What Top Fitness Instructors and Consultants Have in Common
Imagine this: You’ve been running for a few kilometers without taking a break. Now your feet are anchored to the ground. You cannot move. You’re completely exhausted and panting. What are you going to do now?
Are you going to run that extra kilometer? Or call it a day and drive back home? Well, it depends on who’s with you while you’re running. If there’s a qualified fitness instructor coaching you, you’ll be motivated enough to unfurl your sails again and start moving.
You’ll learn how to push your body to its maximum limit, get in the best shape possible, and potentially get rid of that beer belly - if only you want to, otherwise, a beer belly looks sexy, too (wink-wink).
The same goes for your business. Sometimes, without the right expertise, your business could lose its shape. That’s when a top management consultant can help you tone things up. Let’s find out how.
They Know Their Stuff
Good fitness instructors know how the body works. This helps them carve their client’s body into the best possible shape. Similarly, management consultants are experts in their field, and they can give the right guidance to businesses. But how to tell if a consultant is actually an expert? Well, there are some qualities you should look for.
First, being well-read and educated are the obvious prerequisites of becoming a good consultant. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. When it comes to consultant skills, critical thinking and flawlessly executing multiple tasks. It’s a mixture of soft and hard skills that make top management consultants stand out from the rest.
Whether your business is facing a daunting challenge, a difficult situation, or a unique opportunity, top management consultants will understand exactly what your goals are and create a winning strategy to achieve them.
Having deep industry knowledge (or knowing your ‘stuff’) is what’s needed to create a plan that actually works and brings results. Just like a fitness instructor plans every rep, every mile, and every calorie for their client, a management consultant creates a detailed proposal to ensure you get your business in the desired shape. However, consultants won’t make you sweat, or advise you not to eat french fries, as fitness instructors do. Now that sounds relieving.
They Focus on Results - Not Just Big Talks
Most CEOs and directors don’t really care about the hypothesis, analysis, or processes. They care more about results. Top management consultants know this and connect well the needs of C-suite executives.
Whatever challenges a company is facing at any given moment, it’s likely that an experienced management consultant has helped other companies overcome the same challenges dozens of times before. You won’t see them scratch their heads when you explain your goals to them. They have already achieved results for other companies and will straightaway tell you what possible solutions can be employed to solve your company’s problem.
Just like an experienced fitness instructor can analyze how to get their client in shape by checking their Body Mass Index, a top management consultant can examine your company’s current situation and suggest the actions that’ll lead to the fastest results.
However, businesses need to have some accountability as well. Let’s consider the fitness instructor example again. An instructor’s job is to teach their client how to lift heavy weights and maybe recommend how many kilometers they should run. But to actually show up and sweat it out is the client’s responsibility.
The same relationship dynamic applies when consultants and businesses work together. Skilled consultants will provide you with kickass solutions, and if you execute them efficiently, you should see the desired results.
They Don't Just Mind Their Own Business
“I’m only going to make recommendations and the rest is up to you,” said no top management consultant ever. The good ones see your business problems as their own. They get involved - whether it’s the preliminary stage or execution stage.
They collaborate effectively with the interns, middle managers, top management, or any other department they work with. Just like a top fitness instructor knows the difference between motivating and belittling their client, a good consultant knows how to empathize with the whole team and handle social situations flawlessly.
It’s true that consultants are hired to recommend companies what to do to achieve the intended results. But smart consultants know the difference between “talking to someone” and “talking at someone”. For example, if a team member routinely fails to complete all of their short-term sprint tasks, a professional consultant will take responsibility, communicate with the team, and help remove any obstacles that might be slowing down the project.
It doesn’t matter if the project is going through the design, diagnosis, or implementation stage, freelance management consultants actively participate in communications with the internal team and work as a cohesive unit. Even though a consultant’s job requires them to talk a lot, the right ones know how to listen as well.
Final Thoughts
No two days are the same in a consultant’s life. It’s very exciting to meet people from all backgrounds, help companies navigate through the ever-changing business seas, recommend solutions, solve problems, and have those awesome, yummy dinners with clients. This exhilarating lifestyle also requires a lot of energy and the top management consultants are full of it. Businesses feel this energy when they hire consultants like these. As the saying goes: “Two are better than one.” That is why when companies and consultants work together, achieving results in a given timeframe is far easier than compared to when companies work alone.
It’s only after you hire the right consultant you realize that you should have hired them way before. Trial and errors can be costly in business, so it’s a smart idea to let the pro examine your business’s challenges and come up with solutions. This will save you time, energy, and a lot of headaches that you’d have to face without a freelance consultant.
Let’s talk about fitness again. Do you know someone who looks exactly the same despite working out for a whole year? The biggest reason why they’re not in their aspired shape is that they don’t have a fitness instructor guiding them. The same could happen to a company without proper direction from an expert. The reason why some companies are not reaching their goals and getting in ‘shape’ is because of the lack of guidance from a management consultant.
So where does one find these consultants who are smart, energetic, skillful, and take on their client’s problem?
Where to find top management consultants?
It can be a daunting task to find a top management consultant, but a reputable freelance consultant platform makes it way easier. These consultant platforms have access to hundreds of consultants and some can find a freelance management consultant for your business within a couple of days - no kidding.
All you need is a laptop and an internet connection and your problem solver could just be a few clicks away. Long live the internet!
