Consultants Behaving Badly

Consultants get a bad rap, and alas since this is my profession I must say that all too often it is deserved.  Here are some of the bad behaviors that turn people against us, along with some commentary on what I'm trying to do combat that:

1. Clueless about the real needs and contexts of our clients.  Consultants can become so enamored of their models, pedigrees, or egos that the client is no longer the focus of the work, but rather a platform to show off.  But this is professional services, which means we need to center our work, our methods, and our focus on them, their challenges, and their wins.  It matters to our clients that we have sat in their seat before, that we take the time to listen (and are wise enough to know how to read between the lines when the real issues are not easily apparent), and that we customize our approaches and outputs so as to align with what actually moves things forward for them.

2. When you're a hammer, everything is a nail.  Related to above, consultants can filter the whole world through their narrow worldview, proposing the solution they're best at implementing even when it's patently obvious it's not the right approach.  Which is not to say that you're not allowed to specialize, but if you do then it's even more important to maintain an open and inter-disciplinary perspective.  It also means that sometimes the best solution you can offer someone is no solution at all, or at least none that you would charge for.  Countless times folks have approached us to hire us, only for us to say that they don't need our services or a full study but a short conversation (gratis) will suffice for now.

3. Hard selling.  I don't always succeed, but I try hard to stay in touch with people, to see how they're doing or pass along information that is helpful to them, so that when the opportunity presents itself to make them aware of something we can assist them with, it isn't the only time in years that we've heard from us.  But how many times is the only correspondence you get from a consultant their new brochure or some other hard sell?  Nobody wants to do business with someone like that; they prefer to pick consultants who genuinely care about their business and their well-being.

4. Unresponsiveness/unavailability.  It is understood that consultants have more than one client at a time, yet each client should feel that they are the most important thing to their consultants.  This can't be true literally all the time, of course, but it absolutely should be true when you're actually in a meeting or on site.  After all, you're on their clock; it's not the time for personal business, other clients, or selling.  Undivided attention is a rare commodity nowadays, but all the more to offer it when you've been hired as a consultant.

What else are we guilty of?