Consulting Mastery:
The Ability Myth
by Cindy Tonkin

Available as ebook only

79 pages (2007)
Publisher Aragon Gray Pty Ltd
ISBN: 1 875889 37 X
Dimensions (in cm): 21 x 29 cm (A4)

$50

Back cover
You know you're good at what you do, so why aren't you the hottest property in town? Consulting Mastery teaches you the secrets that set Master Consultants apart from the merely competent:

• learn about availability: why not let happy clients do the talking for you?
• discover affability: establish rapport and empathy with clients
• understand the ability myth: competence alone gives no guarantee of great client relationships.

Review
Author of the Australian Consultant's Guide ... and accomplished entrepreneur in her own business provides us here with the strategies for being effective in interactions with corporate clients and satisfied as a consultant. Cindy, an accredited Master NLP practitioner, focuses most of her advice on the nature of interpersonal relationships in the marketing and subsequent delivery process; client-handling skills as well as advisory processes, systems and behaviours are thoroughly covered. The content and style of communication are a credit to her and her insights into the consulting profession are frankly shared.
The Centre for Worklife Counselling.
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From the Publisher: Preface
There is an invisible ceiling that prevents many very talented professionals from reaching the dizzy heights to which they aspire. The frustrating thing for these well-recognised and credentialed experts is that they are often smarter, more knowledgeable and better informed than some of the more renowned consultants.

This book is about that invisible ceiling. This book is about making the difference between being a professional consultant and mastering the skills of consultancy. The fundamental message of this book is that your success as a consultant is not related — directly at least — to the technical ability for which your clients ostensibly hire you.

The ability myth has emerged through years of schooling and professional training where our advancement was, generally speaking, related as closely as possible to ability. Consultancy, though, is about dealing with people and that requires a whole new skill set.

This book does not belittle the importance of your technical skills — you cannot succeed as a consultant unless you have skills to offer — it simply stipulates that ability is not enough.

If you want to master the art of consultancy and break through the invisible ceiling created by the ability myth, chances are you will have to focus on something other than your abilities. Your availability for example. Then your affability. And then your approach to understanding your clients’ real needs — and your own.

Luckily, Cindy Tonkin makes grasping these tools very easy. Building on her successful first book The Australian Consultant’s Guide, she now shares with you the secret keys to gaining mastery. If you’ve been thinking that you’re ready to take the next step in your career, this book is for you.

From the author: Introduction
This book is about what I have come to understand about consulting and the consulting industry since I became a consultant in 1986 – not long, really, but long enough to discern some patterns.

You see, there's a great mystery in the world of consulting, be it consultancy in law, accounting, management or garden design.

Why is it that there are so many charlatans or near-charlatans out there? How is it that the mediocre can so easily rise to the top, and so many excellent consultants can so easily stay near the bottom? This mystery needs to be solved, so that we can understand what creates that success, and learn from it so we can have a piece too.

One of my touchstones is that if it's possible at all, it's possible for me – it's just a question of how. This is one of the presuppositions of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and my work has been greatly influenced by this body of knowledge.

Now, I come from a background not of social privilege, but of perseverance and talent. And I thought that being good at what I did everything I did, would help me to become successful at what I did. And to a certain extent that is true.

However, over the years of observing and participating in the lives of consultants in many disciplines, I have uncovered a serious flaw in my reasoning.

If you would like to know why it is that less-than-excellent consultants can be the most talked-about, most requested and busiest consultants – and can even command the most money – then this is the book for you.

If you would like to be one of those most talked-about, requested or busy people, then read on. You can be as good as you are at what you do, and still find that little gem that will accelerate you to the upper echelons of your profession.

Sample pages

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Table of contents

Sample 3

Index

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