Management consultants, trainers, presenters, speakers, advisers, and counselors—the men and women who work from the outside to assist in-place management—must have some tricks of the trade, some fun and games, to entertain as well as enlighten their clients. Unfortunately, some get carried away. Their models of leadership call for the leader as deal maker, pitch man, politician, strongman, benevolent authoritarian, diplomat, and even the barbarian. Every management consultant or trainer must have his or her model, even if it comes straight from the copy machine, the one truly indispensable piece of equipment in the consultancy. The model must be memorable and transferable to coffee mugs, posters, T-shirts, book covers, business cards, and slides. An expert is “someone from out of town, with slides.” And a consultant is “someone who knows 29 ways to make love but doesn’t have a mate.” In other words, they have all the answers but little practical experience. Some have never had a real job.

It is easier to advise from the outside than to lead from the inside. Seagull consultants fly in, drop their load, and then wing away without caring much for the consequence. Company managers are left with the question, “Now what do I do?” Counterfeit consultants can’t be too concerned about where the waste is dumped and who is getting hit with the droppings. They are too busy winging it. Authentic consultants don’t wing it; they prepare and plan, diagnose and prescribe. They also motivate those who must go out on a limb to implement ideas over time, who say, “Let’s give this a shot for 18 months and see if it really does make a difference.”

I like the Edwards Deming confrontational style of consulting. Like a hairy, scratchy Old Testament prophet, he came in sackcloth and ashes and made people very uncomfortable by questioning everything they are doing, including their motives for doing it in the first place. His favorite question was “why?” He tried to get to the root motivations of management actions and decisions. Ultimately, that style of consulting might be the most helpful. Since the consultant neither makes decisions nor implements recommended actions, this kind of reflective questioning and listening may be more helpful than prescription and presentation.

I also like consultants who draw out the client’s ideas. Most people know what they ought to do. Rather than impose some jerry-rigged model that is fashioned in the garage the night before or copied from somebody else, why not draw out what’s inside the management team? Why not form a model that comes from them, that is formed by them through participative action, and that reflects their best ideas and noblest aims? A synergistic solution that comes from the bottom-up is more likely to create an authentic culture than a text-book model. With so much counterfeit schooling, training, consulting, and counseling going on, its little wonder we are perplexed.

Ken Shelton is editor and publisher of Personal Excellence and Leadership Excellence magazines and the author of Beyond Counterfeit Leadership. Visit www.LeaderExcel.com