By Amanda Cole
“Let’s try something different this time around,” we thought. My husband and I packed our two kids up and headed to the airport for my upcoming work trip to lead sales onboarding training for Quest Diagnostics. I usually left on my own, but we thought we’d get a little more time together this way.
About ten minutes from the airport, the trainer in me couldn’t help myself and I said we should go around the van and say what we love about each person. We came to me last, and my 5-year-old daughter says, ‘What I love about mom is that she lifts me up so I can see the stars’. Talk about gut-wrenching right before I’m about to board a plane and leave my family for days! We had recently been intentional about showing the kids the nighttime sky; the moon, the stars, the greater expanse of the world they know so little of in their young lives. I couldn’t remember exactly when I had lifted her up to see those stars better, but to her, it left a lasting impression.
A few months later, as I entered the Flawless Consulting I workshop, I assumed I would walk away with a few ideas on better communication. And to be honest, I didn’t think I had much to learn. I was a natural talker, a charming person, and I got along with everyone so naturally that meant I was a good consultant, right?
Participating in the Flawless Consulting 1 workshop uncovered a whole new way of operating, both as an internal and external consultant. I didn’t just learn new and valuable frameworks for interacting with customers, I walked away empowered as a valuable asset to my organization. I realized that I was not simply an obedient order taker or helpful assistant to the executives, no, as an internal consultant utilizing these frameworks, I was vital to creating outcomes that actually moved the needle instead of just applying a band-aid.
Like any new way of thinking, it felt foreign at first. I reviewed my participant manual before heading into a meeting with the Sales Director. I came up with impactful questions and reminded myself to allow the Director and project team members to struggle through to the answer of the underlying problem. But after only a few weeks of re-wiring my brain to approach this vital role of mine, I noticed a shift. My confidence grew. I knew that the uncomfortable (sometimes even painful) struggle to solution was part of the process. I realized being useful was a lot better than being helpful.
When we partner with our clients as trusted advisors, the goal is not to simply accomplish whatever they ask of us, it’s to uncover what’s possible. To unlock a solution they would never have considered, or better yet, to help them realize their ask was aiming too low.
Perhaps as a true flawless consultant, we can lift them up to help them see the stars.
