This Is Where Outsiders Add Value

I’ve been an independent consultant for decades, which is long enough to know that sometimes a consultant adds real value and sometimes your existing leadership team can handle the situation just fine.

There’s one circumstance in which an outsider has a real advantage over everyone on the inside, and that is when members of a leadership team have real differences over where the business should go next.

In this situation, insiders face a real and significant hazard: if they push too hard on the others’ beliefs, and voice their views too strongly, they risk damaging their relationship with colleagues.

To say this another way, once the decision is made, you will still have to work together.

That’s where someone like me can add immense value. I’ve practiced for decades how to ask tough questions in an unthreatening and non-confrontational manner. This is what’s required to get underneath all the beliefs, assumptions, and judgments that underlie strong disagreements.

Intelligent, informed leaders have different opinions for good reasons. There are often misconceptions and/or misunderstandings, and there are often facts that haven’t been brought to light. My aim is to uncover and resolve the factors keeping the team from consensus.

The main reason I add value in such circumstances isn’t that I’m so talented; it’s because I’m not one of you. I can push harder and dig deeper, and that’s often what it takes to get past an extended period of butting heads.

That being said, I don’t win every assignment I seek, and there have been plenty of times when a leadership team decided to go it alone and try to work things out internally. Occasionally this works, but in my experience, in many cases they are still divided months or even years later. It is extraordinarily difficult to resolve strong differences without help.

If anything in this piece resonated and/or struck a nerve, I’ll be happy to jump on a call and listen to what came up for you.