Class Description
Consulting Skills for IT Professionals Using SERVE (one day)
For IT to deliver superior consulting-level results to the organization it servers, IT employees at all levels of the organization must understand how to effectively blend their technical expertise with superior communication and collaborative skills, in a wide variety of situations and with multiple stake-holder personality styles, who have varying needs and wants.
This class is specifically designed to provide technical professionals with the tools needed to provide this high level of business acumen and proactive business participation.
Class Topics include:
- The Consulting Discipline
- Definition of Consulting
- Staff Augmentation, Subject Matter Experts, and Strategic Business Partner
- Providing Consulting Versus Technical Support
- What Your Internal clients Want
- The Five-Step SERVE Consulting Model Description
- S – Setting up a Relationship
- Warm-Up and Rapport
- Understanding Communication (Face-to-Face, Phone, and Email)
- Understanding Your Customer/Business Partner
- Emotional Intelligence and a Business Tool
- E – Establishing Needs
- Client Types (Characteristics, Consequences, Advice)
- Open, Closed and High Yield Questions
- Strategic Question Types (Uses and Tactics)
- Active Listening: Traditional and Intuitive Models
- R – Recommending Solutions
- Problem Definition Statements
- Desired End State Statements
- Various Root Cause Concepts and Techniques
- Customer Centric Vision
- V – Valuing Objections
- Moving Toward Stakeholder Agreement
- Levels of Stakeholder Commitment
- Potential Stakeholder Challenges
- E – Executing – Next Steps
- Report During Execution
- Stay Connected
Key Take-Aways:
- Understanding the for SERVE consulting methodology
Techniques for building client trust and long term relationships
Ways to build your professional reputation
Novel approaches to communicating with internal clients and others