In fact, as Dan Pink makes clear in his book To Sell Is Human, “moving” others may be the one core foundational skill that underlies all others in our business and personal lives. And it’s not “moving” them in the sense of being a dictatorial leader, a pushy salesperson, or a rap-on-the-knuckles teacher. It even goes beyond getting their “buy-in” to your predetermined solution. Yes, you probably have a solution in mind for them (an initiative, a product, a learning point, a health program), but it’s not about “pushing” that solution on them. It’s about truly listening to them, seeing the world through their eyes, being attuned to their ideas, and being open to their influence on you – even if that means adjusting your solution to meet their needs.
If this sounds like approaching leadership, sales, education, etc., as a partnership – being a consultant rather than a solution-pusher – you’re right! And that, I think, is the key insight in Pink’s excellent book. In fact, one of the frequently cited themes of the book – “We’re all in sales now!” – could just as easily be expressed as “We’re all consultants now!”
The type of “consultancy” to which I’m referring here echoes a distinction that Peter Block makes in his book Flawless Consulting about two different types of consultants, an Expert and a Collaborator.
An Expert Consultant determines the problem, decides on actions, and implements decisions to solve the problem. As Block notes, “Two-way communication between the Expert and the client is limited. The consultant initiates and the client responds.”
By contrast, a Collaborative Consultant’s interaction with the client is characterized by Block in the following way:
- · The consultant and the client work to become interdependent. They share responsibility for action planning, implementation, and results.
- · Decision making between consultant and client is bilateral. It is characterized by mutual exchange and respect for the responsibilities and expertise of both parties.
- · Collaboration is considered essential.
- · Communication is two-way.
- · The consultant’s goal is to solve problems so they stay solved. That is, the consultant establishes a helping relationship designed to broaden the competence level of the client to develop and implement action plans. Next time the client will have the skills to solve the problem.
I think that the Collaborative Consultant role described by Block tracks precisely with the roles and skills that Pink describes in his book as essential for “moving others.” In the sales context, for example, the “client” (the prospective buyer) no longer looks at the seller as “the expert,” since (as Pink points out) the internet makes available the type of information about products and services that used to be exclusively held by sellers. (Consider how easy it is to go online and find the invoice price of new vehicles and the maintenance history of used vehicles.)
For a variety of reasons, people tend to be more on guard than they were in the past to efforts to manipulate or coerce them to “move” in a certain direction. The classic quote “People like to buy but they don’t like to be sold to” comes into play here. Instead of being pushed into a sale, people want to lead themselves to the buying decision out of their own informed choice, with the seller playing the role of the guide. Similarly, class participants want to partner with the facilitator in order to self-discover learning, patients want to partner with the doctor in order to self-create a health program – and employees want to partner with their leaders in order to self-determine their work and career goals. All of these partnerships involve the seller / facilitator / doctor / leader playing the role of a Collaborative Consultant.
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