CHAPTER 4 PROFESSIONAL
ATTRIBUTES OF
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
A management consultant must possess the
following areas of skills:
- Technical skills
Technical Training: Length of
Education, Type of Education
Common Core Requirement:
Communications, Mathematics &
Statistics, Computer data processing
- Interpersonal skill
Intelligence or capacity, Integrity,
Objectivity, Understanding, Judgment,
Courage, Ambition, Psychological
maturity, Physiological equilibrium,
Relationship-building skills, Project
management skills, Analysis skills
Relationship building skills is the ability to:
- Build rapport and trust with clients
- Question effectively
- Communicate ideas succinctly and
precisely
- Negotiate objectives and outcomes
- Convince through verbal, written
and visual mediums
- Use information to make a case for
a particular course of action
- Develop selling strategies
- Work and listen effectively
- Demonstrate leadership
Project management skills is the ability to:
- Define objectives and outcomes
- Develop formal plans
- Sequence and prioritize tasks
- Manage the financial resources
that are to be invested in the
consulting project
- Recognize the human expertise
necessary to deliver the project
- Manage personal time
Analysis skills is the ability to:
- Identify what information is
available in a particular situation
- Identify what information is
needed in a particular situation
- Process that information to identify
the important relationships within
it
- Draw meaning from that
information and use it to support
decision-making
- Recognize business’s profile
- Recognize opportunities and
challenges
- Assess the business’s financial
situation
- Evaluate business’s markets
- Assess the business’s internal
conditions
- Analyze the way in which decision-
making occurs within the business
-
- Consulting process skills
The consultant should have the ability
to apply the analytical approach and
process in this problem-solving
exercise. This process consists of four
areas:
Problem definition phase,
Identification of alternative solutions,
Selection of the most desirable
alternative, Presentation,
Implementation phase
COMMON BARRIERS TO
EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
BETWEEN CLIENT AND
THE CONSULTANT
 Know-it-all-attitude
 Inability to understand technical
language
 Inadequate background or knowledge
 Resistance to change
 Information overload