SMEC is one of Australia’s most successful consulting firms, in our original core business of infrastructure development and engineering (primarily transport, energy and water) and also in organisational development, training and technology transfer as well as environmental analysis and urban planning. Consulting offers a challenging and rewarding professional career, but it also requires a particular kind of person.

The Role of the Consultant

Consultants can perform a variety of roles on behalf of their clients, including:

• External review: the advice of consultants is often valuable precisely because they are not part of the organisation they are giving advice to. A consultant can often see problems more clearly than the people who are involved with them every day
• International best practice: consulting firms working in various parts of the world acquire an understanding of how similar problems are approached in a number of different environments. They should be able to advise on what has been tried in the past, what has worked and why different approaches have been successful or unsuccessful. Good consulting forms are a repository of practical ideas from which approaches can be drawn for particular circumstances
• Problem-solving and trouble shooting: clients generally engage a consultant when they have a specialised problem which they need to solve and lack the staff with the right kind of background or experience to solve it.

Dealing with Clients

Relations with our clients (past, current or potential) are at the heart of SMEC’s business. If we get this wrong, in effect it doesn’t really matter how many other things we might be getting right. Taking care of our clients’ interests must be our first priority. In practice, this means a number of things:

• Listen to what the client says: anyone joining a consulting firm will no doubt regard it as obvious that consultants should listen to their clients; however, the experience of SMEC (and out competitors) over many years is that all too often this fails to happen; we must all take care that we are hearing what the client is telling us – not what we think he or she should be saying or what is most convenient for us to hear; also, read between the lines – the client may be trying to tell you something which it is uncomfortable to say outright; you may be dismissive of such advice, but poor communication (internal or external) is responsible for many of our recurrent problems and sooner or later you will get it wrong too
• Establish priorities: make sure you know what the client’s priorities are and ensure that they are your priorities as well; priorities may include quality of outcome, lowest possible cost, shortest possible time for completion, minimal inconvenience to the ongoing operations of the client, timely and accurate reporting, or many others; it is important to know what these are (which may not be same as in the Terms of Reference); if the client has incompatible or contradictory priorities, this can be pointed out and discussions initiated to allocate additional priorities
• Explain options and consequences: we must always explain to the client what we consider the options are for achieving the given objectives; even if we have one clear preference, the client should be made aware of all available options; in addition, the client needs to know the consequences of choosing one option rather than another, as far as these can be foreseen; at the end of the day, SMEC can make a recommendation, but the client will decide which option is preferable
• Give early advice of emerging problems: most projects or assignments will encounter problems; problem-solving is part of what consultants are paid to do; what clients appreciate least is problems being allowed to get bigger and bigger until they are only made aware of them at crisis stage when some possible solutions may no longer be possible; on balance, it is always better to alert clients to what is happening, foreshadow that there may be a problem in the future and indicate what you are doing to avoid or solve it or what you would like them to do; don’t leave action or advice until it is too late in the hope that you might find a solution without the client knowing or that it might all just go away
• Respect commercial confidentiality: clients have a fear that confidential information about their operations, strategies or personnel will be broadcast by indiscreet consultants – and all too often this fear has turned out to be justified; make sure that you do not discuss the client’s business in public (or for that matter even in private outside the company); if you want to make a case study available to an industry conference or in an article, obtain the client’s permission in advance and clear the text with them before presentation or publication

Character Traits of a Good Consultant

Being a good consultant is not easy. It requires a particular set of characteristics, including:

• Curiosity: consultants must be curious about the world around them, they must want to understand it better and have analytical skills to investigate how it works
• Practical outlook: clients want advice which will actually work in practice. They do not want an academic analysis of a problem, they want an indication what they should do to solve it. Consultants need ideas – but practical and sensible ideas which they or others can implement
• Imagination and creativity: consultants must be imaginative. Established solutions are readily available off-the-shelf. Clients need solutions that take full account of their particular circumstances and are designed with their needs in mind
• Rapport with people: consultants advise people, so they must have some understanding of how people function and a rapport with them. The human side of consulting is as important as the technical. If we do not understand the people who run or work in an organisation, we will not be able to produce strategies which make sense in their world
• Institutional understanding: consultants rarely advise individuals. They advise organisations and they must have an interest in and understanding of how institutions function and the dynamics at work within them. This applies to institutions in general but also to the particular institution the consultant is advising. There are many features of institutional behaviour common to almost all organisations, but each organisation is also different in its needs, aspirations, priorities and capabilities
• Self-criticism: consultants must always retain a sense of self-criticism. If people believe they already know the answers to a problem before they even begin to investigate it, their advice is unlikely to be useful. Consultants must always admit their own lack of knowledge about particular situations and put in the effort to learn before they give advice
• Empathy and detachment: good consultant must have a rare combination of empathy and detachment. They must have sufficient empathy with people to understand how they see the world, what matters to them and the circumstances in which they find themselves. However, they will not be able to provide useful advice unless they also retain the detachment necessary for critical analysis and independent judgement.

If all this makes sense to you, maybe you could develop a career in consulting!