The Manager's Pocket Guide to Using Consultants

Make Sure You’re Learning to Fish

There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Well, good consulting involves a lot of teaching and a lot of learning. And as a leader, you have access to a great source of learning: your consultant. Not every consultant is a great teacher, but the good ones truly are. Every manager should be a learner, but must also make sure that others are learning too.

But never think of this learning as learning for its own sake. Take what you’ve learned from your consultant and apply it, modify it, expand it, develop it, share it, teach others, and boil it down to its essence in real, concrete business terms that you can use ...