Whether it’s your personal or organizational health, trust the experts. Putting your trust in complete strangers can be challenging, but their years of expertise and experience can offer unparalleled benefits to your business – and save you a lot of setbacks.
Real Life Example: Trusting the Expert For My Knee
Why do we trust healthcare practitioners, people we hardly know, and allow them to perform invasive and critically important procedures on our bodies? I recently asked myself this question when I received treatment for my knee. The injury, (precipitated from years of off-road biking), was beyond the capabilities of my general practitioner, who referred me to an orthopaedic surgeon, who then referred me to a sports clinic. When the specialist at the clinic arrived with a huge needle, I couldn’t help but question whether or not my trust was well-placed.
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As it turns out, my trust was well-founded. The specialist, who estimated he had given this injection “about 10,000 times” had the qualifications and the experience to perform the procedure correctly, without causing any damage to my nerves or bones. In addition, the procedure has helped my healing immensely.
When You Leave Out the Experts: Molehills Become Mountains
My experience at the sports clinic easily lends itself to management consulting.
Every so often in an organization, when CEOs, executives or senior leaders face difficult problems, they puzzle through the challenges alone rather than calling an expert who has the training and experience.
In my experience, this can actually create more problems in the organization. These solutions, conceived by the CEO or senior leaders, are often based on trial and error, which can lead to false starts, wasted time, and an additional workload for people running the organization.
Experts Effectively Apply Learned Methods
Just as I wouldn’t perform that injection myself, I wouldn’t expect CEOs or heads of departments to lead a major change project on their own.
A management consultant has the training and experience; he or she has learned effective methods in the field from confronting a wide variety of scenarios and organizational challenges. A consultant can do the heavy lifting in getting the project up and running, so that executives don’t take their eyes off of operations. He or she will only need to be involved at a critical junction when decision-making is required. Otherwise there is a risk that operations will suffer while attention is diverted to “figuring it out”.
Recover Costs with Greater Efficiency
When you bring in a management consultant there is a cost, but that it is more than recovered in terms of unburdening the executives from certain tasks they would have difficulty completing. It’s not that the consultant does do all the work; the executives and CEO still needs to be front and centre in terms of providing, implementing, and championing the project. But the presence of a management consultant makes the work and the transition more effective and efficient.
At first, CEOs and other leaders may find it difficult admitting they need the support. When this situation arises, think back to my knee. Just as I trusted individuals who are qualified and experienced with my physical health, executives need to trust individuals who are qualified and experienced with the health and overall life of their organizations.
Ensure the Consultant is Qualified
Be sure that you do your homework to be sure that the management consultant qualified for the work that you require. One of the best ways of doing this is to look for a management consultant that has the Certified Management Consultant (CMC) designation. Just as you wouldn’t go to a doctor without an MD, you shouldn’t consider a consultant that isn’t recognized by the Institute of Management Consultants in your country.
