When you are a consultant, or worse yet, seen as a thought leader, people hire you expecting that you’ll know “the answers.” At best, what you actually know are paths to make sense of problems, communicate them, and then solve them. No consultant should ever arrive knowing the answers. If they do, you could have just asked them over the phone or read their book. Canned knowledge is a commodity. Problem solving is not.

Let’s face it—work is a challenge. We have to not only get along with other people; more important, we need to understand other people. Our colleagues aren’t fungible, and they aren’t machines. They are stuck in the same problems we are. They are just as much a part—and just as much a victim—of the problem as we are.

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