Hi! Thanks for the question.
Consulting or being a consultant means looking at a particular company
from the view of an outsider and then giving advice on what the steps
should be taken by the company to improve its operations and other
business processes. Managing meanwhile entails the implementation and
putting into practice the consultant?s idea.
Our answer will take a look at the different tasks usually associated
with consulting and then we will view the business according to the
specific work of management itself. I will try to provide small
snippets from the articles I will cite to save you time but I highly
recommend that you read them in their entirety get a better grasp of
the subject.
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The Consultant:
?An expert, or so my Websters informs me, is someone who is "very
skillful; having much training and knowledge in a special field." We
all know that there might or might not be a connection between our
training and our knowledge and skills. From this, it follows that a
consultant, if he or she is indeed an expert, must be an effective
learner, that is, capable of acquiring knowledge and skill from
experience, whether or not that experience involves training.?
?A consultant is usually outside the client organization, hence the
?someone who comes in? portion of the preceding definition.
Consultants learn about their clients from observing them and it is
what they learn about their clients that they eventually share with
their clients. This account for the portion of the definition
pertaining to "borrows your watch" and ?tells you what time it is.?
Consultants also retain what they learn, thus ?keeps the watch.?"
?What's A Consultant??
http://home.att.net/~nickols/consult.htm
Here are some tips that one can use in trying to evaluate a consultant.
?a) Help them understand your service(s), market(s) and
stakeholder(s). For example, provide them copies of your strategic
plans, budgets, policies, most recent annual report, organization
charts, and advertising/promotions/sales literature. If there is a
full range of these types of documents, your organization probably
values careful documentation when making important decisions, and will
likely prefer the same from the consulting project.?
?b) Give them a sense for the overall nature of your organization,
e.g., Are staff highly independent and work alone or do they prefer
working in teams??
?c) Give them a sense for the overall priorities of your organization,
e.g., you might attempt to identify the general life stage of your
nonprofit, e.g., start-up, developing/building, stabilizing,
declining, etc?
If you are a manager, here are some tasks you should do to maximize
the potential of using a consultant.
? a) The consulting project should be evaluated regularly, including
briefly at the end of each meeting (about the process used in that
meeting), at mid-point in the planning effort, and at its end.?
?b) Establish criteria early on from which the overall consulting
effort can be evaluated at the mid-point and end of the project.?
?c) Don't base evaluations mostly on feelings. Avoid this mistake by
specifying, as much as possible, behaviors that will reflect a
successful consulting project.?
?All About Using Consultants?
http://www.managementhelp.org/misc/cnsltng.htm
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The Manager:
The Manager is the one who gets his hands dirty for the company not
the consultant. He is the one taking care of the employees, eventually
the day to day operations of the business and at the bottom line.
Managing a business does not only look at the big picture but is also
involved in the everyday issues that go within the organization.
Managing requires 4 basic tasks for the organization:
1. ?Planning, including identifying goals, objectives, methods,
resources needed to carry out methods, responsibilities and dates for
completion of tasks.?
2. ?Organizing resources to achieve the goals in an optimum fashion?
3. ?Leading, including to set direction for the organization, groups
and individuals and also influence people to follow that direction.?
4. ?Controlling, or coordinating, the organization's systems,
processes and structures to reach effectively and efficiently reach
goals and objectives. This includes ongoing collection of feedback,
and monitoring and adjustment of systems, processes and structures
accordingly.?
A standard definition of managers meanwhile is available below.
?A classic definition is that ?Leaders do the right thing and managers
do things right.? A more standard definition is usually something like
?managers work toward the organization?s goals using its resources in
an effective and efficient manner.? In a traditional sense, large
organizations may have different levels of managers, including top
managers, middle managers and first-line managers. Top (or executive)
managers are responsible for overseeing the whole organization and
typically engage in more strategic and conceptual matters, with less
attention to day-to-day detail. Top managers have middle managers
working for them and who are in charge of a major function or
department. Middle managers may have first-line managers working for
them and who are responsible to manage the day-to-day activities of a
group of workers.?
?Definitions (and Misconceptions) About Management?
http://www.managementhelp.org/mgmnt/defntion.htm
The basic work of managers can be viewed from the next articles.
?Much of what managers and supervisors do is solve problems and make
decisions. New managers and supervisors, in particular, often make
solve problems and decisions by reacting to them. They are "under the
gun", stressed and very short for time. Consequently, when they
encounter a new problem or decision they must make, they react with a
decision that seemed to work before. It's easy with this approach to
get stuck in a circle of solving the same problem over and over again.
Therefore, as a new manager or supervisor, get used to an organized
approach to problem solving and decision making. Not all problems can
be solved and decisions made by the following, rather rational
approach.?
?Basic Guidelines to Problem Solving and Decision Making?
http://www.managementhelp.org/prsn_prd/prb_bsc.htm
?There are many approaches to problem solving, depending on the nature
of the problem and the people involved in the problem. The more
traditional, rational approach is typically used and involves, eg,
clarifying description of the problem, analyzing causes, identifying
alternatives, assessing each alternative, choosing one, implementing
it, and evaluating whether the problem was solved or not.?
?Problem Solving?
http://www.managementhelp.org/prsn_prd/prob_slv.htm
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Regards,
Easterangel-ga
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