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Many businesses around the world have worked or have been working with consultants to enhance certain aspects of their organization. In most instances, consultants are tapped at a particular period, especially when an organization needs a piece of expert advice. They are being hired by every type of organization across all industries.
Consulting is often treated as synonymous with advising. However, consulting and advising are different and complementary often coinciding with one another. . Researchers stated that the purpose of consulting involves solving a client’s problem, providing information, making a problem diagnosis, providing recommendations, assisting in the recommendations implementation, facilitating client learning, and helping improve organizational effectiveness.
Andrew Pek, widely recognized as the Consultant’s Consultant, Pek said that consulting is all about inspiration but with some perspiration. As a seasoned consultant, Andrew knows the most important aspects and details of consulting. Andrew is the founder of the online consulting course Consulting Unplugged and the CEO of DxD Partners. “Consulting is all about building deep connections with your clients. It is ensuring that you are delivering real impact to your clients,” he added.
Defining Consulting
Andrew has devoted much of his professional career to the consulting industry. Over the years, Andrew has refined his view on consulting. “Consulting is more than expert advice. I defined it as the conscious and disciplined process of giving and delivering expertise to achieve a positive and meaningful impact on clients and their situation,” Andrew shared. Andrew’s definition focuses on what he considered as the three crucial aspects of consulting.
The first is conscious. “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. “He added that clients only care about your expertise and whether or not you can help them in solving their challenges and actualizing their dreams.
The second is disciplined. “The adage practice makes perfect is the most ideal description of this aspect of consulting,” Andrew said. He explained that as consultants, they should apply structure, methods, and tradecraft to help their clients achieve results. Andrew emphasized that the word result is essential in any consulting. “If you cannot provide results, will clients be interested in tapping your service,” he continued.
The third is positive and meaningful. Andrew said that consultants are motivators of change in an organization. He explained that the outcome of any consulting effort is providing a positive and meaningful impact on clients and their situation. “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 added.
Getting Unplugged With Andrew
“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,” Andrew remarked.
Andrew explained that he wants to help fellow consultants and advisors to up their consulting. That is why he launched the Consulting Unplugged program last year. Consulting Unplugged is an online course that will teach consultants and advisors the strategies and tricks of the trade and become the most influential consultant. “The program allows you to learn the superpowers of the unplugged consultant. You will know all the tips, tools, and techniques necessary to become the ultimate trusted advisor,” he added.
Andrew said that the program is both a course and a blueprint. “We made the program not to be overly technical and formulaic. That is why we called it unplugged. You can compare it to reading or watching a story that has a beginning, middle, and end with a spice of a little mystery. But at the end of the program, you will be more consistent in the results you achieve and keep up with the demands of client work,” Andrew continued.
Andrew shared that his mission is to build the next generation of advisors and change agents’ power skills to achieve a more significant and more positive impact on their clients. Through Consulting Unplugged, consultants and advisors can sharpen their saw and acquire new knowledge to build relationships with their clients and deliver positive and meaningful impact.
The Man Behind Consulting Unplugged
Andrew is an internationally recognized 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.
Across the industry, Andrew 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. He has worked with and advised over 5,000 top global leaders across multiple industries to help them become more innovative and adaptive to change and thousands of more consultants seeking to become more influential and impactful in guiding clients.
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. It is an unfiltered, tell-it-like-it-is podcast that showcases interviews with top entrepreneurs, innovators, and change-makers.
Start your journey to become an unplugged consultant and trusted advisor with Andrew Pek, the Consultant’s Consultant, by visiting https://consultingunplugged.com/.
Photo by Dyana Van Campen