Are you planning to bring in some Consultants, hire Insultants instead !

Before hiring the next big consultant, think again. You may perhaps be in need of an insultant. That’s what Keith R. Mcfarland says in his book “The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers”.

Frequently, leaders are the last to know. The company needs people who not only have ability to see through but guts to communicate to the top, even if it is unpalatable. McFarland calls these straight-shooters insultants (inside consultants). He describes them as those people “willing to ask the tough questions that cause a company to think critically about its fundamental assumptions. The value of insultants is that they will go to great lengths to get their companies to reevaluate a position or adapt to a changing environment.”

Insulants can be a company’s insurance against the common twin traps of myopia and inertia, advises McFarland, citing a research by MIT Sloan Business School. “Myopic executives tend to focus more on fighting fires and tackling time-bound projects, and forget to watch for tectonic changes reshaping the industry. Similarly, executives suffering from inertia fail to take advantage of new opportunities, choosing instead to stand pat in familiar markets.”

People normally assume that the person in authority is likely to have more information or clearer perspective, says McFarland. The assumption, alas, is often incorrect. If an organisation doesn’t have a strong insultant culture, errors are likely to be propagated throughout the company, cautions McFarland.

Customers and employees who leave the company can be a valuable source of insultant insight, finds McFarland. “These people are natural insultants. They have little reason not to tell you the truth. They may, in fact, tell you things you might have been reluctant to consider otherwise.”

McFarland offers tips to potential insultants. They should never think of charging like a bull in china shop and must always remember that they are simply trying to make the leader successful, not trying to put the spotlight on themselves. Good insultants must learn to be:

• Empathetic. Yours isn’t the only point of view. Understand where others are coming from.
• Don’t Attack. Finger pointing is not acceptable. “The most powerful tool in the insultant’s arsenal is the question and knowing how to ask the right question at the right time.”
• Don’t Triangulate. “Most people find talking behind someone’s back to be insulting, so effective insultants avoid it at all costs.”
• Don’t Kid Yourself, Your Real Motivation Will Be Obvious. “If you mean to embarrass, demean, or criticize another person, while you might succeed in that goal, you will have unnecessarily sacrificed any opportunity you had to contribute change.”
• Be a Grown-Up. “An insultant’s job is to make sure an issue gets a thorough vetting, not to convince everyone to see the world his or her way.”
• Be Assertive and Persistent. “Not everyone will be receptive to the hard truth, so an insultant must be both assertive and persistent, returning to the issue as often as he or she thinks is necessary to get the point across.”

The top leadership needs to understand, as a leader, you gain nothing by not knowing what people are thinking. People who are challenging your way of doing things with some other ideas are not necessarily being insubordinate. They are practicing leadership, which is now and will be a great company asset tomorrow.