Article Featured in Hustler Minds: Read Here
Almost everyone is familiar with a consultant. Many business organizations usually tap consultants at some point in time to help them enhance specific aspects of their organization. Who is a consultant? The dictionary defines the term consultant as a person who gives expert or professional advice to an individual or an organization on a particular field or subject.
The dictionary only provides a generalized definition. A conversation with the widely known Consultant’s Consultants, Andrew Pek, shed some new light on what is consulting. Consulting might be a broad term that cuts across all industries, but for Andrew, consulting is about solving a client’s problem and delivering real impact. “Consulting is all about inspiration but with some perspiration,” he added.
Who Is The Consultant’s Consultant?
Andrew is a world-renowned authority when talking about innovation, design thinking, and entrepreneurship. Andrew shared that he grew up in a family that promotes a strong work ethos – nothing is given; everything is earned. It has been one of the core values that propelled him to where he is today.
One client described Andrew as the substance and catalyst behind their innovation journey. Across industries, he is widely known as the leading ‘power skills’ advisor to entrepreneurs, innovators, and change-makers. The seasoned consultant and entrepreneur played a vital role in successfully starting up and transforming thousands of individuals and companies to attain breakthrough success.
Andrew has worked with and advised over 5,000 of the top global leaders across multiple industries to help them become more innovative and adaptive to change and thousands more consultants seeking to become more influential and impactful in guiding clients. It includes business leaders from Bayer, Biomerieux, BNP Paribas, Citi Group, Ferring, Intracellular, Pfizer and Steelcase.
Aside from being a consultant and entrepreneur, Andrew is both an award-winning author and a podcaster. He co-authored the best-selling book, “Stimulated: Habits To Spark Your Creative Genius At Work,” in 2008, which won the Print Industries’ America’s Benny Award for the jacket design. He is also hosting a podcast and educational platform called Consulting Unplugged. This is an unfiltered, tell-it-like-it-is podcast that showcases interviews with top entrepreneurs, innovators, and change-makers.
What Is Consulting?
Andrew defined consulting as the conscious and disciplined process of giving and delivering advice to positively and meaningful impact clients and their situation. “I want you to notice that there are three essential components of consulting, namely: conscious, disciplined, and positive.” he said.
“Consultants need to be more aware of themselves, and how their thoughts influence their actions. Simultaneously, they need to understand their clients’ needs, situations, or challenges,” Andrew explained. The clients are the lifeblood of any consulting business. Hence, a consultant should remain to tune in with the client’s challenges, hopes, and dreams. “The reality is clients only care about your expertise and whether or not you can help them in solving their challenges, and actualizing their dreams,” he added.
Andrew said discipline is another essential component of consulting. “As a consultant, you should apply structure, methods, and tradecraft to help clients achieve their results. I want to emphasize the word results because that is why clients tap your service in the first place,” he explained.
Andrew pointed out that consultants are considered the catalyst of change in an organization. Therefore, it is crucial for any consultant to deliver real impact to their clients and their situation. He explained that the impact should be positive and meaningful. For him, positive and meaningful are two inseparable words when talking about providing real impact in consulting. “You provide insight and will inspire action and results that come in many different forms such as commercial benefits, innovations, new products, and services or experiences for their customers…and potential benefits for your client’s career or professional goals,” he said.
What Can Andrew Offer?
Andrew said that the consulting landscape is an ever-changing environment. He urged fellow consultants to level up their capabilities and deliver more impact for their clients. It is good to know that Andrew and his team offer the perfect program for fellow advisors and professionals seeking to up their consulting game.
“We see that the world needs skilled advisors, change agents, and facilitators more now than ever, who can help individuals and organizations to solve vexing challenges and come up with new solutions that will deliver positive and meaningful impact. That is why we develop the Consulting Unplugged program,” Andrew explained.
It is both a course and a blueprint that aims to help those starting their consulting career or those with initial experience and ready to level up to achieve greater commercial and personal success along the way. “Think of the program as if you were reading or watching a story that has a beginning, middle, and end with even a little mystery. But at the end of the program, you will learn what we called the power skills that will help you deepen your relationships with your clients. You will be more consistent in the results you achieve and keep up with the demands of client work,” Andrew continued.
Learn the fundamentals of becoming an unplugged consultant and trusted advisor with the help of the industry’s Consultant’s Consultant, Andrew Pek, by visiting https://consultingunplugged.com/.
Photo by Dyana Van Campen