What are management consultants’ top three critical success factors
What are
management consultants’ top three critical success factors
Management consultants have different
preferences when it comes to sectors to work on, topics to research on and
projects to be assigned to. Irrespective
of their different preferences, there are three success factors that each
management consultant must possess to carry out their tasks.
Analytic
Thinking
This success factor refers to the
ability to understand the problem, break it into smaller parts and provide a
structure for its resolution.
The problem presented by your client
may be new or too complex for you. You
may not have an idea about their industry or you may not have encountered their
dilemma in books or in previous cases you have handled. You must be smart enough to pick things up,
translate the problem into your own simpler ways and find appropriate solutions
to the problem.
At times, clients are not organized
in presenting the actual situation so you must also have the ability to read
between the lines. By analyzing the case
in a step-by-step procedure, you’ll find out the affecting factors that cause
the issue.
Organization
As a management consultant,
organizational skills make or break your success. This includes effective planning for a course
of action, timely implementation of plans and efficient time management. You need these capabilities as you’ll be
bombarded with emails, reports and other information.
Disorganization significantly affects
productivity. When you are unable to
coordinate scheduling, store information and consolidate information neatly,
you’ll end up doing these tasks differently over and over again. This results to waste of time and energy. Being unsystematic and disorganized may also
lead to confusion, frustration and despair, which only worsen the
stressful life otherwise characteristic of management consultants.
Communication
If you want to work for a management
consulting firm, you must have the ability to express yourself in a clear
manner. You will be interacting with
your clients, your client’s employees and other consultants. This will frequently require you to be flexible
enough to adjust your language according to the person you’re dealing with. Top management will more likely expect you to
be formal and professional while frontline workers would appreciate a
friendlier disposition. You must be emotionally
intelligent to
successfully manage the different relationships you will need to keep.
You will also require excellent communication
skills. Considering you are expected to document
and communicate research, management reports and presentations, you must have
the ability to concisely and eloquently express your thoughts in writing. Remember that these documents will be
circulated from one person to another and your client might even keep your
output for decades. Your reports must therefore
be carefully written, so people will easily understand and appreciate your
analysis and recommendations.
Recruiters start assessing applicants with these three
skills as criteria in mind. They see to
it that the interview questions they ask include experiential and situational cases
to be able to gauge your natural abilities. If you’re pursuing a career
in consulting, try to develop these three critical success factors as early as
possible. The earlier you make them part
of your working habits, the easier you will find it to succeed in your career.