a reflection by Kathy Miller

I once read a question posted to a LISTSERV asking whether the readers thought that performance consulting was a fad. After some reflection on this topic, I reached the following conclusions. While the term "performance consulting" is relatively new, many of us have been in the business of helping clients diagnose and address performance needs for many years. However, the critical dimension for true "performance consultants" or "strategic partners" is the focus on helping clients attain their desired results by applying the most effective and efficient strategies and methods. Many organizational consultants, both internal and external to client organizations, are far more concerned with their own pet methods, tools, and titles. Thus the field of performance consulting is likely to be a passing fad.

For the first few years of Miller Consultants' 20-year existence, we categorized our services as "training." Nevertheless, we always examined clients' needs and goals before designing and delivering any training intervention. Most often, we determined, along with our clients, that training was only the first of several more system-wide steps that they needed to take to achieve their objectives. Frequently, we concluded that training wasn't the appropriate intervention to facilitate attainment of their goals.

When traditional training did not seem appropriate, we attempted to work closely with our clients to determine the best and most efficient methods for successfully achieving their goals. Over the years, we have become known for our ability to help clients diagnose the source of their performance problems and develop and carry out strategies for addressing their real needs. However, we have discovered that our success in achieving a shared perception of the problem and the appropriate solutions with our clients has depended on our credibility and relationship with the client organization. We have been most successful with our long-term client partners where we have attained a proven track-record for understanding their strategies and partnering with them to achieve their goals.

Those who want to be seen as "performance consultants" and strategic partners with businesses must earn that reputation. It isn't enough to merely adopt the title of performance consultant, announce that we are now strategic partners, and expect the clients to follow our lead. When we announce that we are our clients' "strategic partners" and "performance consultants," we are claiming to be their equals. If we are to be viewed as their peers, we must care as much about the success of their organization and business as they do.

We have to prove that we understand, or are willing to learn, the complexities of their worlds. We cannot expect them to care about our specific processes, methodologies, or jargon. That is not their job or responsibility. This means that we have to be able to view the world through their lens and speak to them in their own language. We have to be humble enough to know that we do not always have the answer and do not necessarily understand their circumstances better than they do themselves. Clients don't really care whether we call ourselves performance consultants, trainers, facilitators or coaches. They want to know that we understand their world and can help them achieve results.

Is performance consulting a fad? Probably. While I am firmly committed to the basic premises of the "performance consulting" concept, I find that too many of us are more concerned about our titles and status in the organization than about the results that we are able to achieve with our clients. Until results rather than activities become the central focus of our field, performance consulting, strategic partners, or any other title that we give ourselves will, in the long run, be empty fads.