A list of questions to ask… Leadership Requirements
Do they exercise good judgement?
Do they show knowledge and expertise?
Do they understand the wider context?
Partnership Requirements Can we work with them? Are they great communicators? Do I trust them?
Partnership requirements
Can we work with them? In the first instance, you need to be able to work effectively alongside the actual people that will be delivering for you. People buy people, not organisations – and so we need to be sure that who we talk to is who we will be working with. It is also worth thinking about a wider ‘we’.
Followership requirements
Will they challenge you? Part of a good consultant’s job is to disagree with their client when that is the right thing to do. Ask some challenging questions when talking to them. You may even have to be willing to play devil’s advocate and put forward a clearly flawed position or approach to see how they approach disagreeing with a potential client. Those who are willing to do so (politely and respectfully) should make the short list.
Are they good listeners? Do you feel you are being listened to? Do they demonstrate a good understanding of the brief and are they able to summarise it succintly? Will they listen to what hasn’t been said and address your superego expectations effectively?
Are they a team player? Make sure they are willing and able to work with the internal resources assigned to the learning and development project. It is worth asking how they would propose building those relationships quickly and smoothly. At the same time, understand how they would seek to manage the roles and responsibilities on the project and obtain real mutual clarity early.
Sometimes a consultant will not have all of the necessary skills to fulfil an entire assignment. A willingness to, and track record of, working in partnership with other learning and development organisations would be crucial especially for more complex assignments.
Do I trust them? This is not an easy one to quantify. This feeling of being able to trust the other party is essential to formulating a strong and productive working relationship. Remember that they will be operating under your banner and in your name – so you need to feel confident that they will be saying and doing things that you are happy with.
Are they great communicators? This needs to serve all stakeholders – from programme participants to senior members of the leadership team. Managing the communication of any learning and development intervention is critical – ask them how they would do it and what would it look like.
Conclusion
This is not an easy task – there are many learning and development consultants and consultancies to choose from. The content above is based on our experience of working with a large and varied number of clients and we are convinced that following the suggestions we have made will ensure you source the very best learning and development intervention for your people and your organisation
Followership Requirements Will they challenge you?
Are they good listeners? Are they a team player?
Iain
Robertson and
David Bowman
are senior consultants at Inspirational Devlopment Group. Find out more at
www.inspira tionaldevelop
ment.com or email Iain. robertson@in spirationaldg. com or David. bowman@ inspiratinaldg. com
www.trainingjournal.com September 2015
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