anti-rules can direct beginners in consulting (like me) on what definitely not to do.   

Iryna Nykoriak

Published 05.08.2022

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