According to a professional Strategic Planning consultant Tulsa OK, strategic planning is a strong tool for guiding your company or nonprofit toward new goals and preparing your staff for change. However, in order to do so, you'll need to hire the correct strategic planning consultant. Here are two important characteristics to look for in your next strategic planning consultant:

Professional Knowledge and Expertise

You should hire a Tulsa business consulting professional who is self-assured, knowledgeable, and experienced. An extensive portfolio of successful engagements, as well as a strong educational foundation in strategy and communication, can attest to this. Your consultant should, above all, be an expert in strategic planning. Your strategic planning consultant will be able to relate quickly to your staff and inspire confidence and trust in your team from the outset, thanks to their extensive domain understanding. Without such trust, your employees will struggle to adapt to any new techniques the consultant suggests, making any approach appear useless in the end.

Facilitation Skills

A strategic planning consultant is dedicated to assisting your company through a successful process. As a result, your consultant should be an excellent facilitator. You might not realize it, but facilitation is a more intricate and important part of your planning process than you think. A competent facilitator can quickly recognize personality types and degrees of comfort among your team members, allowing them to adapt the discussion flow to ensure that all viewpoints are heard.

Similarly, rather than taking matters into their own hands, the facilitator should know when to sit back and let your staff sort things out. Leadership abilities of your consultant are also crucial, but they must be calibrated so that the consultant does not appear domineering or overwhelming. A well-prepared facilitator will be able to adapt inquiries and interaction with each stakeholder outside of meetings in order to bring out the best in that person while also improving their trust in the process's value and relevance. In a nutshell, facilitation is what drives the change motivation that your team will need to achieve a successful strategy.