What is Consulting?

‘Authenticity and knowledge of the task requirements are the two requirements for flawless consulting’ Peter Block.

Peter Block: Being an Authentic Consultant

Peter Block

For more than two decades, Peter Block has been writing and talking about how consultants can provide services and accountability to organizations and communities. His books include the classic, Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest, and The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters.

Block is a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops to build the skills outlined in his books. He has published more than sixty articles on organizational change and building productive communities.

In this interview, Block describes the power of the authentic consultant, discusses why organizational change often fails, and offers his best advice to new consultants.

McLaughlin: What are the traits of an “authentic consultant?”

Block: The behavioral part is pretty clear, and is essential to flawless consulting. Authentic behavior is simply the willingness to be who you are and to tell the truth. This is the consultant’s most powerful tool for building client trust and commitment. Many consultants try to be too clever in communicating with their clients, seeking to convince clients to their point of view.

Clients see right through the fast language and persuasion techniques and, as a result, their level of skepticism rises. Instead, consultants should be who they are and tell the truth in a caring way, which will establish the balance that leads to a trusting, productive relationship with the client.

Care, honesty, depth, and saying no to commercialism as your major goal are qualities that can change the world. To be authentic, consultants must bring those qualities into their practices.

These are personal qualities that count, but they aren’t enough. Another important trait of the authentic consultant has to do with purpose. Consultants must take a stance as to what they want to help create. My services become authentic in the effort to create authentic institutions. And, out of that comes accountability.

Of course, you have to struggle with the tension between healing the ills of the world and earning a living. I think many consultants really want to be helpful, but they also get caught up in growing a business. The commercialization of care is the core paradox and crisis of consultation.

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