Management Consultants

The rise in outsourcing of management consulting and the increasingly global nature of the business market combine to create advisors who are bursting with fresh new ideas, coupled with years of solid experience interacting with people in the corporate world. Both of these qualities are invaluable for any good management consultant. The wealth of previously unknown ideas, both new and old, from various parts of the world is a great asset for giving consultants new perspective on how to resolve issues for the companies that hire them. Just as important, though, is the actual experience in interacting with office workers and management staff in real world situations. Without this real world skill, a management consultant can have all of the fresh new ideas that the world has to offer, but no idea of how to apply them in an actual office. Additionally, companies who have done some research on their own and believe that they have found new management styles that would suit their employees can use the global market to locate a management consultant who has specific expertise with the new management techniques, or their current structure, or both.

Management consultants come in two basic types: those who teach, and those who do. Despite the old saw that "those who can't do, teach", both of these methods can be equally effective, and in truth the two are just different methods of conveying the same type of information to a company and its employees. The differences between them have more to do with the preferences of the hiring company and the skills of the particular management consultant than anything else. Some companies prefer for the management consultant to actually come in and take over the management of a particular project; to "manage the managers", as it were. Generally, these companies and consultants believe that the employees will better understand the new management techniques if they see them in action before attempting to apply them to the work environment themselves. In other cases, the manager comes in to act as an advisor to the current managers, helping them to refine their business practices and improve the overall performance of the employees within the company.

It is a common misconception that management consultants are only called in to assist a company if there is a fundamental problem with the current management situation of the hiring company. This is most certainly not the case. Companies hire management consultants for a variety of reasons, whether it is a reorganization of the company structure, a new trend in management styles which the company feels it could benefit from, or there is a new business opportunity to be taken advantage of. Indeed, many times when a company is deciding whether it will expand its business or break into a new market, they will hire a management consultant to help them understand what changes will need to be made to help make the company the leader in its market. A management consultant in that instance will look at all of the aspects of the business which will be affected by the change to determine where the company can become more streamlined and more efficient.

Not all management consultants work with the company as a whole. Occasionally, a company will identify that there is a particular department or segment of their business which could strongly benefit from having an advisor come in and give them direction. In these cases, the consultant typically has a certification to work in that specific area of the business, or has special skills which make that consultant more suited to the particular department. If there is a merger between companies, or if one company acquires another, a consultant with the proper certification will almost always be called in to make sure that the transition happens as smoothly as possible. As always, it is important for the consultant to maintain his or her impartiality in order to reassure employees that the consultant has not been hired just as an excuse for layoffs. Mergers and acquisitions are always high-stress times for employees and managers alike, as everyone attempts to reconcile two potentially very different ways of doing business. For this reason, consultants who handle these sorts of jobs for companies must be exceptionally talented in refining the two disparate corporate entities into one new company, and at making the transition as painless as possible for employees of both companies.

The goal of any good management consultant is to use the skills that she or he has developed over the years and has received certification in to help a company's current management staff be the best that they can be. A truly successful advisor will always tailor the advice given to fit within the framework of the specific company. An unwary company can become caught up in the hype of a new management trend, and hire a consultant simply because that person is a practitioner of, or has certification in, the hot new management fad. This strategy is almost guaranteed to fail, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, there is not and cannot be a single management style or technique that will work for every company. Secondly, "hot new trends", often by their very nature, have had a very short history, meaning that the consultant who is a specialist only in this new fad does not have a lot of experience from which to draw. When troubles arise at the hiring company, the consultant does not have the history to fall back on to say, "I saw this problem solved in this way before," or "this previous company had the same issue, but it is a natural part of the process and you will get through it just like they did."

Instead of arriving at the hiring company's offices with a pre-made strategy in mind, a good management consultant always spends some time observing in the beginning of their tenure with a particular company. The consultant wants to know what the current corporate culture is like, how problems within the company and between employees are resolved, employee performance levels, and the dynamics of staff interaction. This allows the advisor to begin to get an idea of where things can be changed within the system in order to improve the overall performance of the company.

The task of interacting with employees of the hiring company, and finding out what their wants and needs are and whether they're being met, is perhaps even more important to management consultants than the task of meeting with managers. After all, it is the employees themselves whose performances will make or break the company, and occasionally there is a disconnect between what managers feel that they are providing for their employees and what employees feel that they are getting. Indeed, in the companies that are worse off and most gravely in need of quality management consulting, this is generally the area where the most attention is needed. It is crucial for management consultants to maintain their impartiality, to be seen as people who will take no sides between managers and regular employees. The most common complaint voiced by workers in the corporate world today is that managers do not seem to care about them or understand what they do. They worry that managers are concerned with the bottom line to a point where it becomes a detriment to employee morale and productivity, and therefore actually adversely affects the bottom line.

Improving employee morale is the number one task of a good management consultant. Employees who are happy at work and feel secure in their jobs are far more likely to produce more and better products, and feel a much deeper sense of company loyalty. Increased company loyalty leads in turn to reduced turnover, and reduces the training expenses incurred by the company. When they spend less money on training new employees, companies can afford to pay for more advanced training for their current employees, which leads to more talented and knowledgeable workers who contribute even more to the company's bottom line. There is a whole cyclical chain of events which can greatly benefit the company and its employees, and it all starts with boosting employee morale. Management consultants are in a unique position to set this whole process in motion, coming as they do from a position outside the typical corporate structure. Consultants are often certified in conflict resolution skills, as these are the skills which will aid them most in improving relations between employees and managers. By acting as mediators for the conversation between the two parties, management consultants can facilitate a revolution in the terms of the interaction between them. The ultimate goal of this process is to get both management staff and regular employees to begin working together, seeing themselves as truly part of a single team whose successes they can all benefit from.

The biggest benefit of hiring a management consultant comes from the length and variety of his or her experience. If it were possible to truly, effectively learn and understand a new management technique simply by reading a book about it, then there would never be a need to hire a management consultant. In the real world, however, there is no one-size-fits-all way to apply a new management technique to an existing company. The expertise that a management consultant brings to the process is first and foremost the ability to determine which management technique, or combination of techniques, will be the most effective at making a company into a more pleasant and productive place. Secondly, and more importantly, the advisor helps to guide the process along once it has been set in motion. This is what books and novice practitioners cannot do: think on their feet, and adapt techniques to changing situations and individual temperaments. A good consultant can spot where problems are likely to arise with a single individual or group of individuals, and can work to avoid the problem before it even occurs. That is why good management consultants must have excellent people skills, so that they can address individual concerns in a way that makes the most sense to everyone involved in the process.

After the management consultant has arrived at a company, completed the observation phase, and recommended a strategy for improvement, then the implementation phase occurs. The consultant will typically meet with individuals in the management structure to discuss their current management methods, and to suggest ways in which the manager can change specific aspects of his or her managerial style to improve employee morale and productivity. These changes can initially result in stress on the part of both employees and managers, so it is vital that the management consultant be around during this process, and be able to fix any problems and smooth the transition to the new style of management. The consultant can help employees voice concerns about their job requirements, and help management staff to convey the goals and direction of the company as a whole. This helps workers to understand where they fit into the company's overall scheme, and what they can do to improve the company's reputation and performance as a whole. Achieving this improved level of communication between management staff and regular employees is one of the most important duties of the management consultant, so that the staff can continue to work together on shared goals after the consultant has moved on to a new company. Once the consultant has gotten the whole staff to the point where everyone understands their roles, and why they do what they do, it is fairly simple for management to keep the new system rolling.