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Kevin C. Whelan

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February 22, 2021

Knowing when to flex your authority (or not)

As a consultant, you might know a few things. 

You might be the expert in the room most of the time. You might have a lot of experience in the issues at hand.

But sometimes, it’s better to take the learner’s approach. To bring an open-minded approach and not be so certain of your way of doing things. 

There are many ways to get a result. Sometimes, you should go with your tried-and-true method. Other times, you should yield to your client’s intuition.

After all, your clients bring a depth of knowledge about their business and their customers that you may not have. They also bring unarticulated goals and desires along with them.

It’s important to be receptive to those goals and desires, even if they’re not explicitly said. Otherwise, they’ll resent you for not seeing the value in their ideas (because you’ll be blind to the reasons behind them).

The key is knowing when yield and when to stand firm on your approach. You can do that by referring back to the goals often to see if they’re still the same.

Bring your expertise to every engagement, yes. But also bring an open mind and a learner’s mindset.

Goals change and there’s many ways to get to a destination. 

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