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It's no small feat to allow a consultant to make decisions on your
behalf. Empowering a consultant to advise changes can bring up feelings of
doubt and fear. To help you choose the right expert for you, here are 6
cautionary tips from Kathy Szpakowski, founder of KBS Group, one of the
country's most successful, organizational development consulting companies:
1. Make sure the expert has a proven track record for delivering on their
promises. Visit the consultant s web site and check on their references.
2. Pay attention to the expert's commentary after you've stated your
vision. Do you feel understood? Does he or she get it, or do you feel like
you need to keep on explaining? If, during the initial conversation stage or
in the project outline stage you feel your vision is not completely
understood or that there are areas being overlooked or under-valued,
consider finding another expert who is more in alignment with your point of
view.
3. Observe if the expert incorporates your thoughts and ideas into the
conversation. Do you feel a sense of collaboration or do you feel shot down?
While working with an expert, there will be times where you might take his
or her well-substantiated advice and whole-heartedly agree with certain
recommendations, while at other times, you might mildly agree or not agree
at all. Based on your discussion, get a sense as to whether this person will
be open to a collaborative arrangement, or might be intolerant of feedback
or suggestions.
4. Assess if the expert understands the term within budget. Rather than
have an expert initially tell you all of the wonderful things they can do
for you, then fall over from the sticker shock when you receive their
proposal and their terms, tell them the budget you need to stay within. A
consultant should not be writing from your checkbook. What is important is
your budget; not their price.
5. Agree to a mutually acceptable time frame. In order to ensure that the
two of you are on the same page, establish timelines to determine when you
want to get started, as well as how long it will take before you can expect
to receive recommendations, implement the recommendations, and see results.
Make sure there is also a way to measure the results.
6. Trust your instincts. Believe in your intuition. If your instincts and
experience in your business tells you to go in a different direction, do it.
If you don t feel 100% committed to the recommendations, or have a gut
feeling that you and the expert are not on the same page Stop. Ignoring
these feelings and going along with any recommendations that you are not
committed to, or are convinced will not work, will only make you right they
won t.
A word of caution: after a positive experience with one expert,
entrepreneurs often have a tendency to get lax when evaluating additional
experts to assist in other areas of their business. When talking with other
experts, it can be easy to fail to completely communicate one s vision, the
importance of integrating one s ideas, the necessity to stay within budget
and on schedule, and the absolute need to know that your new expert gets it!
Hiring the right expert can be a huge asset to your business, however, you
are the only one who will know which expert is ultimately right for you. By
applying the advice from the tips above, you can minimize your doubts and
fears, as well as create a strategy to find an expert who can truly help you
maximize your growth.
