I'm still figuring all this out.

I'm consultant. A church consultant to be exact. A job that is occasionally the butt of joking among friends. In the church, I find most folks I work meet on the street aren't sure that that means. There aren't a lot of church consultants. And some of the folks who call themselves consultants give the rest of us a bad name. I suppose the same is true for lawyers and pastors. There's a lot of people with a lot of experience who people pay for advice.

Advice is helpful if you've had the same experience, the same context and the same exact situations as the person giving it.

Baz Lurman says advice is " "

Consultants who give advice aren't really consultants... at least from what I gather. Maybe we should call them advice givers. or maybe experts. or something more fancy. I suppose the term consultant is the junk drawer for people who want to tell other people how great their thoughts are.

It is my hope I'm not that, an advice giver or an expert. An expert, or advice giver is someone who lives each day in the shadow of past successes (or failures twisted to sound like successes) and then passes these experiences on to a client to live vicariously through them.

I must confess this is a real temptation. It would be easier to listen and then give advice. It would be easier to take my square experience and apply it to your round situation.

More confession. I do this sometimes.

But I'm learning. I'm learning that consulting isn't about giving people answers. Consulting is more about learning than it is about disseminating information. I'm learning that if I want to be a great consultant, then I need to humbly put my advice and experiences on the shelf and learn from who is speaking to me. While I'm confessing, our team does this really well sometimes and it's beautiful to see.

If you are looking for a consultant (or if you aren't) let me give you this advice.
Look for a consultant who is hoping to learn from you.
It will be in the moments when they learn from you, that you learn from them.

I know it sounds counter intuitive. But if you will benefit the greatest from a consultant who is quick to learn, and slow to dispense advice.

I could be wrong. But this is what I'm learning...