Knowledgeable Consultants

-
I have been in L&D past 30 years, in some form or another. I have also been an L&D consultant. Being both sides of the field, I have made plenty of mistakes. One of the things I want to share here is the way L&D consultants approach companies, with the intent to help the companies. Noble in intent, but sometimes that intent backfire. I was fortunate, when I approached them as a L&D consultant, they commented on my approach. Some are polite, some are loud. I learned nonetheless. 
Never approach a company without doing extensive homework. A few months ago, I received a solution to remedy challenges for an oil & gas business. They company I swork with, was never near the oil & gas spectrum Talk about being off-base. I have met many companies who approached me asking me to divulge all our company problems to them, so that they can develop solutions. Sorry, it doesn't work that way either.
I have met some consultants, who did their homework. They not only know our challenges, also provided solutions I am impressed with. I am learning a lot from these learned experts. 
Even though I am an in-house consultant, I can no longer just say, tell me your problems, and I shall develop a solution. I need to approach them, knowing the problems and providing the solutions, without asking them. I need to know their business, be it within the organization, or benchmark it against other comparable companies.
Good luck to us all.

Ben Grant

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why focus only on Retaining and Developing People?

-
From HR practitioners' point of view, managing talent (people) starts from sourcing (recruitment); rewarding and recognition; performance management; and of course, retaining and developing talent/people . But the fact is that, how many recruitment as managers do you actually do? Definitely not on a monthly basis, unless you are on a rapid expansion program. Also, rewards and recognition, primarily means the actual giving of increments and bonuses. One - it is a once a year affair, though most purists will argue against me saying that, it is a continuous affair. I agree, but only if seen from a development and performance improvement point of view. Hence my contention for retaining and development. Two - how much liberty does a manager have in determining how much reward managers can give their people? Not much. Especially in tight economy and the every increasing need by companies to deliver more with less, managers must really have a strong justification for the additional ...
Read more

Developing A Leadership Pipeline That Works

-
Image
Salaam and Greetings All,   Hope this messages gets to you in the best of health. Despite the heavy haze and the gloomy days.   I love this type of writing is that it puts things into perspectives. A simple unadulterated perspective. First thing he said is, “ A simple, non-bureaucratic system ”.   I can’t say I have seen it all. However, I have seen enough to know, a lot of organizations can’t seem to fathom the idea of simplicity. Somehow they believe, if it is complicated, it is sophisticated. If is sophisticated, then, the designer is intellectual. Somehow, I fail to see the logic.   When I was in the Army, I was trained, the more steps, more stages you have in your plans, the more chances it will fail. Keeping things simple and easy, less likely for the plan fail, easier for people to understand and implement.   I have also seen a lot of companies, who have succeeded very well in making it simple. They somehow focused not so much i...
Read more

Walk the Talk

-
Salaam and Greetings All,   Hope this message gets to you well. Selamat Hari Raya. Maaf Zahir dan Batin. It was a good Raya for me. Not to hectic. Enough to keep things going and interesting. Interesting because managed to visit and have a lively chat with a few of my late in-laws' friends. Retired Army officers. Retired Police officers. Retired civil servants. Retired corporate senior management. Somehow in the course of our conversation, we ended up talking about the state of leadership, especially in organizations. Maybe due my profession in Leadership Development that the conversations invariably ended there.  Of the half a dozen or so I talked to, they all had something in common. Leaders of today are not the same as the leaders of yester-years. Leaders of today, yes, they are more eloquent, and they know a lot more than their  predecessors . Yet, one thing these retired people agreed upon, the leaders of yester-years speak from the heart, and they walk the talk. ...
Read more