How many times have I heard when I ask the question, "what do you do?" "I'm a consultant." My thought to that usually connotes "I'm currently unemployed, so I am offering my skills to those who need it." I'm sure others have had that thought as many are not very clear what a consultant really is.
That is my thought in a personal setting maybe sitting around drinking a cold beverage at a picnic, but professionally my experiences with a consultant have been someone who helps our organization hire a person so we don't have to do all the work. Maybe it is an individual who has a better pulse on who is available in the job market.
Sometimes I wonder if even an individual who claims he or she is a consultant understands what one is. The word itself seems to be thrown around without too much thought and seems to look pretty good on a business card.
Sunday afternoon I met an individual who actually did say "I am a consultant." And he had a fancy business card too. As I listened to him explain that "we help companies make decisions about people issues...", It dawned on me that this guy really didn't know what a consultant really was either.
I found myself reflecting on that first night of class where I came to the conclusion a consultant is not a noun (whereby it is a person), but rather a verb (in that it represents a process). After reading the course objectives it occur ed to me that we will delve deeply into the process of consulting focusing on how we can use consulting skills to further enrich our roles as adult educators.
It's hard to believe one hour managed to erase a career's worth of negative connotation.
“What I’ve Learned about Organizational Change”
14 years ago
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