What Makes A Great Consultant?

What Makes a Great Consultant: Key Skills and Qualities

Management consulting remains one of the most coveted yet challenging career paths, promising intellectual stimulation, rapid skill development and profound global impact. ButCRYPTIC. The amorphous nature of knowledge work also comes with fluid requirements shifting across projects, unpredictable travel demands and relentless pressure to deliver value for clients.

So how does one evaluate fit for this high-octane environment and set themselves up for success as a consultant? What core competencies separate average performers from the elite who drive transformation initiatives at the world’s most influential organizations?

This comprehensive guide examines the key skills, innate talents and learnable behaviors that enable great consulting. It incorporates data-driven insights across three key dimensions:

• In-demand capabilities based on client surveys
• Distinctions across consulting roles and firm types
• Lessons learned from over 5+ years in tech consulting

Let’s analyze the traits that allow some consultants to continually stand out from the pack and equip clients with structure, clarity and confidence amidst complexity.

The Most In-Demand Consulting Capabilities
Management consulting remains a resilient industry projected to grow at 6% CAGR between 2021-2028. As organizations tackle strategic shifts from sustainability to digital transformation, consultants represent crucial sense-making partners for executives navigating uncertainty.

But generic advice no longer suffices when internal strategy teams have strengthened over the past decade. Consultants now need to deliver quantifiable impacts beyond PowerPoint decks. A survey of 50+ executives across industries identified the most critical capabilities for consultants to drive real transformation:

Consultants who harness this combination of analytical horsepower, communication finesse and people leadership are well positioned to drive impact. Let‘s break down what client-focused mastery looks like across these dimensions:

1. Structured Problem Solving Abilities

The best consultants don’t just identify problems – they structure amorphous issues using frameworks like Root Cause Analysis and CAQDAS before weighing potential solutions. They also gather perspectives across functions, synthesize findings into insights and translate strategic priorities into implementation roadmaps:

As an example, a life sciences client was determined to deploy a customer analytics solution but struggled with undefined requirements and internal alignment. We led working sessions to map their org structure, current data ecosystem and persona needs. This allowed phasing the rollout and right-sizing specific capabilities like predictive lead scoring for the sales team‘s use cases. Defining requirements through a structural problem solving lens accelerated their impact by focusing the tool on key commercial outcomes.

2. Communication and Storytelling Skills

Mediocre consultants rely on jargon-heavy slides to demonstrate credibility while losing audiences in model abstraction. The most talented translate complexity into compelling narratives that persuade diverse stakeholders. They weave quantitative outputs with qualitative context around culture, talent dynamics and change capacity required:

For instance, a proposed supply chain transformation had a robust optimization model yielding efficiencies from consolidated warehouses. But lack of engagement at middle management imperiled adoption. We re-framed recommendations through their lens - regional facility pride, perceived job loss risk, training gaps. This humanized story better addressed concerns so site leads became advocates, cementing executive sponsorship.

3. Relevant Technical Excellence

While smart people thrive in consulting, mere intelligence fails to differentiate without relevant technical grounding. Elite consultants cultivate genuine fluency within their domains – whether human centered design, engineering systems or frontier technologies:

I‘ve seen initiative leaders get exposed on lack of subject matter depth despite Ivy credentials. But those valuing lifelong learning to sharpen expertise position themselves as go-to advisors. One consultant drove our semiconductor client’s next-gen memory Fab investment by immersing himself in lithography, defect management and high-NA EUV trends over 18 months through conferences, patent analysis and site visits. This passion shined through as he answered detailed questions from the CTO down to R&D engineers during strategy reviews.

4. Disciplined Project Management

The job regularly requires coordinating complex engagements involving large teams, many interdependencies and tight timelines. Superior PM discipline ensures synchronized outcomes, prompt risk mitigation and early warning on delays. Structures like RACIs and Phase Gate Reviews help consultants maintain clarity amidst chaos:

A rollout I managed covered 12 countries with 300 engineers and sales reps implementing optimized discounting policies. By planning sprints, mapping dependencies between data integration, testing and training workstreams, we maintained discipline hitting regional go-lives despite COVID delays. Outcome transparency kept senior sponsors confident reinforcing PM rigor as the glue enabling program success.  

Beyond Technical Excellence – Key “Soft” Skills

While intellectual horsepower forms the core value proposition, emotional and social intelligence increasingly differentiate those able to build connections and sustain change. Let’s examine the critical “soft” skills not taught in graduate programs but honed through situational experience:

5. Emotional Intelligence and Empathy

The highest-performing consultants balance analytics with the ability to read the room. They discern unspoken tensions, dig beyond stated positions to uncover interests and help clients open up. This EQ and empathy, coupled with vulnerability about knowledge gaps, builds deep trust with those they advise:

I‘ve seen reticent executives open up about nerves on delivering synergies in post-merger integrations once consultants demonstrate authenticity. That rapport became the basis for re-assessing timelines based on organization readiness rather than imposed financial targets. This structural empathy response eased pressure, providing space for culture integration.

6. Change Management Abilities

The best technical solution delivers zero value if not adopted at scale. Exceptional consultants guide stakeholders through transformation journeys by addressing biases, aligning incentives and scaffolding new capabilities. This underpins sustainable adoption minus regression risk:

A manufacturing network optimization model led to 30% efficiency potential through plant specialization. But directors refused to relinquish local product breadth. By first addressing pride of full-spectrum local output, then illustrating how focused factories could better invest in workforce development, we overcame resistance. Specialized facilities now showcase advanced training programs as their source of pride.

Distinctions Across Consulting Role Archetypes

Client impact requires aligning type of problem with complementary skill profiles across diverse consulting roles:

While foundational abilities like structured thinking cut across archetypes, the differentiators shift. Strategy consultants need to rapidly assimilate market shifts into implications. Operations consultants have to pick up subtler group dynamics and address fears fueling resistance.

As careers progress, many gravitate towards hybrid specialties like digital transformation (tech + culture) or innovation capability building (strategy + human capital) to drive impact.

Distinctions Across Firms – Big vs Boutique Tradeoffs

Consulting careers also involve balancing tradeoffs between larger, generalist groups ("MBB") and smaller, specialized firms ("boutiques") on dimensions like variety vs expertise:

While no perfect choice exists, recognizing individual priorities around building specialized expertise versus expanding breadth of experience can guide decisions. Many find boutique exposure in specific domains combined MBB training background as a powerful career springboard.

Key Takeaways – Evaluating Consulting Fit

The world‘s top consulting firms receive thousands of candidates competing intensely for case interviews and available slots. But recruiting processes skew heavily towards quantitative analysis and structured thinking.

The differentiators that sustain impact through volatile projects and dynamic business environments also involve abilities like situational adaptability, empathy and change enablement.

Here is a summary checklist to reflect on consulting fit:

Teachable Capabilities

• Kommunikationsfähigkeit – Can you dissect complexity and realign mismatched mental models while maintaining trust?
• Project Management Skills – Could you coordinate multifaceted initiatives balancing tight deadlines and high uncertainty?
• Business Acumen – Do you deeply integrate financial outcomes and data-driven decision making into solution planning?
• Toolbox Depth – Are you genuinely committed to steep learning curves stays updated on latest methods?

Innate Traits

• Situational Adaptability – Do you thrive under constant priority shifts and role changes outside your control?
• Intrinsic Learning Drive – Are you self directed to pursue expertise advances despite no external pressures?
• Compassion and Humility – Can you handle fluid environments without ego interfering?

Motivations

• Passion for Problem Solving – Are you energized by digging into messy situations without simple answers?
• Mission Alignment – Does enabling clients to achieve goals resonate as your higher purpose?

Leverage this checklist to take an honest inventory of your strengths and gaps. Committing to improvement across teachable areas while aligning to teams matching innate preferences and motivators will unlock a rewarding consulting career filled with challenge, impact and non-stop growth.