Three Essential Skills for Technology Consultants

By Steve Knutson.

I had a conversation with a client recently about the seeing the world from both sides of the fence. Is was about people who had worked in a consulting role and then moved to an in-house IT role. We talked about the differences in organisation culture, management styles, the people who those organisations attract, and the types of things you get to work on. It made me think about what skills is it that consultants need to work well with clients?

Every organisation is different because they have all made their way to today by making different decisions, hiring different people, having different strengths and constraints. They may have the same business requirements at a high-level, but when it comes to actually implementing a solution there will be differences. It could be budget, digital maturity, personalities, operating environment constraints etc, that mean we need to tailor the approach we take.

My team is diverse, with some having spent their entire working life in IT and others changing careers. Everyone brings something different to the table. Whether it is working in different business domains, scale of projects, types of organisations, technical expertise and soft skills. The same is true for any consultant, just because they are “good with computers” doesn’t mean they will be great with people or have the experience you need.

Here are three essential non-technical skills to look for when choosing a consultant. They are also three skills every consultant should continue to develop throughout their career:

Adaptability: Develop your ability to identify more than one approach to the problem you are being asked to solve. One size definitely doesn’t fit all when it comes to implementing a technology solution. Perhaps the most valuable thing you bring to the table as a consultant is experience across multiple engagements, none of which are perfect implementations. (The future belongs to the adaptable – Deloitte)
Communication: You must be able to communicate well. Develop your active listening skills, practice presenting back. Learn how to adapt your communication style and language to meet your audience on their level, don’t expect them to lift up to meet yours. Iterate, improve and simplify your communication. (The consultants guide to winning hearts and minds – Vandevelde Jan)
Critical thinking: Learn how to analyse the problem and consider the pro’s and con’s of each potential solution. Your ability to recognise fact from perception and identify the root cause of an issue is an essential skill. You have the advantage from looking at the problem from outside the organisation. (Defining Critical Thinking – Critical Thinking dot Org)

There is no magic pill you can take to become a great consultant. It takes time and effort to build your skills, gain experience and become confident in yourself. Look for opportunities that will help you grow. Here’s a few things I’ve done to develop my skills over the years:

Presented technical talks at User Groups to gain confidence in public speaking. This lead to speaking at conferences and contributed to getting the MVP award.
I started this blog to develop my writing skills and to force me to think deeply. I took this a step further and wrote a book.
Looked for opportunities to build on learning from previous projects. Great for getting more perspectives and understanding how different organisations work.
Jumped when the opportunity to speak to senior leaders came up. I hit the learning curve on this many times and still get nervous to this day!
Look back at my work to understand if really made a difference or I just thought it did.

I said earlier, that there is never a perfect project. There are always things we can improve and lessons to be learnt. As a consultant, our role is to learn those lessons and help our clients avoid the same traps. We do this by applying critical thinking, communicating well and being adaptable.

It is important realise that a client is attracted to working with you for a reason. Sometimes it is something you might not recognise yourself. I will never forget a CIO pulling me aside a decade ago, to tell me that my presentation skills were awful, but he like that I had a pragmatic approach and understanding of the technology domain. He knew the project would need things I was good at. It was also the catalyst for me to focus on improving something that I thought I was good at.

Remember, you are unique. Bring your authentic self to the consulting engagement I’d like to leave you with an exercise. Thinking about the 3 essential skills above:

Which one do you think is your strongest?
Which one do you think you need to develop the most?
Write down the name of the first person you think of when asked “who does this well?”

Reprinted from https://steveknutson.blog/2024/08/18/three-essential-skills-for-technology-consultants/