July 3, 2023 | Sam Scott

Generally, when someone seeks the help of a consultant, they’re trying to achieve something they’ve been unable to execute themselves.

By bringing in an outside expert, they’re admitting they don’t have the knowledge, resources, or ability to get a project across the finish line on their own.

Perhaps they’ve tried to do it and failed? Or perhaps they have no idea where to begin.

Either way, it’s a very sensitive position.

The Delicate Role Of A Consultant

An executive in a position to hire a consultant is usually a high achiever. They’ve worked their way into a leadership role because of their competence and ability. But when they come to me or any other consultant, they’re asking for help.

And with that comes the admission: they might not know what they’re doing. This high-achieving person has revealed a vulnerability. And as a consultant, you have to treat that position with sensitivity.

I find it very humbling when someone chooses me to be their specialist in an area where they lack expertise — in my case, commercial audiovisual systems — and asks me to join them in making a significant change. I’ve been on this journey many times, but it’s typically my client’s first. So, my role is to guide them, like a Yoda to their Luke Skywalker.

I need to take that trust they’ve placed in me to help navigate a complex world and see them through to the other side. I know where the traps and hazards are, and I can set us on a path to avoid them.

But even though I’ve been brought in for my expertise, I have to be tactful in wielding it. These executive relationships don’t exist in a vacuum, and every project has numerous stakeholders critical to its success. It’s important to keep their perspectives in mind.

As a consultant, you are not their boss. You are, in many cases, a weirdo with a very niche set of knowledge. And if you upset the formal and informal power structures that exist within every organization, you will create friction and jeopardize your project’s success.

Navigating Power Dynamics In Consulting Engagements

To succeed in your consulting engagement, you’ll need to be aware of both formal and informal power structures within the organization.

Formal Power Structures

Once you’re embedded in the project — and in many ways, the company — you should get a sense of the formal power structures that govern the areas you’ll touch within the organization. Formal power structure refers to the established hierarchical relationships that dictate decision-making and control. Here, we’re talking about the sources of legitimate authority vested in organizational positions, such as those of executives, directors, and managers.

In the world of AV consulting, using the plural ‘structures’ is appropriate given the number of disciplines a commercial AV system intersects. On a typical project, I’ll need to establish the people responsible for the organization’s network infrastructure, security and access management, room scheduling, electrical infrastructure and general facility management — as well as how they relate to the executive, architect, or project champion that brought me onboard.

In short, you need to liaise with many different folks in different departments to achieve your goals.

These formal structures are easy to figure out through an organizational chart. You should learn about everyone you’ll need to work with, from the top of the chart to the bottom, as well as the C-suite’s vision for the organization and the language they use to communicate it.

But while learning about who reports to whom and the organization’s broad goals is an essential first step, it’s not enough. You should also familiarize yourself with the people who really know how things work around there. In my case, it’s the technician who has been in the ceiling and knows where the bodies are buried — the one the managers go to to find out if something will actually work.

In every organization, there exist informal power structures that are harder to perceive. You need to be open to these signals — such as management’s perceived sources of internal knowledge and expertise — in order to understand them.

Informal Power Structures

Informal power structures refer to the unofficial sources of influence that exist outside the formal hierarchy. These structures are based on relationships, personal characteristics, and sources of knowledge or skill within the organization.

The characteristics of formal and informal power structures can be categorized by sources of power. Formal power structures are created when certain individuals have hard power, which stems from a position of authority. These individuals, such as managers and executives, have the authority to make decisions within or on behalf of the company. They can also reward or discipline others within the organization, when appropriate.

On the other hand, informal power structures emerge when individuals have soft power. These could be people in positions of authority, but they don’t have to be. If you’ve ever worked with someone who could sway opinions or influence decisions because people respect their knowledge, expertise, or character, you’ve seen soft power at work. These individuals may be sought after for advice and guidance, and their relationships carry weight within the organization.

In management literature, there are generally considered to be five sources of hard and soft power for individuals within an organization: legitimate power, reward power, coercive power, expert power, and referent power (Daft & Armstrong, 2021).

Here is how all these terms relate to one another:

Adapted from Daft & Armstrong, 2021

The critical point I want to make is that both structures matter. You must learn about all the sources of hard and soft power that will influence your project. Then, you have to (very quickly) build positive relationships with all of those people.

When you start an engagement, your number one job is to become familiar with — and demonstrate your value to — everyone you’ll be working with and whose support you will need.

Because when you begin to execute, you’re going to need a lot of allies.

Consider that when you come into an organization, you’re going to be asking things of people. But you’re not their manager, and that’s a critical point.

But you do have some authority to get things done. And if you do things right, by approaching these stakeholders with tact and sensitivity, you can draw on multiple sources of power to influence your project.

A Consultant’s Sources Of Power And Influence

As a consultant, you generally start an engagement with two sources of power.

First, there’s the borrowed authority of the executive that hired you. You have been brought in by someone with hard power — formal, legitimate authority vested in their position — and people will know this. Based on this person’s authority, many will do the things you ask of them.

But tread carefully. When you borrow someone else’s authority, you must be very thoughtful about when to invoke it. You’re borrowing on that executive’s reputation, as well.

As a consultant, your second source of power is your expertise in the area you’ve come to advise on. Expertise is a source of soft power. But within the context of power and influence, your expertise is based on people’s perceptions and can’t be taken for granted.

So first off, this expertise has to be excellent. And further, if you’re brought in as an expert and start to show cracks in your supposed area of expertise, you’ll find that your influence as a subject matter expert can dissipate very quickly.

If that happens, the people you work with and those whose support you need for the project… your requests will no longer be a priority for them. They will have lost trust in your expertise, and you will have a difficult time moving forward.

If you are hired as an expert on a particular subject, your technical ability and knowledge in that area must be absolutely above reproach and of the highest quality.

Now, there is one more source of power you can develop to bolster your influence within an organization: referent power. If you are good to people, personable, and empathetic, you may strengthen support for your cause via others’ respect and admiration.

Establishing Trust In AV Consulting

Ok, so you’ve landed in an organization, and you’re tasked with a complex project. You have to rely on many different stakeholders, all of whom would need to take time out of their busy day-to-day roles to help you succeed. How do you get them to buy in and support?

The key is to demonstrate how you’re going to make their life easier and how you’re going to create something of real value for them.

When I’m brought in to execute an AV project, typically, everyone in the organization wants it done (phew!). So once I’ve identified the power structures that will inform the project’s success, the next step is to establish trust in my process.

If people believe that going along with my method and the process I’ve laid out will lead them to a successful project that reflects well on the organization and them as individuals, we’re in very good shape.

Conversely, if they feel like I’m adding to their workload — building frustration instead of taking it away — I will soon find that doors are closed to me.

Then, instead of relying on goodwill (soft power) to get things done, I’ll have to resort to borrowing authority (hard power) from my executive. Or I’ll need to go to a manager and ask them to compel different parties to provide what I need. This is not a good place to be.

You should only want to borrow authority as a last resort. Because if you have to do that, you’re going to become a source of frustration — a problem, not a solution. To be successful, a consultant must be seen as a solution.

Embracing The Outsider Perspective

I’ve mentioned the sensitivity surrounding being brought in to solve a problem the organization couldn’t on its own. On the one hand, it’s something to be very mindful about. But on the other, it means you have a degree of freedom and flexibility to get the job done that others do not.

Organizations have their own processes, culture, and tendencies. And more often than not (depending on the organization), these things are fairly rigid. But when you’re brought in as an outside consultant, it sort of… gives you the license to ignore a lot of that stuff.

Because again, if the organization could have executed the project with its current structure, staffing, and culture, it would have done it already. It wouldn’t need you. So when you’re brought in, you sit on the organization’s periphery, and your ‘procedural license’ is implied.

There is definitely a balance to be had. You need to be mindful of organizational practices and culture as they relate to power structures and maintaining influence — but you also need to be a little bit blind to the company’s internal processes. You need to do things your way, using the process you’ve established throughout your career.

You can’t be insensitive to the lay of the land, but you need to focus on your solution, executing your project above all else. I don’t want to go so far as to say you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, but there is truth to the sentiment.

Because there’s risk in sinking too deeply into the organization’s day-to-day routine, as well. If you get sucked into acting as an employee, you won’t be able to achieve what you set out to achieve in a timely manner.

Again, it’s a sensitive position. You have to respect the culture and processes that are in place, but also let that stuff bounce off you so you can stick to your solution.

Ultimately, what you have as a consultant is 1) expert knowledge, and 2) a process by which to apply it — one that’s been proven successful by a history of positive results.

Those of us who make a living advising others have refined and improved those two things throughout our careers, and I wouldn’t be a consultant if I didn’t have absolute faith in them. If I let either become compromised — or lose confidence in my knowledge or process — my value would quickly sink to zero.

At the end of a consulting engagement, the project should reflect well on the person who hired you. And as their guide, you get to feel proud when your client receives accolades for a job well done. But those accolades are not yours.

Your final act as their consultant should be to hand off the project and quietly ride off into the sunset, on to your next engagement. With you, you take your fees, the knowledge and experience you have gained, and the confidence that you can apply them to future projects.

I would never have gone out on my own eight years ago if I wasn’t certain I had a better way of doing things. It gives me immense pride to bring that expertise to other organizations and reward their trust with success.

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References

Daft, R. L., & Armstrong, A. (2021). Organization Theory and Design (4th ed.) [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from vbk://9780176922290