Steve Jobs said Consultants are Useless.
I admire a lot of what Steve Jobs did in his lifetime. Is he perfect? No. But he made a mark on the world, and there’s a lot we can all learn from him.
A few years back, I came across a video of him speaking at MIT back in 1992 when a student asked him his thoughts on consultants. It shook me a bit.
Check it out.
I have spent a lot of my career as a marketing consultant, so this was a bit jarring to me. But I never take what I hear as truth without thinking through it first. So, was he right?
Here’s the quote that stood out to me:
“I think that without owning something over an extended period of time - like over a few years - where one has a chance to take responsibility for one’s recommendations, or one has to see ones recommendations through all action stages and accumulate scar tissue for the mistakes and pick oneself off the ground and dust oneself off, one learns a fraction of what one can. ”
I think he is right.
But it comes down to the definition of consultant. Bear with me, I am not getting philosophical on you.
In my experience, there are two types of consultants:
The Disconnected Advisor: These are the consultants that have a twisted business-book-to-business-experience ratio (read: all theory). They have thoughts about nearly everything, but to those with boots on the ground, their ideas and perspectives are naive and idealistic. When asked about their qualifications, they will point to eduction, certifications, and awards you have never heard of. The sound of their voice is music to their ears.
The Experienced Practitioner: These are the consultants that have been there and done that. They a lot of questions, genuinely curious about the nitty-gritty details of you and your business. Somehow, those questions have more answers for you than your response does for them. They certainly put together plans and give you their advice, but they push for a role in the execution of that advice. They want out on the field. When asked about their qualifications, they tell you stories of when they were in this situation or that, and what the results were.
I think Jobs was talking about the former. And they give the latter a bad name.
So, how can you tell the good consultant from the bad?
A good consultant Owns the Result.
One of the first things a good consultant wants to know is your goal. Not some vague idea of improvement, but specific, measurable results that are expected to be achieved as a result of their help. They don’t shy away from objectivity, but run towards it. They are confident in their ability to execute because they have done things like it before.
A Good Consultant Executes
To put the work in the analyze and put together a plan, then to have to just walk away is like baking a cake and never eating it to a good consultant. Sure, they will do that here and there when there is a tight budget or the client is only interested in strategic direction. But they would prefer to have a hand in the execution.
Now let’s be clear - they probably aren’t the ones writing all the code, organizing the P&L, or designing your website. You wouldn’t want them to - they know the value of their time and it isn’t cheap! But they want to be right next to the team that is, removing barriers, pushing for higher quality, and fleshing out that strategy they developed in the first place.
A Good Consultant Stays for the End
Consultants are brought in to solve hard problems, and the result of solving these hard problems often take time to see. Bad consultants are scheming to shorten the engagement, hoping to get far enough from the blast that no one points back to them. Good one’s are patient and will at the very least check-in after the engagement to see how things are going. They want to know the real impact of their presence. They don’t do this to try and win more business, but to measure their success in a way they couldn’t earlier. Better yet, they often bake this in to their process, shifting their consulting after the brunt of the work into a lighter-touch mode, staying close enough to coax results further still.
A Good Consultant Knows Your Goal is Their Absence
Consulting done right, in many cases, results in the client being more self-sustaining; the pipeline is filled, the product improved, the team cohesive. Their role is temporary, and they like that (many get bored easily). They conquered the giant.
Good consultants don’t try to avoid the end, constantly convincing you that they are still needed. They know what they were there to do and, once completed, know when to move on.
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At the end of the day, there are stellar consultants, and completely incompetent consultants. No different than employees, vendors, etc.
I continue to love the consulting space - finding opportunities to learn from a more diverse set of experiences and leveraging lessons I learned the hard way so that others don’t need to.
Here’s to being a good consultant.
Photo: By mylerdude - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=182423
