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Who Should You Look for When Hiring A Management Consultant?
“A company should start by looking at a potential consultant's business
and consulting background,” Shapiro explains. “If the business
background seems sufficient, then one should look at the experience a
consultant has working with a similar type of business either in the
business sector and size or structure of the company.”
Although examining business background and experience can be helpful in
the selection process, Shapiro also believes hiring a consultant can
depend on intangible factors.
“You will probably know in the first five minutes of interviewing a
potential consultant whether or not this will be a good fit,” Shapiro
explains. “Most consultants have experience, but there are very good
consultants who are simply a bad fit for your company. A successful
relationship with a consultant will depend on his or her working and
communication styles and a gut-level connection with the business
leader.”
Beyond the vital personal impressions, Shapiro also recommends that the
CEO, owner or business leader of the company should look for a
consultant who can provide a unique solution to the problem and not a
cookie-cutter approach.
Shapiro's clients are often closely-held or entrepreneurial,
family-owned businesses with annual revenues that range from $2 to $15
million.
“Typically, I work with professional services companies–technological
or creative companies who employ what I call 'knowledge workers',” he
says. “Many of the companies I work with are successful start-up
companies that have hit the first crisis in the business evolution life
cycle.”
Shapiro explains that the creative phase is when the new company creates a product and finds markets for it.
“The people who start up these companies are entrepreneurs—passionate
and driven about their business offerings,” Shapiro adds. “Their
relationships with employees tend to be very informal during the
start-up phase. However, as a company grows, the “organic” policies and
activities that worked well at first can become problems that cause
difficulties in the company. These problems could cause such things as
reduced sales, loss of employees and increased stress for the business
leader.”
Shapiro believes two aspects that set him apart from other consultants
are his ability to listen and his ability to be direct and honest with
the client regarding the nature of the problem.
“I try to listen without filters,” Shapiro says. “And, I provide honest
feedback. I don't have hidden agendas. If I stand out from many other
consultants, I believe it is because I am willing to be direct.
Everyone knows the story of the 'Emperor's New Clothes.' I will tell
the business leader that the 'emperor has no clothes.'”
One of the most challenging, initial parts of the consulting process
for Shapiro is to get past the defensiveness a business leader might
have regarding the company's situation and find out what is really
going on. The leader is aware there's a problem, but will often have a
rationale or reason for the situation being what it is.
Shapiro takes a systemized or organizational approach to the
consultation process. He will spend time discussing the issues and
challenges the business leader perceives as well as learning about the
history, background and goals of the company. The next phase involves
some form of assessment leading to recommendations on how to resolve
the issues.
“There is a model and theory behind this approach to dealing with
groups and systems,” Shapiro says. “Tensions will usually surface
around issues regarding authority, responsibility and tasks. Often
times, simply providing clarification helps to reduce tensions and
improve productivity and effectiveness. After all, one of the keys to
being a successful company is the ability to execute in a
highly-competitive market. A good business leader must be able to
communicate to employees what their roles, authority and tasks are.”
Is it Executive Coaching or Management Consulting?
“Executive coaching has exploded into the business consciousness over
the past ten years,” Shapiro notes. “Unlike other professional fields
such as accounting, law or financial planning, there is no concrete
definition for the practice. My approach incorporates executive
coaching into the management consulting process and becomes part of the
change plan. As a rule of thumb, I consider work done with a company to
be management consulting and work done with an individual to be
executive coaching.
To illustrate the difference, Shapiro uses an example of a client with whom he is currently working.
“This client is looking at developing a mid-level management group,” he
says. “Knowing that, I will be focusing on the team-building process as
well as individual coaching.”
Shapiro approaches the management consulting process by spending a lot
of time talking to the business leader. Then he starts the assessment
phase.
“It's about gathering data to understand what's going on in the
organization,” Shapiro explains. “I talk to key employees. I will
observe the environment by sitting in on meetings. Sometimes I do a
survey assessment with large groups of employees.”
The process is flexible according to Shapiro.
“The assessment phase could take three to four days to as long as three
months,” he says. “It depends on size of the company and the issues I
am dealing with.”
Shapiro encourages companies to avoid the “quick fix” in the management consulting process.
“Quick fixes are like band-aids,” he notes. “Sometimes band aids are
necessary, but at the same time a company should be willing to look
deeper to the source of the problems. Sometimes the root causes can be
anything from the corporate culture, values, communication skills,
personal styles and decision making to who has the authority to make
changes.”
Why Do You Need A Management Consultant?
“The reasons for a company to hire a management consultant are unique
to each company,” Shapiro says. “But, in general, when a company is
starting to feel some discomfort, that's when they may want to consider
bringing in a management consultant.”
Shapiro believes the first step is for the company CEO, owner or
business leader to realize something is wrong and seek help. However,
when a company contacts Shapiro, it's often because of a symptom, not
the real problem.
“They have to know the difference between the chicken and the egg,” he
says. “That is hard to do because the business leader is often too
close to the problem.”
“Many times, I'll get a call from the company owner or business leader
saying 'my workplace is crazy. People I've promoted are either being
fired or quitting, and morale is bad',” Shapiro says. “But, these are
not the problems. They are the symptoms of the problem.”
Shapiro's first step in the discovery process is to find out everything
that is affecting the company's success and how these factors play into
the overall problem. His background and experience suggest companies
can experience significant problems when they promote people to
managerial positions–especially if it's a newly created management
position.
“Many times, a company's star salesperson, programmer, designer or
other 'doer' seems like the logical choice to promote to a manager
position,” he explains. “These people are very good doers, but, many
times they are ill-prepared for the challenges of management. They can
be described as having the 'rookie manager syndrome.' They are put into
a situation with an entirely new set of factors relative to their
success.”
“Just working hard is not the key to succeeding as a new manager,”
Shapiro adds. “A manager has to work through other people. Unsuccessful
managing techniques range from micro-managing and nearly doing the work
for your employee to giving little or no direction and failing to
establish accountability. Good managers get the work done through
motivation and inspiration. They have to learn what makes each of their
subordinates tick. These skills can be learned, but it's important for
business leaders to know good managers are not born–they are taught.”
How Do You Make The Changes Your Company Needs?
One of Shapiro's strengths as a management consultant is his
willingness and ability to follow the process through from discovery to
solution.
“I call it a corrective course-change for the business,” Shapiro says.
“I give the company my recommendations for corrective action. The
recommendations are based on my observations and the data collected in
the assessment phase.”
Shapiro observes that making the necessary changes is never like flicking a switch.
“It takes time to affect a change,” he says. “Businesses will usually
resist change. It is imperative to design the process so that change
comes from within the company and not from an external consultant.”
But, Shapiro doesn't stop at making recommendations.
“My consultation goes through the implementation process,” he says. “I
work closely with the company on the specific actions they need to
take, assess how those actions are working and make adjustments as
needed.”
“Part of the consulting process is to develop in-house solutions to the
problems based on what I believe are proven, successful approaches,” he
says. “I want the business leader to feel that he or she owns the
process and is committed to making the needed changes.”
Shapiro believes that he and the business leader can measure his
effectiveness by seeing improvements in the symptoms the company was
experiencing.
“Sometimes this information can be very specific such as higher sales
or lower employee turnover,” Shapiro says. “Sometimes it's a little
more intangible. Some solutions are quantifiable. Some may not be,
depending on the situation.”
Shapiro says the management consulting process can be exciting as well
as challenging for both the company and the business leader. The focus
must be on how the process creates a more dynamic and productive
business.
“People are part of the process, but the focus should not necessarily
be on what makes them feel better, but what makes the business work
better,” Shapiro says. “After the consulting process is over, the
business should be able to continue growing and delivering its products
and services more efficiently because the business has reduced some of
the internal strife that was dissipating its efforts. This will make
for a more productive business with positive business results that can
be measured.”
Shapiro gains satisfaction by helping others to succeed.
“I want to leave a client's business better than when I arrived,” he says. “I want to see the company grow and thrive.”
