by Janine Vanderburg, President/CEO

Yesterday I met a bright young woman in the University of Denver’s business school, who interviewed me as part of a class research project on what it takes to be a successful consultant. Towards the end of the interview, she asked: What advice would you give training and organizational development graduate students interested in becoming consultants? 

Sarah Hidey facilitating session for social entrepreneurs at JVA’s Social Enterprise Academy

Here are my thoughts:

1. Intern at a consulting firm. It is one thing to envision a career of helping people and organizations become better. It is another thing to experience how that happens in daily life, including the rapidly shifting deadlines and the fast pace, without a guarantee that your hard work will be actually implemented. Be sure that during the internship, you will get to work on an actual project start-to-finish so that you can experience the full cycle of tears and cheers involved in consulting.

2. Get some sales experience. No matter how high your degree of technical skills, successful consultants have to convince potential clients first to use their services, and then to implement solutions. They also have to sell their ideas internally. Harry Beckwith called this “Selling the Invisible.” Which is a terrific book to read by the way.

3. Take a public speaking course and practice, practice, practice. Presentations are an inherent part of a consultant’s work. One thing I’d like colleges and graduate schools do more of is offering and encouraging students to take public speaking. At JVA Consulting, we’ve established a Changemakers Toastmasters group so that professionals involved in community and social change jobs, including our own staff, can have regularly practice on speaking on their feet.

Solid technical skills and understanding of systems and processes are fundamental to consulting success. But so are the softer skills that are rarely taught in school. Strengthen these and you’ll be well on your way.