Facilitation and consulting

The path to trusted advisor

Have you made the leap from “expert” to “trusted advisor”? The trusted advisor contributes to the strategic agenda of the business. They are seen as a sustainable business partner of the future. They focus on building their client’s capability, rather than encouraging their client to depend on their expertise.

Treading the path of trusted advisor requires a shift to fully client centred thinking, skills and behaviours. This can be a challenge. It is a significant transformation from what may be the comfortable identity of expert. Beliefs and behaviours can sabotage our ability to successfully make this shift into the realm of true value add.

There are some widespread reasons why professionals fail in their bid to become the trusted advisor to their client’s business, either as consultants, business partners and / or facilitators.

Do any of these sound familiar?

• Valuing personal expertise too highly. If we believe our value resides in what we know and our experience, we may be tempted to “tell” our client what to do, rather than facilitate discussion. It is crucial to have an interest in what the business requires, applying our expertise to their unique circumstances. Sometimes this means we have to set aside a proven way of doing something to be able to see new opportunities.
• Lacking personal confidence to deal with conflict, apathy or resistance. Do you avoid conflict? How do you overcome apathy or resistance to your ideas? These common dynamics must be managed in order to achieve the client’s agreed outcomes. If we do not manage them, the client manages us.
• Not having the confidence or skill to effectively diagnose a problem. If we do not address the root of a problem, we create superficial “band aid” solutions that do not work for the client.
• Having little knowledge of group processes that help achieve clear outcomes. The result is redundant work inside the room or key aspects having to be reworked.
• Your own high personal standards derail the group. Do you look for unnecessary detail or information as part of your need to understand? This can frustrate your client and result in a reduced motivation to change.
• Lacking a required level of achievement behaviour. This results in lack of progress.

How will our Facilitation and Consulting Skills Program help you?

Our programs are built on a philosophy of “learn by doing”. We tailor the Facilitation and Consulting Skills Program to your individual business environment, taking account of your business, culture and language.

In this program you will:

• Understand the process of effective consultancy and facilitation.
• Learn behaviours, tools and techniques which lead to outstanding performance and productive business partnerships.
• Identify the personal “derailers” that lessen your effectiveness.
• Learn strategies to manage these.
• Practice newly learned skills.

Through a series of consulting simulations, you will practice your skills with “real” clients, receiving feedback about your interactions. You then have the opportunity to put new behaviours to work in the training environment.

The program is presented in five steps, progressively building on the skills you learn with each step. Figure 2 gives an example of just some of the learning outcomes of the program.

Our aim in this program is to provide the most appropriate level of challenge and support to you to maximise your learning.

Our facilitators have experience working as internal consultants within large organisations and externally either with large firms, or as independent consultants. They have the depth of experience needed to set you firmly on the path to trusted advisor.