Professional Consulting

Profit more from your professional knowledge

Sound advice is invaluable. But not every kind of advice is rated at its true value, even if the consultant’s professionalism is appreciated. Successful consulting is more than just professional knowledge. You get more out of your consulting role if you work on your advising skills, your personality and your position in your organization.

‘Professional consulting’ (PC) is a short, interactive and practice-oriented program lasting two modules. The training course is designed for specialists, managers and consultants who wish to develop their expertise as a consultant. Supervised by two expert trainers, in a small group of a maximum of 12 participants with similar backgrounds, your skills, personality and role in the advisory process are scrutinized and perfected. You learn how to deal with resistance, how to communicate better, formulate more sharply and manage in a more balanced way. Eventually, your aim is to make your personal influence more effective and more efficient.

Content
You’re a specialist in your field, but successful consulting is top of the bill. It requires a feel for and understanding of processes that play a role in communication and acceptance. During the training course, you learn how to increase your knowledge as a consultant from three different points of view:

1. Skills
You work on the improvement of your conversation skills, your consulting style and on the expansion of your intervention and behavior repertory. You learn how to handle difficult situations, how to deal with resistance and you will look at the different stages in a consulting process.

2. Personality
You will develop your understanding of your personal qualities and challenges. What are pitfalls, what motivates you and how do these influence your performance? You develop personal authenticity by more and more often saying what you mean and doing what you say.

3. Role and position
You learn how to become aware of the organizational context in which you operate and the added value expected of you. The role you adopt in contacts with internal and external clients may vary and has consequences for your style and approach. Sometimes you play an expert role, sometimes a guarding role, sometimes an initiating role and sometimes a coaching role.

Program structure
The program is very interactive. A short theoretical introduction will precede cases from your own daily practice at work on which you will work in teams of two, three or four people, under the supervision of two experienced trainers/consultants. To unwind, you will carry out a sports activity during lunch. For both modules, learning goals are set and you will work with the book ‘Flawless consulting’ by Block (included in the training course price). The time in between modules will be used for practice in your work place and for you to digest the information offered.

Before the program you will have an intake interview with one of the trainers by telephone. To cater to your needs in the program, you will be asked to inform trainers of what kind of consulting environment you work in and to communicate your learning goals.

Module 1, three days
- Characteristics of consulting relationships
- Stages in the consulting process
- Intervention levels and building relationships
- Contracts
- Options and consequences, understanding of the question behind the question
- Dealing with resistance
- Personal core qualities and motivations as a consultant

Module 2, two days
- Discussion and exploration of the results of the practical assignments after module 1
- Consulting roles, your own role and role conflicts
- The network and power field of parties involved in your commissions and projects
- Practicing difficult consulting situations with an actor
- Personal dilemmas and learning from and with colleagues
- Continuous professionalization as a consultant
- Themes chosen in consultation with participants

Result
The training course will enable you to influence and direct others better. You have gained more insight into your own style and competences and you can use these more to your advantage in communication with your various clients. Moreover, you have honed your skills and increased your understanding of how to behave most effectively in various situations. As a result, you will be able to profit more from your professional knowledge.

Dates:
12-14 November 2008
15-16 December 2008

Information and guidance
To qualify and register please contact the Training Advice Bureau, telephone +31343 55 6369 or info@debaak.nl

Price
€ 3,595

Registration
To register for a course, please fill out this form .

Location
Driebergen or Noordwijk.

Number of participants
Minimum: 6 Maximum: 12