Top 4 skills to be a winning business consultant

In my pervious blog, I have discussed why I would like to become a Business development consultant and the significance of a business consultant in an organization. Yet, it is never easy to follow the path. A consultant will enjoy a variety of job and lots of opportunities, no matter it’s in technology, finance, legal, or human resources, they manage their business skills to provide objective advice to help an organisation to develop skills that it may be lacking. 

Everyone with a marketable skill can also become a consultant but to be a winning consultant that stand out from the crowd you must have developed very specific qualities and skills. Here are the top six skills needed to be an effective consultant. If you find yourself ticking every box, then a successful career in consulting could be just around the corner:

Excellent Communicator

According to O*NET Online, an information service created by the U.S. Department of Labour, it stated that oral expression is one of the most important job skills for management analysts, including management consultants. Good consulting always requires good communication. No matter of your expertise in consulting, communication is the foundation in the consulting field. To provide practical and precise business advisory to the company, consultants must be able to communicate their ideas to clients effectively to make their services worthwhile. Connecting with clients, understanding their needs, and figuring the solution is vital parts of the consultation process and good communicators will leading the whole process.

Commercial Awareness

The Cambridge Business English Dictionary defines commercial awareness as, "the knowledge of how businesses make money, what customers want, and what problems there are in a particular area of business." As a business consultant you have to analyse deep into the company, provide the accurate suggestion and keep the company in the right track. Commercial awareness makes one understand of what the company needs to do to be profitable, be successful, and serve its customers well. With it, you know your organization's core values, biggest competitors, key stakeholders, and current business challenges. You also know the organisation's strengths and weaknesses, and you can apply that information to make sensible decisions in consultation.

Fast Learner

As I mentioned in the previous blog, the job nature of business consultant are usually fast-paced, there are not lacking of opportunities to get exposure to how companies work which mean it have to experience a variety of industries and typically working with different aspect of experts. Therefore, you have to get familiar with different industry’s core value and basic knowledge quickly so as to understand the company situation, get yourself involve in it, adapt to different industry and manage different project. Be prepared to shadow months long projects and shows your initiative and eagerness to learn.

Team Work

Teamwork is often regarded as a skill necessary for employees to thrive within the workplace. However, to work effectively with companies, a business consultants must also master the skill of teamwork. Business consultation is all about team work, it is not a one-man game which require you to work with different people with different expertise. During large projects you will be working in teams of tens, is it paramount to embrace this variety and adapt quickly to your new teams to build relationships Therefore, we have to learn how to support your colleagues and delegate fairly.

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