2005 Salary Survey Results
Is consulting for you? Try this checklist
If you’re an ED manager considering a career in health care consulting, the first thing you should do is examine your skill set to see if there’s even a fit. There are several key characteristics that make a good consultant, according to Mike Williams, MPA/HAS, president of The Abaris Group, a Walnut Creek, CA-based emergency care consulting firm.
"One important trait is analytic capability and the ability to be objective," he says. "And you have to have good listening skills."
It’s important to have enough experience to be able to "connect the dots" to solutions, he says. "It’s not good enough to say, Yes, I’ve had the same problems,’" says Williams. "Hopefully, you have led the charge to solutions [in your ED] or have been part of a team that did that."
The best consultants, he says, are the ones who have successfully found nontraditional solutions.
"Some call it thinking outside the box; we call it thinking out of the universe," he says. Good written and verbal communication skills also are critical. "You must be able communicate concisely the nature of a problem and the profound solutions," he explains.
Perhaps surprisingly, willingness to travel is relatively low on Williams’ list of qualifications. "More and more, consulting can be done through telecommuting," he concludes.
If youre an ED manager considering a career in health care consulting, the first thing you should do is examine your skill set to see if theres even a fit.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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