Summiteers' Consultancy Skills is a tailor-made program for professionals who want to further develop their advisory skills. You have miles on the clock and perhaps the ambition to grow towards the next leadership or management role. Professionally, nothing is too much to ask, but how:

• Do you create support and get your message across the stage?

• Do you build trust and connect well with your interlocutor?

• Do you avoid going into too much detail but staying short and to the point?

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The program

During this training program, you will invest in strong consultancy skills such as sharp analysis and conclusion, creating trust, giving clear direction, presenting ideas and concepts with conviction and implementing them tightly. Here's how we do it:

• Training courses (plenary and in smaller groups)

• Case studies and role plays

• Session with inspiring speaker

• Accountability partnership that briefly talks cyclically about learning objectives

• Possibility to support a Summary on a substantive issue

• Theory in the form of books, videos, and articles

More control in conversations and more space for someone else's perspective. From alone to together; for a better solution.

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Consultancy Skills training program: “From alone to together.”

“A lot of companies will recognize this. A strong team of professionals who are incredibly good at their job. Smart employees who are good at solving the content puzzle, but are stuck on support, trust and communication. So how do you really get your message across the stage? How do you ensure that you work together towards a solution? We see that challenge in a lot of companies,” summiteer Jules van Merrienboer kicks off. These are often professionals with a lot of expertise and experience and the ambition to grow further. It started with an unusual question for us: do you want to provide a training program for us? “But we are a consulting company” and then the customer said: that's exactly why. For this client, we created this customized program. And there appeared to be more enthusiasm for it.

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Working from learning objectives and themes

“I was able to supervise the first group together with colleague Dolf L'Ortye. This involved a group of 18 professionals.” When professionals have the potential and ambition to develop, this training program helps them take a step in the right direction. In doing so, we work from personal learning goals, which vary from participant to participant. The program starts with an extensive intake (with both participant and manager), where we try to gain insight into learning objectives. It's really tailor-made, everyone's focus is on something else.” Topics that we see more often are, for example:

✓ Having trouble creating support

✓ Being fluffy in communication

✓ Have expertise but don't want to be at the forefront

“One of the more important themes is creating that support; how can I go from alone to together? Through a variety of methods, we offer them useful skills from the profession of advisor.” The context is less important, it doesn't matter if it's within a bank or at a retailer, for example. Every company can get a lot out of this. It's not about the company's content or expertise, they know that best, says Jules.

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Four turns later: “Here's how we're going to do it”

In fact, it is precisely the focus on content, in-depth expertise and analytical properties that cause blockages. “That's why many professionals forget that they're sitting at the table with three others, so to speak, who also have a great deal of content knowledge and all want to solve the same problem. They forget to include others in their thought process and are sometimes four turns away. Explaining to someone how you got there and why is very difficult. Many experts do not connect well enough with their interlocutor: do not listen carefully and, in their head, are mainly concerned with: I need to solve it. This is not bad will, but often from a focus on the result. The professional will then mainly send without listening and asking questions. Unintentionally, they are often mainly concerned with themselves.

“It's a completely different mindset. After the process, it's often: “I think I know which direction to go, but I still listen to the others so that the end result is better.”

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The value of the program lies in doing it as a group

We tailor the training program based on the learning objectives that we identify during the intake. We analyse all learning objectives and see what themes are included. Based on that theme, we create the program, in which we look for a combination of theory and practice (through training and role-playing, for example). The value lies mainly in acting as a group: people from all over the company come together; they get to know each other and learn from each other. For example, we create accountability partners who talk to each other about their learning goals every week. That works well, especially in groups. So in the end, they also learn a lot from each other. “It's great to see how the participants are making leaps and bounds in their development. The nice thing is that we are not trainers, but rather advisors and talk from our practical experience. This allows us to coach participants and provide tools so that they can accelerate their learning.”

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The building blocks of consultancy skills

The program is tailor-made for each group, but it does have a number of building blocks. Of course, we will start with a kick-off after the intake. “In the last group, we invited Katja Staartjes, the first Dutch female mountaineer to climb Mount Everest. Katja makes nice analogies between climbing and solving a major issue within a company. “The most important message? You have to do it together. You're still so good at climbing, but you can't get there alone.”

In addition, there are various training courses focused on theory, distinguishing between plenary training courses for the overarching themes and training courses in smaller groups focused on specific learning objectives. In addition, we have case meetings, where we work with actors to gain insight into how people behave in practice. Of course, we increase the participants' learning points here, so that they feel tempted to fall into their pitfalls and learn from them.

Based on learning objectives, we form couples, where people will talk about this with each other for a few moments every week, we call this the accountability partnership. The accountability partnership is facilitated by a Summit, where he/she participates to clarify the learning objectives, provides suggestions and explains how the process works. After that, the Summiteer checks in with the accountability partners once a month to see how things are going. In addition, participants have the opportunity to spend a predetermined number of hours sparring with a Summiteers consultant. This is then about an issue that is not related to the course. There is also a self-study component, because Summiteers provides matching books and articles that you can read between training sessions.

“From alone to together, that's what we really help professionals with. What does that mean for them? Feeling that they have more control in conversations and really have room for someone else's perspective. Together for a better solution.”

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Do your work with a completely different mindset

In addition to your “regular work”, free up significant time for at least six months to engage in your personal and professional development on a weekly basis. “It takes quite a lot out of someone,” Jules admits. “It's a tough program, but it should really be seen as an honor if you get to participate. After all, your employer believes that you deserve to take the next step in your development.” The result? Do your job with a completely different mindset. No longer focus solely on content in conversations, but really take on a different role. From the expert role to an advisory and facilitative role, where, of course, you can always assume the role of an expert. “After this program, you're in a completely different way of looking at meetings, and that brings you an awful lot.”