Every decision a leader makes, big or small, can impact countless lives. But leadership is a heavy burden, and the best leaders seek trusted advisors because the stakes are high. In this article, we will explore firsthand the impact of good leadership—and the essential role consultants play in helping them lead effectively. Additionally, we will discuss five key ways consultants help leaders succeed.  

To get started, I have no greater means of demonstrating the above than to have you join me on the journey by which I not only arrived at this conclusion, but have made management consulting my calling for nearly two decades. However, if you prefer bullet points over stories, click here.

For Lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.

Proverbs 11:14 NIV

The nagging question

A picture of a young woman holding a book titled Dare to be a Daniel caught my eye. It seemed like a strange choice for a tab divider at the printing company where I worked, but it sparked a question that lingered in my mind: Who did the kings consult?

As a business student working in HR directly with executives and board members, I had a front-row seat to the world of leadership. Looking at that image it dawned on me that throughout history, leaders—whether kings, presidents, or CEOs—rarely succeed alone. They are surrounded by advisors who guide them, challenge them, and help them navigate complex decisions. The best of these advisors, like Daniel, were fiercely independent willing to speak forth hard truths, even at great personal risk.

It was the late 2000’s and as the Great Recession unfolded, I saw how leadership decisions could shape the world we live in, the diversity of leaders, and the challenges they face. My conclusion, leadership is hard. And while we often look to leaders for guidance, I kept coming back to the same question: Who do the leaders turn to? Who do they consult?

This lesson would quickly hit home, literally. While I was getting a crash course in business leadership both in university and at work, my blue-collar working-class family lost 3.5 out of 7 jobs, including my father’s job as a welder of 25 years for a yacht making company in my hometown. My home town had a population of 3,000, the factory employed 1,500. When the company went bankrupt, so did my hometown as they lost accrued benefits, insurance, and retirement savings. Buildings sat vacant for several years, while people ready and able to work struggled to find a place to put their labor to good use and provide for their families.

Leadership is its own breed

Watching my hometown, would be one of many demonstrations in my life of the need for the unique expertise of organizational leaders – those gifted in what we may call strategic, managerial, or administrative leadership such as executive/senior business roles, department heads, pastors, boards of directors, government administrator roles and the like. These folks in addition to their technical training are skilled in bringing together people and resources to achieve a specific vision.

There were 1,500 people in my hometown with the skills, the willingness, and the need to work, but they could not make the jobs happen. The issue was not a lack of desire to work, but they had no leader to bring them together.  A few years later a new leader would come to the town, but his arrival would be too late for myself…

Leadership is life or death

As my town spiraled from the loss of our biggest employer, my mother came to me distraught over two things: a) a life-threatening disease had returned, quickly at that, and b) the creditors were calling. My parents were simple people who paid their bills, but navigating the billing and finances of what would total hundreds of thousands in medical bills would become the first and probably the best use of my new university degree. Doing that with little to no income at the time would take a miracle of God.

As my mother’s life hung in the balance, one realizes a job is not just a job. It is food on the kitchen table, timely medical care, and time with and education for children. When people work for our organizations, the dollars they earn or the time they volunteer are a representation of the hours of their lives. Whether it’s overseeing the supply chain logistics to deliver food to a local grocery store, hospital administration to get lifesaving care, or connecting with souls as they enter a church’s doors, the effectiveness of leadership literally means the difference in life or death.

Nevertheless, while I found myself calling hospital billing departments, managing extensive excel spreadsheets, and sitting in doctor appointments, back at work the impact of the recession was taking its toll…

Great leadership doesn’t just happen

I watched as the company’s rather newly formed executive team struggled to respond to the recession’s sweeping impacts. My heart broke as I held sobbing employees…friends… as we laid off 30% of the company into the worst job market since the great depression. I knew every person cut personally.

But the loss of business driving the layoff, was not the company’s only struggle. Behind closed doors executives shared their hearts with me. They shared their desires to lead and lead well, their fears, and their personal struggles. As I listened, the question resurfaced, who do they consult?

Who do leaders consult

Amidst the chaos, I often found solace in one of executive offices and that is where I found that image that I now stared at. Knowing how important it was that our leaders are successful, how could I help these leaders?

It wasn’t until a business networking event where I listened to a management consultant speak, that I found the answer. At the time, I did not know such a job existed, but as I heard her describe her work—guiding leaders and organizations through complex problems and strategic decisions—I realized this was what I wanted to do with my life.

Now, two decades later, I’ve had the privilege of working with leaders at every level—from startups to Fortune 50 companies, across industries, and around the world. The longer I work as a consultant, the more I believe in the importance of strong leadership and the invaluable role consultants play in ensuring leaders succeed.

How consultants make a difference

1. Trusted advisors

Leaders operate from a unique vantage point. They are privy to information and decisions that few others have access to, and as a result, they are often isolated. The weight of their decisions can be overwhelming, and they can’t always share their struggles with their teams or families. This is where consultants come in. We serve as trusted advisors—offering a confidential, external perspective that allows leaders to navigate complex issues with clarity and confidence.

Leaders need someone who understands the broader picture but isn’t emotionally entangled in the details. Consultants provide that neutral space, allowing for honest reflection and problem-solving.

Some examples of how we do this for our clients

• 1:1 Leadership coaching
• Observation of core meetings and processes to provide insights
• Participation in key leadership meetings to further advance discussion

Leadership requires a unique skill set that goes beyond technical expertise not to mention, leaders are not just one thing, with different leadership styles, kinds of work, seniority, and circumstances. Additionally, as leaders often go first and, in doing so, set the standard. Combined, these traits can often make focused leadership development in house difficult.

Consultants bring the expertise of having worked with multiple leaders in various environments, making it easier to identify patterns, challenges, and best practices. We can help leaders chart a path through the unknown, building the skills necessary to lead at the highest levels.

• Tailored leadership development journey and/or content design
• Leadership pipeline & succession advisory
• Delivery key leadership content to bring additional knowledge, experience, and/or a perspective
• Leadership transition support for critical roles

Working for decades with organizations of all stripes, consultants can help leaders take a fresh look at their organizations and see opportunities that may be overlooked in the day to day.  The first duty of a consultant is to ensure that they are solving the “right” problem. Consequently, consultants will continuously question, analyze, challenge, and test ideas to most accurately identify your organization’s true opportunities and needs.

• Survey administration
• Key team members interviews
• Analysis of “desktop research” i.e. client provided reports on information such as demographics, attendance, KPIs, turnover/promotion ratios, etc.
• Fit/Gap analysis facilitation

4. Problem solving

Problem solving is at the heart of consulting. Every organization is different and the situations in which opportunities and problems present themselves are different too. Consultants combine their expertise in solving problems serving clients in similar situations with your knowledge of your organization to develop unique tailor-made solutions. In addition to our talent for solving problems of all stripes, consultants all have a practical specialty.

For Nikkiforos, that specialty is Leadership, People and Organizational Strategy that may look like the following. Please note: We are always expanding our expertise and happy to explore doing so with our clients.

• Org design and structure
• Process design and optimization
• Organizational governance
• Workforce (incl. volunteer) accountability and rewards systems
• Human Resources advisory across the hire to retire lifecycle (Note: We are not lawyers; we cannot provide legal advice.)

5. Drivers of change

Business as usual is a full-time job. Consultants can help facilitate change by providing focused attention on specific projects, driving those projects to completion. Where desired, consultants may stay on to help facilitate the integration and hand off to client teams till optimized ways of working become the new business as usual.  This support may look like:

• Business case development
• Full on project management
• Change management approach design, planning, and/or execution support
• Messaging and communications support
• Initial solution testing and stand up

The importance of effective leadership cannot be understated. Consequently, today’s leaders and the leaders throughout history understood that a strong, independent, trusted advisor like Daniel, can mean the difference between victory or failure during pivotal times in an organization’s development. Such a consultant can challenge assumptions, tailor approaches to their client’s needs, help develop core leaders, and drive solutions from concept to tangible action. All the while providing a clarity and confidence to leaders and their people beyond what internal resources could do on their own, making a partnership with a strong consultant an invaluable one.  

To learn more about when to engage a consultant see our blog post “A Tale of Two Kings” or why you may want to work with a independent firm such as Nikkiforos see our blog post “Trust is a Personal Endeavor”.

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