I THINK MINING

In a previous posting on this blog, I listed some attributes of a good consultant.  I shared the list with a young engineer who has worked in the trenches of a construction site, in the offices of a prestigious consultant, and who is now working for a large mining company.  In their role with the mining company, they retain and manage many consultants.  Their comments on this list included the following:

• That is a great list, but it is hard to find many consultants of such ability.
• If you find such skilled consultants, they are inevitably very busy and need to rely on many juniors of lesser skills.
• Any rate, even the best consultant, if not properly managed, does not succeed.
• Select your consultants carefully and then meet with them often, listen to what they advise, and give them detailed direction.
• You must integrate their advice into the bigger picture; for they cannot possibly have the full picture of the entire project and company prospective.
• It is necessary to rapidly read any documents from your consultant and to comment in detail thereon.  They are entitled to rely on your application, input, and perspective.
• You must seek to learn from your consultant, and seek to give them opportunities to learn from you.
• If both you and your consultant learn from the project, you may both go forward to the next project and greater productivity and success.

These are smart observations.  As a consultant seeking to provide services to a client, you cannot always select your client, but maybe you can exhort them to these ways of managing you.

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