Introduction to Consulting Skills

Prerequisites:

You will benefit from this course if you are an internal and/or external consultant who needs to manage your assignments more effectively, have a better understanding of your clients and their needs, and communicate those client needs more efficiently to your own teams and organisations.

You may have some experience of consulting engagements and building effective relationships with clients, teams and stakeholders.

Course Description:

Do you want to better understand your clients and their needs?
Do you find it challenging to communicate client needs to your stakeholders?
Do you want to be able to manage your assignments more effectively and successfully deliver your outcomes?

This course provides a highly practical, interactive workshop designed to enable consultants to understand the processes involved in consulting. Internal and external consultants, business analysts and those delivering change will be able to learn and polish techniques to help successfully achieve required outcomes.

The workshop emphasises the interpersonal skills required to be a successful consultant and builds confidence to cope positively with the challenges of turbulence, ambiguity and conflict.

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• Recognise the stages in the consulting cycle
• Identify and create the key ingredients of a beneficial partnership
• Recognise and respond to clients' motivation factors and the develop the skills to use them in relationship building
• Utilise tools for handling difficult situations with tact and sensitivity
• Evaluate the impact of different stakeholder needs, styles and perspectives
• Identify and engage with stakeholders
• Apply advanced techniques for creating, feeding back and presenting compelling case for change
• Review and share best practices.

You'll benefit from this course if you need to provide internal consultancy services within your organisation.

This course includes the following modules:

Course Content

• Personal objectives for the course.
• What is a consultant.
• The consultancy cycle and the consultancy environment.
• Consultancy intervention styles.
• Strength Deployment Inventory and Conflict Handling Strategies.
• Advanced Communication techniques.
• The client system.
• Change facilitation and management.
• Building influence.
• Sources of power and influencing strategies.
• Client project review.
• Disengagement and follow up.
• Completion of a personal action plan.