A Business Process Consultant Reveals His Secrets

Sales presentations. That’s the topic of choice for the first client of the day. In my role as a business process consultant, I have the opportunity to understand and improve upon the methods that entrepreneurs use to get and sustain business. Listening to what matters to people. Asking the right kind of questions to have people see the opportunities available to them. Offering solutions that address people’s needs. Educating on what it takes to expand a business beyond yourself. Empowering business owners to empower their employees, so the organization doesn’t rely solely upon the owner. Teaching owners and managers to automate their business as much as possible to maximize effectiveness. You name it, I do it.

On one level, business process consulting can sound pretty mundane. Well then, what’s so special about it? What’s the secret? What I notice is that the same principles operate across all businesses. Business process consultants are always looking to streamline their clients’ effectiveness — what many don’t realize is that the same issues come up over and over again. Small business owners tend to want to do all the important tasks themselves, not being willing or able to trust their hired help to be effective. When those owners get business process management consulting, one of the first things they realize is how limited their business will always be if it requires their participation in those areas crucial to growth. While a business process consultant works with entrepreneurs to build and automate as many systems as possible, there will always be a need to effectively train employees. So, business process consultancy may end up looking a lot like leadership development or team training. Why? Because the whole point of leadership development is to empower employees to do productive, fulfilling work — in other words, investing in the asset of human capital.

What’s a business process consultant to do when faced with business owners who have hired weak help or who are unwilling to trust their employees? That’s where business coaching comes into play as a tool to empower a person to overcome whatever obstacles stand in the way of the desired results. Small business owners who are coached begin to look inward, getting a strong understanding of the (perhaps unrealized or unknown) role they are playing in having their organization look the way it does. When an owner takes full responsibility for how the business has been performing and what it’s future performance can look like, a window of opportunity opens. The owner can then begin to lead, taking whatever steps he needs to take in order to produce breakthrough results in the area of delegation and employee productivity.

That’s what makes the business consulting process so fulfilling. At the end of the day, being a business process consultant means training business owners to build businesses that will leave a legacy on their families, their communities, and their clients.