Keeping Your Distance as a Consultant

Kenneth has 14 years of healthcare experience in government and private industry. Over eight years of experience managing healthcare IT projects, operations, contracts, and personnel. His work experience includes project management, contracts and procurements, data analysis, claims adjudication, business writing, and business process modeling. Kenneth was certified in 2006 as a Project Management Professional.

  Career Development  

There is a fine line for consultants between working with the client and working for the client. While each engagement may be different, the consultant needs to approach the client with care and make sure that there is some distance between the client and the consultant.

Oftentimes, the entire reason for hiring a consultant to work on a project or with a project team is that there is a need for some separation between the job role and the client. Perhaps the client needs the consultant to perform some task that the client cannot do, such as facilitate change or start a project that is having trouble getting off the ground. When working with a client, the consultant would do well to consider the following points on keeping their distance from the customer.

Work on the Same Side…But in Different Teams
Consultants are often hired to supplement the current resources of the organization. Perhaps the company does not have the experience or the bandwidth to handle a project, so they bring in consultants to help spur things on.

The consultants should work on the same side as the organization that hired them, but sometimes it is important to remember that the consultant works for a different team even if they are on the same side. If the consultant starts working as though they are on the same team as the organization that hired them, problems can arise on the …

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