The most common mistakes in working with consultants

Mistakes are often made when choosing consultants, as well as when choosing employees. There is no universal rule for a good choice, but below we provide guidelines on what to look for.

1. There are many consultants who have knowledge, but that doesn’t mean that all of them are right for you. As with the hiring of employees, the company must observe the consultant and consider whether they are compatible energetically, humanly, in the way of thinking, in the way of solving problems, in character and in the way of communication.
2. Companies often hire a consultant and then start telling him how he should do something, instead of him looking at the situation, analyzing it and proposing a solution.
3. There is no “political” will and strength in the company to complete a project, but consulting remains a “dead” letter on paper.
4. Do not explain to the employees that the consultants are there to help them, not to give them advice and add additional work to them.
5. The company wants to define the sequence of the consultant’s activities according to its priorities.
6. Companies get theoretical statements of how something should look like, but they don’t get an answer on how they can achieve it, and they don’t work with them to implement solutions.
7. The company does not define which of the consultants it will work with. Search for who you want to work with and who will lead the project.
8. They often want to skip certain stages in the project, this is not good. The company has to go through all the stages, and the consultant is there to help the whole process go as efficiently and quickly as possible.
9. The price will be a decisive factor in the selection of consultants. Price should of course be taken into consideration, but it is not something that should be the deciding factor.
10. Employees keep silent about the problems they have and thus do not give a realistic picture of the situation. By recording the situation, many situations and problems can be noticed, but not all, so it is important to discuss the problems openly and not to “shove anything under the carpet”.
11. When arranging consultants, always ask who you will be working with. This is very important so that you don’t get a junior at the price of a senior.

Of course, there are many more problems and situations that you encounter, either on the side of the company that hires the consultants, or on the side of the consultants.
Work with consultants who are practical, realistic, rational, experienced and the result will not fail. You are looking for answers to the questions of how and why. If you always get a clear answer, with a practical example and application, then know that you are working with the right consultants and that you are on the right track. If you always get “by the book” answers, think about whether you made a good choice.

Author: Nenad Rikić, Senior Partner and Managing Director