Recently I was exposed to the world of consultancy. Some of the consultants shared their view about the relationship between consultancy and training. He commented that consultancy at its lowest level is training. What do you think?

A friend once sent me a joke. reads like this, a man driving a car passing a sheperd with a herd of sheep, he stopped to talk with the sheperd:’If I can tell you the number of your sheep correctly, can you let me have one of your sheep?’. The sheperd agreed. So the man started by fiddling all his gadgets to get the number, including, finally, connecting with a satellite.

Of course, in the end he got the number and one sheep.

The sheperd stepped forward to ask the man a question:

‘If I can tell you correctly your profession, can you return the sheep to me’. The man agreed.

‘You are a consultant’, the sheperd said.

‘How do you know?’ the man asked in surprise.

‘You came without being invited and asked to be paid on telling me something i already knew.’

Of course, this is only an joke.

However a truely great trainer re-engineers the influencees’ pattern of thinking and ways of behaving, helps to transform something that is mediocre into something that is excellent.

From a passer-by, neither a consultant nor a trainer

Thank you for all the interesting comments. Yes, be it consultant, trainer or coach, each has a role to play in changing others’ lives in a positive sense to a certain extent.

At the end of the day, it’s the individual’s intention and integrity as to how far you want to go in terms of helping others to achieve their goals ilife in the areas of your work.

You can be all three at the same time, as long as you acquire the right skills and knowledge to do your job well.