Essential Skills Every Successful Consultant Should Develop
If you want to thrive as a consultant, you need to have the right expertise, communication and relationship skills, project management skills, create great deliverables,
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Develop Your Skillset
My skillset when I began consulting was limited. I occasionally reflect on some of the work I produced 15 years ago and cringe. If we can break the key skills into a handful of categories, I’d suggest:
Industry and discipline knowledge. You have to understand your sector and the discipline itself deeply. You should know the key players, the common problems, and best practices. You can’t just rely on your experience working with one or two organisations; you have to do a lot of research.
Communication and relationship skills. You must be a great communicator online and in person. You should be great at active listening, concise communication, storytelling, presenting, written arguments, empathy, adaptability, facilitation, and display sensitivity. You need to build trusting clients for decades and win over hostile stakeholders.
Project management. You should be able…
