For the first seven years of my consulting career, I did tons of consulting projects with CEOs and senior managers, even though I had never actually been a CEO or senior manager. Eighteen months ago I joined forces with MSP, an Association Management Company, and this gave me the somewhat rare opportunity to provide consulting to associations AND be the CEO of some associations at the same time. So the question is, does it make a difference?

Obviously I’ve learned a lot being a CEO. I certainly now have a better sense of the complexity and fast pace that CEOs are constantly dealing with. As a consultant, it was hard to really get that. When you’re called in for that one project or to address one area of the organization (and you haven’t been a CEO before), it’s often hard to get a feel for the overall rhythm and flow that a CEO is facing. And when you’re coming in from the outside, the issue that is “yours” always has the biggest center of gravity, but that may not be so for the CEO you’re dealing with or the organization. I’m very happy I have the opportunity to walk the proverbial mile in their shoes. I think it will help my consulting moving forward (just as my consulting has helped my CEO leadership, but that’s another story).

While it is helpful, though, I have to admit I don’t think it makes that big a difference. For all you CEOs out there who are reluctant to trust a consultant who hasn’t been a CEO, here’s a perspective from someone on both sides of this fence: it doesn’t matter. 

It doesn’t matter if they haven’t been a CEO, or if they haven’t worked in an organization that’s your size, or if they haven’t worked in your industry, of if they don’t wear the same clothes as you, of if they don’t agree with you all the time. You are not hiring a consultant to be you or do YOUR job. Yes, an overlap in experience can be helpful, but the lack of that experience is not nearly as detrimental as you might think. 

In most cases you are hiring a consultant to help you do your job better. To facilitate, to help make change, to manage a process, to build the capacity within you and/or your organization. That’s where their expertise lies–and that’s where you want their expertise to lie. 

It’s funny–I hear a lot of association executives complain about Boards who demand that their CEO come from within their industry. This is not needed, they argue–what you need is someone with expertise in association management. And then some of those people turn around and discount the advice of a consultant because he or she has never been a CEO? Hmmm.