Discussion Question 1:
Discuss the importance of negotiation skills as they relate to your interest in starting or continuing to build a consulting business. Additionally, state how you will sell your skills. Provide an elevator speech.
What do you see as your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to negotiation? What tips can you offer your colleagues?
Discussion Question 2:
Based on your research, respond to the following:
Provide an analysis of the value you could or do bring to an organization as a consultant. Justify your claims.
Identify at least two articles related to value in business in your area of interest. Compare and contrast the findings.
In what ways does your own experience related to the concept of value differ from or reinforce the points in the articles you read? Present a comparison.
Discussion Question 3:
How can one create a strong working client-consultant partnership?
What tools and techniques might you use to establish the bond of trust in your relationships with clients?
What strategies have worked or not worked for you in past working relationships? How might you employ these strategies differently in the future? Discuss with the class previous and potential outcomes, good and bad, to such strategies.
Discussion Question 4:
How does the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) view consultants? What are some of the tax and legal considerations of consulting in your area?
What are the best and worst consulting situations in which you have been involved or of which you are aware?
What led to these situations?
What is the defining moment or takeaway for you from those situations?
How did internal and external stakeholders view the consultants afterward?
How would you approach similar situations in the future to build on successes, resolve issues, and recover from problems?
Discussion Question 5:
How can the readiness for change be gauged?
If a client is not ready to commit to change, what options might a consultant have? What are the differences in how an internal versus an external consultant might address the issue?
Use the organization selected for your consulting project. Briefly assess their readiness for change. Based on your determination of their readiness for change, what techniques would you use to convince them to implement changes based on your feedback and why?