The Consultants Manual

Contents: Foreward; Introduction; Part I: Planning (6 chapters); Part II: Implementation (9 chapters); Index. This is the comprehensive guide to starting, building and running a successful consulting practice. Based on the author's popular Harvard consulting course. Covers all practical aspects of consulting practices.

Delivers the essential practical skills needed to consult and make sharp, well prepared interactions in a wide range of business situations This comprehensive handbook covers the fundamental skills and attitudes required by successful consultants from novice to practitioner level, irrespective of their specialist area. It untangles the key variables present in any consulting service and introduces practical ways to improve their effectiveness based upon the author's experience of helping consulting organisations to develop and excel in the marketplace. The book explores consulting ‘from the ground up' steering away from theory and focusing instead on practical application, providing a solid platform upon which to build further domain-specific competence. The Consultant's Handbook provides: An understanding of the key variables that can be addressed in order to improve one's own consulting performance A set of simple practices that can be implemented with immediate benefit to the reader Practical insight into day-to-day real life consulting interactions Confidence to implement the new ideas and approaches

Whether you’re a beginner just starting up a consulting practice, or a veteran looking for ways to invigorate your existing business, An Insider’s Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Practice is an invaluable resource. Featuring real stories from consultants in diverse industries, the book offers simple yet powerful ways to: Identify a market and narrow your focus • Make a smooth transition from employee to independent consultant • Sell effectively even if you’ve never sold before • Establish visibility through speaking, writing, and networking • Build credibility by leveraging the credibility of others • Set prices based on value • Develop a marketing strategy and divide your time between marketing and delivering your services • Keep plenty of work in your pipeline • Adapt and thrive in any market condition • And much more Complete with the results of an original survey of 200 successful independent consultants, this handy guide provides the kind of real-life advice you need to build a thriving business.

An action plan for working as a consultant Management consulting is a $250 billion industry and growing at a rate of over four percent annually. Many predict that more than 40 percent of the U.S. workforce will soon be contingent, freelance, or consulting members of the workforce—making this book more relevant than ever. Individuals become independent consultants out of necessity or preference: necessity because they lost their job or the company offered an attractive exit package; preference because they want a career change, more control over their time, or an enriched, varied work situation. Consulting also appeals to the Millennial workforce who are searching for careers that offer a good salary as well as meaningful work. The New Consultant’s Quick Start Guide: • Serves as a companion to The New Business of Consulting • Provides you with a place to plan your transition into consulting • Helps you identify your niche, develop a business plan, charge what you’re worth, and create a marketing strategy to ensure a steady stream of clients • Prepares you for changes you will encounter beyond your professional life, including social, family, and financial aspects The New Consultant’s Quick Start Guide helps you work through the challenges of consulting such as working alone, deciding on necessary insurance coverage, finding your first clients, struggling with cash flow, and understanding market trends.

A complete resource for assessing, auditing, analyzing, and evaluating any network environment With "Network Consultants Handbook, you will Learn from network audit and evaluation guidelines that aid in data gathering and analysis of network environments Work with tables and calculations that help provide near-real-time answers to internetworking issues and challenges Learn network diagramming tips that aid consultants and engineers in preparing consistent drawings for in-house documentation Discover how specific internetworking technologies fit into a design to create a networking solution for your customer Network consultants and engineers in today's industry continually face the challenge of assessing, auditing, and reviewing existing networks. Documenting, reviewing, and analyzing these changes in a customer's network is more challenging today than in the past, partly because of the explosive growth of converged applications and the Internet. Consultants and engineers often reinvent the wheel to gather and analyze relevant network information, particularly when examining a client's network while having little or no background information. "Network Consultants Handbook is a complete resource for assessing, auditing, analyzing, and evaluating any network environment. Intended for anyone who designs, manages, sells, administrates, or desires to understand various internetworking technologies, "Network Consultants Handbook demonstrates where and how to gather relevant information and how to analyze and document this information. Technology overviews peel away each layer of the network to provide a complete assessment. This book prepares you with form templates to completeduring a network audit, necessary device commands to aid in obtaining necessary information, and consistent forms to aid in documentation. Networks are like snowflakes: No two are alike. This is the challenge that network consultants, engineers, managers, designers, and anyone else involved with networks must face every day. Network Consultants Handbook provides the resources you need to evaluate and design networks, either as a desktop reference resource or in the field where the tables and calculations help provide near-real-time answers to internetworking issues and challenges. Companion Web Site The companion Web site for the book contains fully downloadable versions of the data gathering and analysis templates. These templates offer an easy-to-complete solution to gathering the data you need to complete your analysis of network environments. This book is part of the Cisco Press Networking Technologies Series, which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.

The advisory role in organizations is more important today than it has ever been. To perform effectively, managers and professionals need the skills of the consultant. This manual is designed to provide practical help for all advisers, whether working within or outside the organization. It covers every aspect of the process, from interpersonal skills to organizational context, from planning to follow-up. This second edition reflects developments which have taken place since the publication of the first edition and now includes ten chapters on the impact that action learning has on change processes and the way that the Web is likely to influence consulting. Each chapter concludes with guidelines summarizing the content, and questions designed to help the reader to apply the material to his or her own activities. Real-life cases from Dr Margerison's own experience are included, as well as examples drawn from the work of many well-known consultants.

Freelance consulting, coaching, IT contracting and other self-employed professional roles are fast becoming the preferred way to find fulfilling work, generate a great income, and futureproof careers, whilst giving all the benefits and freedoms of being your own boss – but few know how to make it really work. The Freelance Consultant is the comprehensive guide into turning your expertise into a viable, and valuable, business. With independent consultant Richard Newton, you will discover a wealth of insider knowledge as well as a network of other successful advisors willing to share their stories. The Freelance Consultant will explain how to: • Setup, run and thrive in your freelance, consultant or coaching business. • Acquire those vital first paying clients. • Know what it takes to become a successful, differentiated and valuable advisor. • Build your business, define your services and set your prices. • Understand your customers and identify, manage, and retain key clients. • Keep developing and continually improving your skills an growing your business. Turn from amateur to pro with the help of The Freelance Consultant.

This deeply insightful guide to understanding what clients really want is “an indispensable resource for consultants” (Keith Ferrazzi, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Never Eat Alone). Independent consulting is a potentially lucrative enterprise—but the reality seldom matches the dream. Most solo consultants and boutique consulting firms are perpetually within six months of bankruptcy due to the sputtering unreliability of their new business engines. The problem, according to international consulting expert David A. Fields, is twofold: 1) lack of a consistent, proven plan, and 2) fundamental misunderstanding about what clients want in a consultant. Fields, who has helped hundreds of consultants and boutique firms worldwide build profitable, sustainable practices, replaces the typical consultant’s mindset of emphasizing expertise and differentiated processes with a focus on building relationships, engendering trust, and solving clients’ existing problems. In The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients, Fields synthesizes his decades of experience into a step-by-step approach to winning more projects from more clients at higher fees. From nuts-and-bolts business advice and tactics to a deeply insightful breakdown of the human side of a very human profession, Fields, named one of Advertising Age magazine’s “Marketing Top 100,” delivers a comprehensive guidebook that is at once highly approachable and satisfyingly detailed. “If I could have just one book on client strategy, this book would be it.” —Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Triggers

In 1995 the first edition of Performance Consulting introduced a concept which has since become a cornerstone of the human resource, learning and organizational development fields: training and HR solutions do not take place in a vacuum but must be tied to an organization's business goals. Performance consulting is a process in which a client and consultant partner to achieve business goals by optimizing workgroup performance. In this updated edition, Dana and Jim Robinson draw on what they've learned since the first edition was published twelve years ago, providing both a robust conceptual framework and improved tools and techniques to help the reader move from the traditional role to that of a Performance Consultant. They show readers how to form partnerships with management, help to identify performance required to ensure that business goals are achieved and assist management in taking actions needed for performance to change. They also illustrate the “how-to’s” for assisting management to identify the performance required to achieve business goals; and determining the degree to which the work environment supports and encourages the performance required. Effective HR and learning consultants master both the “science” (the analytical and assessment techniques) and the “art” (the consultative and partnering practices) of performance consulting. For the science of performance consulting, dozens of analytic tools, templates and assessment techniques are provided in the book. Regarding the art, the Robinsons describe the concepts and practices of ACT—building Access, Credibility and Trust—with business managers. In addition, two brand new chapters are dedicated to the skills of reframing requests for solutions into discussion of business goals and performance requirements; and Initiating business goals discussions with business managers and identifying strategic opportunities to partner with those managers in a proactive manner. Performance Consulting Toolkit - The second edition of Performance Consulting references graphic and adaptable tools that can be downloaded to support the performance consulting work the Robinsons describe. These tools are available to purchase and download from this product page. See the Table of Contents link for the full listing of the tools. Some tools (in Adobe PDF) can be printed and shared; others (in Microsoft Word) can be adapted to your specific needs and application requirements.