CHAPTER 2
THE MASTERFUL CONSULTANT’S INNER STANCE

One must not always think so much about what one must do, but rather what we should be. Our works do not ennoble us; but we must ennoble our works.

—Meister Eckhart

JOHN LEFT THE DEBRIEF SESSION of the consulting engagement thinking he had done a decent job. He had helped the client accomplish the task, had met all his commitments, and felt satisfied his deliverable was better than most could have done. The debriefing went as expected, with nothing unusual. John shook hands with the client, leaving her with this message: “Sheryl, if you ever have any other work like this, please don’t hesitate to call.” Sheryl assured him she would. John was comforted in her response.

Months went by and there was no call. Through his connections John learned there were indeed two other similar projects that required his kind of expertise, yet he was never called. After eight months, he decided to take action. He called Sheryl to ask her why he was not considered. She gave him two reasons related to their internal decision making, both of which seemed compelling but did not persuade him. He asked her again if she was pleased with his work, and she indicated she was.

What John did not know, and would likely never find out from Sheryl, was that his work was adequate, but not great. He had done everything he could, but she felt no connection with him. Moreover, she felt that his work would not take them to the next level. He fulfilled the contract but did not impress. The problem wasn’t his method or his reports. The problem was that he lacked the inner magic that inspired others to challenge their assumptions. He was good, but not masterful. Sadly, he yearned to be great, so not getting called back was painful. He didn’t believe her answer to his question, yet had no way to probe deeper to learn what the real problem was. He felt rejected and confused.

While much research exists on the practice of consulting, the profession is still far more art than science. John pays attention to the science and comes equipped with the latest techniques and models. But he misses the artistry that is the essence of masterful consulting.

THE ARTISTRY OF A MASTERFUL CONSULTANT

Like a great painter, the masterful consultant relies on more than simple technique. He knows that each client situation is unique—a blank canvas. While there are principles to guide his actions, he must create anew the process and the relationship to produce the greatest effect. Where the painter works with paintbrush and palette, the masterful consultant works with “self.”

All good consultants have an inventory of theories, models, tools, and techniques to draw on. Without them, most would be lost. Yet what differentiates master consultants from others has nothing to do with this inventory. It has all to do with the “feel” of the situation, with the ability to act effectively “in the moment”—to sense what is going on in a given situation and then take the action that meets that moment. To do this well requires consultants to divest themselves of the past and the future, of fears, anxieties, and desires, to be present, and then to take action without ego. Theory, models, instruments, and techniques can’t teach this, because it arises from the consultant’s inner stance—that invisible quality elusive to so many.

Robert Bly, in a collection of poems entitled The Soul Is Here for Its Own Joy, recalls an ancient African tale illustrating the power of that invisible quality, which I paraphrase here:

A man had twelve cows, and he loved them very much. But one day he noticed they were giving less milk. He decided to stay up and see why they were giving less milk. At midnight he saw a light come down from the stars. Inside the light was a luminous woman. He said to her, “Are you the one who has been stealing milk from my cows?” “Yes,” she said, “my sisters and I like the milk from your cows very much.”

Taken by her beauty, and her love of his cows, the man proposed to her on the spot. She agreed, but with one condition: “I have brought this basket with me, and I want you to agree that you will never look into this basket.”

The man agreed, and they were married. But his curiosity soon got the worst of him, and one day he broke his promise and peered into the basket. To his surprise, he found it empty.

His beautiful wife returned that day to find the basket open. When she confronted him with the question of whether he opened the basket against her wishes, he confessed. “I did!” he said, laughing frantically. “I opened the basket! There’s absolutely nothing in it. There is nothing in the basket!!”

The mysterious woman replied, “I must leave now. What I brought with me in the basket was spirit. It’s so like human beings to think that spirit is nothing!” And she was gone.

So too with the best kind of consulting. We expect to look into the basket and discover easy explanations for deep transformations. Oh, we might see ordinary things—those tools, techniques, exercises, models, and specialized knowledge that anyone can see. What is also there, but invisible, is the consultant’s spirit—his inner stance. I am not talking about spirit in a religious sense but rather about the spirit with which we do our work.

Mastery emerges from a healthy inner stance. A consultant’s inner stance can be felt and experienced from his demeanor and mindset, in what he pays attention to and what he cares about. Presence, confidence, openness, and commitment are all vital elements of a healthy and vital inner stance. A consultant’s inner stance colors every dimension of the client-consultant relationship, so it deserves considerable attention. Invisible it may be, yet it shows up in everything good that we do. Perhaps Albert Einstein said it best when he said: “All means prove but a blunt instrument, if they have not behind them a living spirit.”

A master consultant I interviewed said something important about the consulting process that is relevant here. When I asked what advice he would give to others about becoming a masterful consultant, he said simply:

Be in a constant learning environment. The research shows that eventual success is a hockey stick in which the length of the stick is directly correlated with the length you have been in an apprenticeship mode. People who don’t succeed go for money right away and never learn. I say you ought to get paid the next 10 years in the form of learning experiences.

What learning experiences did he mean? Those that include the inner stance. Too often, consultants seek the quick fix, particularly early in their careers, and don’t commit themselves to the learning that mastery requires. Like their clients, they too want a magic pill they can offer to help companies be successful.

Unfortunately, no magic pill exists. Those who seek it rarely achieve true, enduring success. In contrast, none of the masterful consultants I interviewed adopt a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, they are armed with a rich array of intervention tools, models, and approaches, which they use flexibly and creatively. Becoming masterful didn’t come easily. It came from long, hard work on their inner stance, and much experience. This work results in a set of goals and strategies that stand in sharp contrast to the goals and strategies employed by those who adhere to the prevailing rules of the consulting game.

THE MASTER CONSULTANT’S GOALS AND STRATEGIES

Every organization is driven by a set of patterns. The way we hold meetings has a pattern. The way we communicate has a pattern. Our leadership style has a pattern. These patterns form, mold, and harden until they become the very culture of organizations. The goal of consulting mastery is simple: to impact the fundamental patterns of the client organization in order to produce profound and deep change.

To accomplish this goal, masterful consultants adopt a primary strategy best characterized as an empowering partnership—one designed to shift the client organization to a new level of health and performance. An empowering partnership is one where both consultant and client are touched by each other. Together, they create an authentic, vulnerable relationship, where the client, the process, and the relationship itself are all explored, deepened, and enhanced. They see their work together as co-creative and filled with learning that is every bit as imaginative as it is well designed. Scottish philosopher David Hume said it well when he wrote: “The sweetest path of life leads through the avenues of learning, and whoever can open up the way for another, ought, so far, to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind.” This avenue of learning traveled by an empowered relationship is the heart of the master consultant’s primary strategy.

Following this primary strategy, masterful consultants use three secondary strategies, each fitting the three arenas of consulting: relationship with client, with knowledge, and with self.

1.THEY DEVELOP A CLIENT-CENTERED PARTNERSHIP. They see clients as a whole system and encourage their clients to do the same. They are clear that clients have the capacity to grow themselves. Therefore, they position themselves as guides or partners, not experts. Finally, they see their clients as responsible for the outcome while remaining a partner in the process.

2.THEY SHARE KNOWLEDGE OPENLY AND FREELY. Masterful consultants know that the key to effectiveness is in applying knowledge in real time. In addition, they seek wherever possible to transfer knowledge and enhance the wisdom of their clients.

3.THEY SEE THE QUALITY OF THEIR CHARACTER AS A CATALYST FOR TRANSFORMATION AND LEARNING. Masterful consultants recognize that the most important differentiator between good and great consultants is the quality of their character. As a result, they spend a great deal of time developing their inner self.

To better understand these three strategies, let’s examine each one more thoroughly.

HOW MASTERFUL CONSULTANTS RELATE TO THEIR CLIENT ORGANIZATIONS

The empowering relationship masterful consultants form with their client organizations may be obvious to many, but it is also difficult to attain. Almost all consultants believe they form relationships with their client organizations with the intent to empower them. They say they create conditions in which the client owns the process or the outcome, and that their intent is to leave the client more capable than when the consulting process started. This mindset alone, however, is not what differentiates masterful consultants from others. It is the degree to which they behave congruently with it. While many consultants espouse the importance of the client owning the process, and of creating a true partnership with the client, their behavior, too often, tells another story.

Let’s look at one example. Craig is a competent consultant who believes strongly that his client needs to own the process and the outcome of the consultation, and he believes the members of the client organization need to implement his ideas themselves in order to grow. During a planning session to develop a two-year plan to execute a fairly radical Six-Sigma process throughout the company, Craig led the way. He offered a model for executing the ideas, and walked the group of key executives and HR staff through each carefully designed step. They followed Craig’s lead, feeling a need for his guidance in an area that seemed overwhelming and highly complex and made decisions consistent with Craig’s framework. When members of the planning team offered ideas that Craig believed were unwise, he deftly and compassionately explained why and offered an alternative suggestion. The team felt persuaded by his viewpoint, never controlled. Based on initial positive feelings about Craig, all appeared to be going according to plan.

Had you looked at Craig’s behavior more closely, however, you might have noticed signs of a less-than-ideal outcome. Throughout the meeting he made suggestions far more often than he asked questions or invited comments. When he did ask questions, it was almost always with an answer already in mind. Subtly, Craig steered the group toward the pre-existing answer. Neither did he solicit feedback about how they were feeling about the process or decisions made. Additionally, numerous nonverbal signs were ignored, such as crossed arms and restive expressions suggesting that team members were disconnecting from the process. Regardless of these signs, Craig left feeling successful, having imparted his hard-earned wisdom to the members of the team. The CEO felt as if he got his money’s worth. After all, wasn’t he paying Craig for knowledge?

The missing ingredient here was that the team, while following Craig’s lead, did not psychologically own the change process or the outcome, because they never had to think it through for themselves. As a result, they did a poorer job in the implementation phase than they did in the diagnosis. Midway through the process, the implementation stalled as other business concerns came to the fore. To this day, Craig blames the team members for their lack of commitment and ability to act with conviction, not himself for the subtle and mounting ways he precluded their own learning process.

In contrast to Craig’s experience, masterful consultants keep their clients in the driver seat, committed to their ownership of the outcome. It’s a conscious process, one that calls for rigorous self-observation and attention to the potential to want to act in a heroic fashion and “fix” the client’s problems. Masterful consultants seek feedback to minimize their own unconscious patterns that might result in taking power away from their client organizations. In other words, they walk their empowering talk. Unlike Craig, masterful consultants will more often ask questions than give answers. They act as a facilitator, committed to having the planning team members think the process through for themselves. They might offer a model, but at the same time readily accept one of their client’s if it achieves the outcomes of ownership and committed action necessary to implement change. Masterful consultants know that the magic is not in the models, but rather in the intangibles: the learning process, the consultant’s relationship to the client, and the consultant’s character.

Masterful consultants behave more congruently with their beliefs because they examine their own behavior deeply and fully. They are also deeply committed to the client having freedom of choice, ownership of the process, and valid information upon which to make decisions. They are far more consciously facilitative than someone like Craig. While Craig says he is committed to those same principles, his greater, unconscious commitment is to being “brilliant” in the eyes of the client—and to being “right.”

Owning the outcome is one of three features of the client relationship that masterful consultants form. In addition, masterful consultants treat the whole system as the client, and wisely negotiate the dilemmas posed when the person paying them acts inconsistently with the needs of the whole system.

Underlying masterful consultants’ success is their abiding commitment to a partnering relationship, one where power is shared equally between client and consultant during the change process. One thing that differentiates masterful consultants from others is the depth to which they hold true to this principle, not merely paying it lip service. In the act of defining a consultant-client relationship, for example, most masterful consultants have a very candid conversation with the client about mutual boundaries, expectations, and desires. While other consultants tend to wait to discuss their relationship until problems arise, masterful consultants deal with it up front. In the contracting phase of the consulting engagement, they will place as much if not more emphasis on defining the desired qualities of the interpersonal relationship as on the financial relationship. They discuss and agree upon who is in charge of which meetings, when and how to give feedback to each other, under what conditions either party can exit the relationship, expectations about honesty and vulnerability, and much more.

HOW MASTERFUL CONSULTANTS RELATE TO KNOWLEDGE

While I have argued strongly against the overemphasis on knowledge in the hierarchy of consulting abilities, I am not dismissing it altogether. Indeed, a threshold of knowledge is necessary to be even a half decent consultant. The importance of knowledge was reinforced through the client interviews I conducted to understand their views of consulting mastery. When describing the most effective consultant they had ever worked with, many described how bright and knowledgeable the consultant was. Clients often spoke about not only the consultant’s conceptual capability but also of his or her ability to see clearly through the fog of the client’s difficulties. Similarly, the intellectual horsepower of each of the consultants I interviewed was quite evident. At the same time, none of them wore their intelligence on their sleeve. Quite the opposite; almost all were astoundingly humble.

Knowledge, then, is crucial to consulting mastery, as is the ability to think clearly. Without some threshold level of knowledge and a keen intellect, the consultant will not fulfill the client’s tacit need to be given something (knowledge) the client believes it lacks.

However, brilliant thinking does not make a great consultant. Brilliant thinking may impress, but it doesn’t empower the client to make changes. Instead, all of the masterful consultants interviewed displayed an impressive amount of emotional intelligence. Their ability to understand their clients from a human standpoint, to see client problems more clearly, to help them make sense of their own organization, and work with them to the point where true change occurs is what separates them from the pack. Most consultants have the requisite knowledge and analytic capability. Few have the emotional intelligence to produce lasting change in their client organizations.

In this day and age, both good and masterful consultants are more than adequately equipped with expert knowledge in their field, and are able to communicate their knowledge effectively. In the knowledge arena, what distinguishes masterful consultants is the way they hold and use knowledge. They hold their knowledge with certainty and confidence, not arrogance. When they communicate, they often describe the complex set of unfolding dynamics in ways that create clarity out of confusion. Most importantly, masterful consultants are guided by a set of theories about change, which provide a map for how to navigate the complex and choppy waters of change. One master consultant I interviewed said it well:

Too often consultants are walking around and they don’t have a solid ground to stand on in terms of either a theory of change that they can use across multiple levels of system or a theory of phases of development. Without those two things, they are almost certainly going to end up basically leaning on tools and techniques.

In addition to offering concepts cleanly and simply, masterful consultants will pick and choose their spots when intervening into the client organization. Ever aware that the client must own the change and take action based on the knowledge offered, masterful consultants seek not to dazzle the client with knowledge. Instead, they guide and support the client toward the discoveries necessary for action. Even more important, they seek to create conditions in which these discoveries are so strongly experienced that the outcome is a profound commitment to change. While I have no hard data on the subject, anecdotal data combined with what I have observed from countless examples of consultants following the principles embedded in this book show that the ratio of implementation success to failure is quite high and leaves those that employ the typical model of consulting in the dust.

HOW MASTERFUL CONSULTANTS CARRY THEMSELVES AS PEOPLE

The quality of character of masterful consultants is evident in how they talk, how they relate to others, and how they act. Behind these behaviors must be integrity, confidence, and humility. Behind this, deeper still, must be strong self-esteem, often borne of years of self-reflection and intense inner work.

In my experience, masterful consultants strive to live by a set of principles. We all have principles that guide our actions, sometimes tacit, and sometimes explicit. What distinguishes masterful consultants from others is their adherence to those principles, their commitment to examine themselves in relation to these principles, and their willingness and ability to self-correct. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the famous 19th century transcendentalist philosopher, put it well: “Self-command is the main discipline.”

Not surprisingly, the principles of self-command are not typically taught in most consulting training courses. Nor are they discussed in great detail in daily conversation among consultants. But they are held deeply by each of the consultants I spoke to, and by other great consultants I have had the pleasure to observe in action. Here, then, are the principles shared by masterful consultants.

Always tell the truth means being honest with one’s self and with others at all times. Great consultants are typically courageous and value honesty before caution. At the same time, they find ways of speaking honestly in ways that others can hear. They do not bludgeon others with honesty. Instead, their honesty goes down easily because it is coupled with respect.

Commit to learning has to do with a stance in life. Great consultants are inquisitive. They spend far more time and energy exploring issues than they do offering answers. They respect and abide by the process of discovering, and encourage answers to unfold, rather than delivering them in machine-gun succession.

Bring my whole self has to do with being vulnerable and with being whole—mind, body, and spirit. Great consultants are acutely aware of their shadow self, and rather than deny or hide some areas of their self, they seek to bring them out. They see the process of consulting as a very human process, and know that the more we know and respect our own self, the more we can understand, respect, and guide others.

Play a big game means working with others to make a larger difference. Great consultants don’t get embroiled in either/or thinking. They focus on ways of working that expand possibilities to produce win-win outcomes, and that open up vistas clients were not even aware of.

Simple as they may seem, these principles are profound in their implications. As I look back on the moments when I was less than successful, I can almost always trace them back to either avoiding or not embodying one of these principles. Masterful consultants know deep in their bones that failure in consulting is almost always attributable to violating one of those principles; therefore they strive to live by them impeccably—to be in command of self. Deviating from them creates an inner disturbance. Once they notice the deviation, they immediately course-correct.

By saying that masterful consultants live by the principles I have described, I am not suggesting they are perfect. To the contrary, any principle or value is a beacon of light to strive for; not a rule to be gripped by. What differentiates masterful consultants from others is their commitment to the principles, their never-wavering intention to look themselves in the mirror, and their ability to self-correct without self-blame.

These qualities do not come easily. They are the result of years of self-exploration, self-examination, and the support of many others—therapists, counselors, coaches, mentors, friends, and family—all of whom challenge the consultant to live up to his full potential as a vehicle for positive change. It takes a strong sense of self—an unusually high level of self-esteem—to attain mastery, and it is driven by a continual commitment to self-awareness.

MASTERY IS NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN GO OUT AND GET. THERE IS NO MAGIC PILL. IT IS SOMETHING ONE EARNS.

Underlying the four principles of conduct is a deeper awareness held by all masterful consultants. Masterful consultants do not see these principles as static. Nor do they see themselves as perfect. They see themselves on a journey toward fully realizing these principles, a destination that is never fully achieved. This is a journey toward being a more conscious and self-aware human being, and not just a good consultant. It is a journey of self-discovery.

In short, these principles are a guide for how masterful consultants conduct themselves, always. The principles determine the consultants’ actions, decisions, and choices. It is their powerful inner guide, and in living by this guide, consultants become effective, trusted, and positively influential.

Together, these arenas of consulting, relationship to client, knowledge and self, come together in the thoughts and actions of masterful consultants (Figure 2-1). They are in stark contrast to the past and present model that underlies most consulting practices and while perhaps more difficult to enact, represent the potential future of the consulting industry.

THE THREE STRATEGIES ARE AN INTEGRATED WHOLE

As a system, the goals and strategies of masterful consultants do not exist in isolation from one another. Trying to enact one strategy without the others is like a three-legged stool missing a leg. Inevitably, it will fall.

To illustrate, let’s look at three examples. I know one consultant (let’s call him Paul) who is quite brilliant, and who has conceptualized a way of working with clients and helping them transform that is as well thought out as any I’ve ever seen. Paul also acts with the utmost of integrity. However, when he works with clients, they often feel that he is aloof, professorial, and sometimes self-absorbed. Paul has generated many new clients, but few stay with him over time. Fewer still call him back for more work. They rarely tell him the real reason for not continuing to work, masking it with excuses such as, “we aren’t ready to go forward yet,” or “we want to slow the process down for now.” As a result, Paul has no clue why his client work comes up short. His relationship to knowledge is strong and his character impeccable. But his ability to connect to people in a heartfelt way just isn’t there.

In contrast, I know another consultant (call her Sandy) who demonstrates enormous integrity in her dealings with others. Sandy has a wonderful way of engaging with clients, and they experience her as warm, caring, and appropriately empowering. Nonetheless, her Achilles heel appears to be her ability to communicate her ideas clearly. While she is bright, having earned a doctoral degree, she often speaks in a way that meanders or is verbose, and often obfuscates her key points. As hard as Sandy tries, clients are often left confused. This is particularly problematic in that one reason an organization hires consultants is to help them better deal with their own uncertainty and confusion. Sandy’s ability to relate effectively is clearly without question, and her integrity beyond reproach. But her relationship to knowledge is flawed. Consequently, she has difficulty obtaining work, and when working, sometimes has difficulty helping clients move in a clear, coordinated way.

Finally, I know a third consultant (Greg) who is clear thinking, holds knowledge in a way that supports clients and their learning, and establishes a strong partnership with them, yet his integrity is suspect. Frequently, Greg unconsciously acts in a self-serving manner. His need for work sometimes causes him to be too aggressive with clients, so that he comes across like a used car salesman. Greg sometimes “shapes the truth” to get what he wants. In other words, his character is compromised. As a result, clients often end up not trusting him, to the point of severing their work with him.

There are endless examples of consultants whose imbalance or inadequate capability in one of these fundamental arenas compromises their consulting effectiveness. In contrast, while all the masterful consultants I interviewed appear to have a particular strength, none of them are weak in any one of the arenas. They have worked hard to develop all three, and recognize them all as crucial to their consulting success.

Having summarized the key features of consulting mastery, the bulk of the book is devoted to deepening the reader’s understanding of the details of what it means to be a masterful consultant. The last two chapters then explore mastery more fully and provide guidance on how to move toward it.