“These consultants have very different communication habits.” 

“I’m not on her team. I’m a consultant.” 

The unique dynamics of managing consultants, and being managed as a consultant, have come up a lot in my recent workshops and coaching sessions. 

People on both sides of these relationships often struggle to work together productively. 

I decided to write about that unique relationship here. This is a more technical topic than usual for me, and yet this classic issue of roles also includes my usual focus: team dynamics and productive working relationships.

Managing consultants is different from managing direct reports in-house, or managing an internal project.

How? Simply put, consultants have a specific scope of work they are hired to complete. While internal team members need to do whatever their boss says, basically, from changes in deliverables to new projects to providing updates.

Like any project, the better planning we do before we get started, the more smoothly everything will go once we get started. Because of the unique scope-only work of consultants, this is even more the case. 

Here are a few things to consider, in the preparation phase of a consulting relationship, to help you and your consultants have an easy, confusion-free relationship. 

Whether you are a consultant or a consulting client, please let me know what else you recommend. 

• Scope out your goals and requirements carefully, and get internal agreement. Define the project with purpose, deliverables, duration, and main activities. I like a good “needs statement” to make clear what we are doing and why. Include the right people in your organization in this scoping, so the scope doesn’t blow up later because Paul was left out of the planning.

• Discuss the scope in detail as you select a consultant. Don’t assume having things on paper is good enough. Ask: “What questions do you have?” No matter how clear you are in your written scope for the project, there will be questions. Make sure the consultants you are considering understands what you need. 

• Determine the level of oversight, and how you want the oversight to happen. Consultants are not like direct employees. They work independently from you and your internal team. The question is: How independent? How much input do you want and need into their work? How often you want to meet with the consultant? What’s realistic given how busy you are? There’s no perfect formula. It depends on the project’s size and complexity. 

• Clear the runway. Figure out your internal team, and who will manage the consultant/s. I know consultants who will not work with past clients, because their work together became stalled and frustrating due to client-side confusion about internal roles and authority related to the consultant’s work. 

• Establish a single internal project owner or point of contact, within your staff team. Help the accountability and information flow between your team and the consultant be smooth. It’s hard for an external partner to deal with a large group of people who all see themselves as equal directors of the work. You usually want several people to guide and support the consultants, but these internal stakeholders should have varied roles and levels of engagement. 

• With competitive bidding, balance the effort required to apply with the likelihood of being selected. If you have someone in mind that you really want to work with, don’t put out a time-consuming RFP for others to complete. You may have a (smart, common) requirement to seek multiple bids. Can you use a two-step application process, for others to express interest in a first-round step without completing a full proposal? 

This advice is all for the preparation of your work with consultants. So that once the work begins, you and your consultants can work together harmoniously and successfully. No frustration. No micromanaging. No power struggles. 

What do you think? More advice to add? Shall I write a future post about how to collaborate well once a consulting project is underway?