Mental health articles

Checklist of Consultant Competencies
Personal and Interpersonal Effectiveness
1. Self-knowledge: Awareness of the values and beliefs that influence the way
one works.
2. Self-awareness: Awareness of one’s own emotional responses to situations
and people, especially patterns.
3. Active listening: Attending to the content and process level in communication.
4. Self-expression: Ability to express one’s own thoughts, ideas, and feelings
clearly.
5. Relationship-building: Building open, collaborative relationships. Exchanging
feedback in constructive ways.
6. Conf lict-handling: Valuing and exploring differences. Ability to challenge
without alienating.
7. Personal and professional limits: Awareness of the limit of one’s own competencies.
Willingness to ask for help.
Qualities of a Change Agent
1. Tolerance of ambiguity: Ability to live with uncertainty and complexity
without stress. Tolerate incompleteness.
2. Maintaining a long-term perspective: Helping clients identify and articulate
desired futures.
3. Maintaining a wide perspective: Not drawing boundaries tightly.
4. Understanding the nature of change: Developing an intellectual and experiential
understanding of how and why people change.
5. Facilitating change: Encouraging widespread participation in the design and
implementation of change.
Consulting Skills
1. Contracting: Clarifying mutual expectations and responsibilities.
2. Data collection: Choosing appropriate methods of gathering information
that will help to address the issues and concerns of the client.
3. Diagnosis: Having a range of frameworks and models for understanding individuals,
groups, and organizations. Encouraging joint diagnosis with clients.
4. Design: Being creative and purposeful in designing interventions. Being
willing to redesign on the spot.
5. Closure: Disengaging well from the project. Avoiding mutual dependency.

Tags: consultant