Never hire a consultant unless you’ve already studied up on the topic.

Posted February 19, 2022 in
IMPACT+ HQ IMPACT+ HQ

Bob Ruffolo

CEO of IMPACT, student of marketing, sales, leadership and people, avid reader, needs to pick better sports teams.

Follow
In retrospect, this is advice I would give my younger self.
When we want to get better at something fast, whatever that may be, often, we jump too quickly to finding someone to help us and skip a very important step: educating ourselves so we don’t make dumb decisions.
Before hiring a consultant, I highly recommend reading a few books, taking some online courses, and talking to peers doing it well… get yourself to the point where you at least know enough to be dangerous.
I would also advise that you give it a go on your own at first and get as far as you can. Consultants are not magic pills.
Benefits:
  1. You’ll go much much faster if and when you do hire a consultant, saving you time and a ton of money.
  2. You’ll value the consultant more when they quickly help you overcome roadblocks and blind spots.
  3. It won’t take you very long to find out whether or not the consultant you hired know’s their stuff or is just a pretender. 
And this is coming from someone who runs a consulting company.
Love
Comment
User Profile

Log in to leave a comment or

Sign Up for Free
Jennifer Goode
I mean, this could not possibly be more true. I'm constantly redefining what  "just enough" means so that I can maintain my CEO/visionary role but also determine whether or not we are are getting value and return from where we are investing our time/money. 

Read next