Keys to Becoming a Successful Consultant

Keys to Becoming a Successful Consultant

With deference to Dr. Covey and his very popular Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (all habits that will make us better consultants!), here are eight skills that all of us as consultants can work on to improve.

This article will start with three overarching skills, then describe five more specific skills to consider in your ongoing development.One way to look at your total skill set as a consultant (internal or external), is to consider your relative strengths in the three major portions of our work: designing "it", delivering "it", and selling "it".

These three skills represent the complete package for a consultant, regardless of what your expertise (your "it") is.

The Complete Package:Designing "It"

This is our technical expertise. This is the "stuff" we learn in classes and through experience and practice. It is the front end of our work in most cases. While we cannot underestimate the importance of these skills (and the need to continue to upgrade them), we also can't be content if these skills are top-notch. They are not enough.Delivering "It"This is the other mega-skill that many of us are very comfortable with. Once we've designed our "product", we have to be able to deliver it. This is the skill set that is often most evident to our clients, or is what we tell people we do when they ask us our profession. Again, this skill set is critical, but alone it isn't enough.Selling "It" This skill, in my experience, is the one most often in need of improvement. While many books have been written about this skill set, there is one key, which by itself will improve your success in selling your work. If you will always focus on client/customer benefits, rather than product/process features, you will improve your success immediately. Features are components of your product or service.

Examples include:
Size
Length
Speed
Number of modules
Your Experience

People don't buy features they buy benefits. All of us know this at some level, but seldom focus on turning the important features of our offerings into true benefits. To assume that your client/customer will figure out the benefit, is to lower your chance of selling your potential product or idea.Some Specific Skills to Consider:ContractingThis is another skill that requires a book to discuss well and which requires planning and practice to improve. Getting clear agreements with clients up front about what the work is, what the desired outcomes are, and what your role is, is what contracting is all about.

Relationship Building:

Building relationships are important in all three of the major skill areas. In designing, you need to build relationships in order to gain the organizational information you need to design effectively. In delivering you need to be able to have good relationships with those involved, to lead to a more successful outcome. In selling, it's important to remember that selling is a relationship process. People buy other people and believe in their ability to deliver.Having a focus on relationships is more than building rapport, which can happen quite rapidly. Building relationships is long term focused and requires considerable commitment.Warning: Building relationships with individuals is important, but recognize that if your focus is on only one person in an organization, when they are gone (get promoted, get a new job, are downsized out, or whatever) you have lost your leverage to help the organization. So, remember to build a network of relationships within your client organizations.

Separating Process from Content

It is so important to maintain perspective while in the client organization. Clients will focus on the content (of a meeting, the product, the outputs from your study, or whatever), but if the process matters aren't attended to, outcomes can be compromised.Working on your ability to step back and recognize what is happening at the group dynamics and interpersonal level will improve your success. Clients don't always know that they need this, but they will almost always recognize that you "did something" to make things go better when you can point to, and improve the process, while sharing the content of your work. This skill is often the key to additional work or referrals.Socratic QuestioningSocrates is immortalized at least in part for his teaching approach of asking a line of questions that leads the student to discover answers for themselves. When you clients discover answers to their problems, rather than simply hear them from you, they will own the answers. Their ability to hold onto the concepts, apply them, and improve their situation will skyrocket. Improving your ability to help them discover (through the use of Socratic questioning), is a critical, though often overlooked skill. Using more questions will cause you to lose the feeling of power that you are providing the "right" answer. But the client gains far more than you lose. While you may feel like you are losing emotionally, you win with the client, and probably strengthen your relationship with them too.Saying "No!"Most of us need to improve our ability to say this. Of course we can physically say it, (OK, just for practice, say it three times right now - out loud!) but we all know we don't always say it when we wish we had!Improving your judgment on when to use this word will help you in three important ways, time management, happiness level, and client success.Time ManagementMany of your time management problems stem from trying to do too much. When people (clients, peers, anyone) ask you to do something that you don't feel you are best suited for, or don't really want to do, use your word!Happiness LevelWhen we focus our energy on the things we really want to or need to be doing (rather than just the things people ask us to do or we feel we should do), we will be happier! Say it to help you preserve and honor your priorities.Client SuccessThere are times that a client may ask you for something ("We just need this [you fill in the blank]") that you know, or strongly believe is the wrong thing. These are the times to step back and be genuine. Help them understand your perspective, and focus them on the outcome, not the suggested solution. In these cases, you might not be saying "no", exactly, but it is what you really mean!If you feel a team is ready for such a discussion, pull out this list of attributes and have a team discussion on how well people feel their team is doing on each of these dimensions, the discussion can be enlightening and help the team move its performance to even higher levels.

Till we meet again, go be the solutions to your world.

Basola A. Victor
Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO)
BASH Concepts International
Warri, Nigeria
+234-703-5121-346

Seven Formulas For Business Success

Seven Formulas For Business Success

By: Basola A. Victor

Visualize Your Goals

There are seven formulas for business success. Number one, set a specific goal and visualize it as a reality. Play the picture of your goal as already realized on the screen of your mind over and over again.

Number two, look for a problem you can solve with a product or service that is high quality and good value. All successful businesses are based on products or services that are high quality and good value. Number three, start small and learn your business thoroughly. Be patient.

Invest time rather than a lot of money.Bootstrap Your Way To SuccessOne of the best ways to build a business is to start off on a bootstrap. This means that you start off with very little mo ney and you grow your business with the mo ney that you ear n in the business, rather than outside financing, borr owing, l oans from friends and so on.

Test, Test, TestNumber four, test every major move before you invest in it. Test, test, test. Don't plunge into a business. Move ahead carefully, one step at a time.

Number five, expand on the basis of your successes, out of your profits, as you move along. In other words, only expand your business on mo ney that you've earned in the business, not on borrowed capital.

Pick Your People CarefullyNumber

six, carefully select the people to help you expand and grow. The biggest mistakes you'll ever make will be in picking the wrong people to work with, so be very, very careful in picking the people you're going to work with in your business.Use Fin ancial LeverageAnd number seven, use fin ancial leverage. Fin ancial leverage is business borr owing, lines of cre dit from the bank, which are based on the cas h flow from your successful business. The whole aim of starting a business is to develop a consistent, predictable source of cas h flow in excess of cost and expenses and then to hold to the mo ney. Banks will lend you all the mo ney that you can service as deb t with your cas h flow.Start Off Part TimeOne final thing that you can do, and I've recommended that many people do this over the years, is if you're starting off with no mo ney, go to work part-time for a business in a field that interests you. It's a great form of on-the-job training. Work evenings or work week ends. Or work on your holidays if you like. Sometimes a business that looks big from the outside will look terrible once you start working for it. But sometimes when you start working for a business, you start to get a great understanding of how it works and you get insights on how you can improve it.Learn What You Need To LearnRemember this, though, most businesses fail because of manager incompetence. So take the time to learn what you need to know to succeed. Be patient. The time you invest before you start will pay off over and over again in the months and years ahead.Action Ex ercisesHere are two things you can do immediately to implement these formulas for business success: First, be prepared. The number one reason that people succeed in starting their own businesses is that they have the knowledge and experience, in advance that they need to succeed. Do your homework. Second, start small. Some people think that they can be successful faster by putting all their money up front at the very beginning. The opposite is true. Start small and grow out of your cas h flow from successful operations.

Till we meet again, go be the solutions to your world.

Basola A. Victor

Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO)

BASH Concepts International

Warri, Nigeria

+234-703-5121-346

International Writers Festival 9 – 14 March 2009 ,South Africa

The Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal) will host the 12 th Time of the Writer, international writers' festival from 9 to 14 March 2009.

Principal activities take place each evening at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, University of KwaZulu-Natal , Durban . International and local authors will read from their work and be interviewed by selected hosts, followed by discussions with the audience. Additional daytime activities – including school visits – will take place in and around Durban . The full programme will be announced in mid-February.

A central focus of the festival is to encourage reading and writing, particularly among the youth. Time of the Writer invites learners to begin submitting material for the short story writing competition to be held in conjunction with the festival.

Learners are invited to engage creatively with a theme of their choice.Please make your submissions by no later than MONDAY, 16 FEBRUARY and our judges will then make the final selection.

Please note that entries must be fictional stories and not critical essays. A maximum of 5 pages (preferably typed) are to be written in either English, Zulu or Afrikaans. Illegible entries will not be considered .

Winners will be awarded cash prizes and given complimentary tickets to attend the festival, where they will be handed their prizes. Winning entries will be displayed in the theatre foyer throughout the festival.If you are a learner and would like to be involved in this competition - submit your stories, together with your name and contact details, your school's name, teacher's name, and your school telephone number to the Centre for Creative Arts.

Entries may be hand delivered to the Centre or faxed to 031 260 3074 or posted toCENTRE FOR CREATIVE ARTSUNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATALDURBANSOUTH AFRICA

For Details see url below

http://www.cca.ukzn.ac.za/Time_of_the_writer.htm

Basola A. Victor

BASH Concepts International

How to Get Paid to Write and Earn Residual Income with Your Writing

Writers can make a nice living writing online. Freelance writers can not only earn direct income and upfront payments for their work, they can also earn residual income. Both direct payments and residual income have their benefits.Writing for the web isn't like writing for print.

Print markets pay more and those that have previously written for print might be intimidated or offended by the differences in pay for web writing. Writing for the web can actually bring in more income than print writing, over a period of time, for the same article, where the print article would be a one time payment.If you are looking for a one time payment for your writing on the web, there is always a market for writers to write and sell their work.

There are many clients who will outright purchase your work, some that will simply pay for using your article, some who will give you a byline, and some that won't give a byline.

A good place to check for daily freelance writing jobs is Deb Ng's Freelance Writing Gigs at http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com.

Often however, a client will want full rights to the article or articles. In the past, this was known as selling away your copyright. Today, it's better known as ghostwriting. The problem with this type of writing is that once you sell it, it's no longer yours. You can't claim it, use it as a sample, make any further profit from it, etc. It belongs legally to the one you sold it to, even if you wrote it for a mere $5 fee. Some see no problem with this. Some see it as selling yourself very short.