What makes a good consultant? Part 2a, services and activities
[Continued from the previous Part 1a, Part 1b, and Part 1c, which covered the rules of engagement with clients.]
The blog, Watson, is a most valuable institution, if you only know how to use it.
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
In my three decades of experience accompanying my friend Sherlock Holmes, the world’s foremost consulting housing finance detective, the Compleat Consultant, I have seen him solve mysteries far and wide, and use methods both of detection and reasoning that have been justly celebrated around the world. Yet there was more to Holmes that a magnifying glass or a microscope – or even of his logic. Holmes had the activity and energy that even his great brother Mycroft lacked:
“That Mycroft should break out in this erratic fashion! A planet might as well leave its orbit.”
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans
B. Services and activities
Energy – an attribute, I know, not a service – is a sine qua non of the successful consultant. A consultant’s mind must always been spinning with his client’s problems:
He sprang from his chair and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and unclasping of his long thin hands.
“I am going out now!”
“To the police?”
“No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may take the flies, but not before.”
B1. Protects his client’s interests
Clients, he once told me with great exasperation, have the annoying habit of acting despite our advice. Then he chuckled.
I heard a sharp rustle, the night air blew into the heated room, and the avenger was gone.
On occasion those ruined by evildoers received vengeance.
If they did not, if they always acted wisely, why then there would be no clients for me, no emerald stick pins, no continuing stream of challenges.
When given the opportunity to do the right thing, he acted:
Hardly had the woman rushed from the room when Holmes, with swift, silent steps, was over at the other door. He turned the key in the lock. At the same instant we heard voices in the house and the sound of hurrying feet. The revolver shots had roused the household. With perfect coolness Holmes slipped across to the safe, filled his two arms with bundles of letters, and poured them all into the fire. Again and again he did it, until the safe was empty.
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
When I later asked Holmes why he had done this, at some risk to ourselves, he looked at me as if I were daft, and said merely, Common decency warrants no surcharge.
Common decency warrants no surcharge
B2. Coordinates and communicates
A good consultant communicates. I always told my patients both my prescription and my diagnosis and the observations on which it was based. The patient being an actor in his own treatment, that knowledge would serve not only to calm their minds but also help them change their habits to speed recovery or prevent illness. Throughout our association, Holmes delighted in secretiveness, leading to the breathtaking denouement. That was an error:
One of Sherlock Holmes’s defects–if, indeed, one may call it a defect– was that he was exceedingly loath to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment.
Often Holmes observed and deduced things he could not communicate to others.
Partly it came no doubt from his own masterful nature, which loved to dominate and surprise those who were around him. Partly also from his professional caution, which urged him never to take any chances. The result, however, was very trying for those who were acting as his agents and assistants. I had often suffered under it.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Chapter 14
It reduced his effectiveness. In later years, when he had retired to
“What I expected to see”
“I am sure that you inquired your way merely in order that you might see him.”
B3. Will be deniable-ambassador if required
As a consultant, one is the client’s agent – so one is often called upon to represent one’s principal in encounters with other parties:
“An illustrious client has placed her piteous case in my hands. This fiend has several imprudent letters–imprudent, Watson, nothing worse–which were written to an impecunious young squire in the country. They would suffice to break off the match. Milverton will send the letters to the Earl unless a large sum of money is paid him. I have been commissioned to meet him, and – to make the best terms I can.”
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
Ambassadorship also works in the opposite direction, as when one wants to repair a breach or right a wrong, without exposing one’s principal to other parties:
Good heavens! what is this? Lord Bellinger! Lord Bellinger!”
As an ambassador, Holmes arranged the return of valuables without necessarily disclosing from whom he got them.
The Premier snatched the blue envelope from his hand.
“Yes, it is it–and the letter is intact. Hope, I congratulate you.”
“Thank you! Thank you! What a weight from my heart. But this is inconceivable–impossible. Mr. Holmes, you are a wizard, a sorcerer! How did you know it was there?”
“Because I knew it was nowhere else.”
“I cannot believe my eyes!” He ran wildly to the door. “Where is my wife? I must tell her that all is well. Hilda! Hilda!” we heard his voice on the stairs.
Just as Holmes sometimes agreed not to seek to penetrate another’s anonymity, he could persuade others not to try to penetrate his client’s:
The Premier looked at Holmes with twinkling eyes.
“Come, sir,” said he. “There is more in this than meets the eye. How came the letter back in the box?”
“We also have our diplomatic secrets,” said he and, picking up his hat, he turned to the door.
The Adventure of the Second Stain
A good consultant like Holmes is naturally curious about many things, so his inquiries will not necessarily reveal on whose behalf he is making them.
B4. Will play the attack dog if required
A consultant is more than just an advisor, he is often an ambassador, a spokesperson, an advocate. Many clients are hesitant; they fear scandal, publicity, even confrontation. They are unused to the waters in which we swim, and if presented face-to-face with their antagonist (such as Charles Augustus Milverton, whom Holmes dubbed ‘the worst man in
Enter the consultant, who can speak for his client’s wishes:
“The law cannot, as you say, touch you,” said Holmes, unlocking and throwing open the door, “yet there never was a man who deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!” he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon the man’s face, “it is not part of my duties to my client, but here’s a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat myself to– –”
Mr. James Windibank had no wish to discover to what Holmes intended to treat himself.
He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road.
After all, Watson, he said to me, our clients pay us not for our efforts but for our results, and I believe this one will be satisfactory.
B5. Negotiates as required
Negotiation is a skill. It can be earned. Most people do not negotiate much, and few people negotiate anything and everything for a living.
Holmes was gray with anger and mortification.
It was important here for Holmes to recognize that his own feelings were unimportant; all that mattered was the service for which he had been commissioned.
“Wait a little,” he said. “You go too fast. We should certainly make every effort to avoid scandal in so delicate a matter.”
“I was sure that you would see it in that light,” he purred.
When necessary, Holmes would swallow both his pride and his passions.
Negotiation involves a mutability of character, and the challenging task of being both aggressive for one’s client and alert for any signs or signals from one’s antagonist:
At the same time,” Holmes continued, “Lady Eva is not a wealthy woman. I assure you that two thousand pounds would be a drain upon her resources, and that the sum you name is utterly beyond her power. I beg, therefore, that you will moderate your demands, and that you will return the letters at the price I indicate, which is, I assure you, the highest that you can get.”
Giving more joy than all the candelabra and butter dishes in
“I am aware that what you say is true about the lady’s resources,” said he. “At the same time you must admit that the occasion of a lady’s marriage is a very suitable time for her friends and relatives to make some little effort upon her behalf. They may hesitate as to an acceptable wedding present. Let me assure them that this little bundle of letters would give more joy than all the candelabra and butter-dishes in
“It is impossible,” said Holmes.
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
Negotiation involves knowing when to keep silent – to provide the other party space for reflection. Writing blog posts similarly involves knowing when to adjourn until tomorrow.
Burning the midnight oil writing blog posts, eh Holmes?
[Continued tomorrow in Part 2b.]
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