I am a consultant so you may think this posting is all about how to hire me. You'd be wrong.

I only want you to hire me if the fit is right. As a matter of fact, I will not even encourage you to hire me unless:

• I believe I understand your objectives
• I believe I can help you achieve your objectives
• I believe you are serious about taking action and investing in your future

Your objectives are all-important. And they should be business objectives - outcomes that positively impact your business. They should not be touchy-feely ideas. For example, "improved teamwork" is not a business objective. However, fewer decisions landing on your desk so you can focus on other matters, is a business outcome. Reduced attrition is also a business outcome. Without a focus on results, something like teamwork is just a nice idea.

In addition, your objectives should not be deliverables. You don't need more piles of dusty plans that never come to fruition. You don't need grandiose mom-and-apple pie platitudes (i.e., vision and mission statements) thatlikely apply as well to the business across the street as to yours. But you may need help in establishing a new direction and a laser-focused framework that guides daily decisions. You may benefit from understanding why your plans fail in the execution and how to remove the obstacles and create the practices that get you moving forward. Or perhaps you need help seeing opportunities and techniques for making an employee, a process, or your business as a whole more effective. The things you need most rarely fit in a binder.

Nor should your objectives be means instead of ends. You don't want to sign up for a method or a process or a solution, you want results. A good consultant has a number of tools to help you achieve your objectives and can adapt them to your situation. One-size-fits-all methods are rarely the answer. That would be like going to the hardware store and buying a cool tool you saw advertised on TV without knowing what it does.

How does that help you select a consultant?

I hope it obviates the need for serious discussions about your objectives. The focus must be on outcomes, not ideas, deliverables or methods.

Beware the consultant who does all the talking, instead of listening and understanding your situation and objectives. Beware the consultant who promises plans, recommendations and other deliverables, or feel-good ideas. Bewarethe consultant who launches into a sales pitch for their custom processwithout any way of knowing whether that tool is the right tool for you.

Choose the consultant who listens, who offers to help only after understanding your situation and objectives, and who seems genuinely interested in improving your condition.


© 2009 Ann Latham. All rights reserved.