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Gerald M. Weinberg

The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully Paperback – January 1, 1986

by Gerald M. Weinberg (Author), Virginia Satir (Foreword)

154 ratings

Book 1 of 2: Consulting Secrets

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Consulting may be defined as the art of influencing people at their request. The Secrets of Consulting takes you behind the scenes of that art, explaining in detail why the world of consulting seems so irrational, and some very practical steps you can take to make it more rational. Topics include: Gaining control of change, marketing and pricing your services, what to do when they resist your ideas, and more.

The Secrets of Consulting has been used in dozens of different fields. If you are a consultant, or ever use a consultant, this book is for you. The author draws on his 50+ years of consulting experience to share his secrets about the often irrational world of consulting. "This is a great book. Period! ...this advice is clearly applicable to more than just consulting; it is applicable to life in general." "The book is truly wonderful. A must have!" - Amazon reviews

Print length

228 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Dorset House Publishing
Publication date

January 1, 1986
Dimensions

6.25 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0932633013
ISBN-13

978-0932633019
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dorset House Publishing; 1st edition (January 1, 1986)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 228 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0932633013
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0932633019
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #52,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #26 in Business Consulting (Books)
- #123 in Business & Organizational Learning
- #518 in Entrepreneurship (Books)

Customer Reviews:
154 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		65%
4 star		23%
3 star		7%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Timothy Knox

Awesome book, so-so OCR

Reviewed in the United States on February 29, 2016

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The book deserves a 5-star rating. However, the Kindle adaptation suffers from numerous OCR errors. It seems quite likely to me that no human actually read the result, as many of the errors are quite obvious to any halfway-attentive reader (and if you are not a halfway-attentive reader, what are you doing with THIS book?). I also have the printed edition, bought years ago, and it doesn't suffer from the typographical errors of the Kindle edition.

That being said, if you can get past the errors, the book is AMAZING! Gerald Weinberg not only writes well and invitingly, but also memorably. Who can forget The Law of Raspberry Jam, or The Orange Juice Test?

Even though my "day job" is not currently being a consultant, the advice in here has been useful in so many other aspects of my life. So my advice to you is, get the dead-tree version if the errors are going to bother you, and the Kindle version if you are prepared to live with them. But definitely get a copy in some form!

23 people found this helpful

Helpful

Valuable advice for consultants.

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2019

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This is a great book. Not only a book about consulting, this is also a book about how to deal with people. As you can see from the pictures of the table of contents, the author covers MANY areas, but he doesn't develop any specific area in depth. This book is packed with valuable info that anyone can use, but are essential for a successful consultant to master. I recommend this book. Please mark if you find my review helpful. Thank you so much!

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Dan

Actionable advice about consulting

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2016

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Fantastic overview of the secrets of consulting.

I can give you the book in a nutshell--"all problems are people problems". Everything you need to know about consulting (and for that matter, full time employment) cascades from that fact.

The author gives actionable advice drawn from years and years of experience.

If you're looking for a book about the nuts and bolts of consulting, this isn't it. If you have that mastered and are looking for a book to help you reach the next level of consulting, buy this book.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

quietstorm

You better be a smart person

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2020

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Not everything is relevant to me. But some things are, and the style makes it a fun read. The main unanswered question is something that perhaps is implicit: you have to be really smart and knowledgeable to be a consultant. He doesn't address that. It reminds me of days of yore when you'd see ads for things like "how to become a silver miner in 10 easy steps." They leave out the part about having to be young and strong and visionary and brave and good with many kinds of people and have various soft skills and rare talents. This book just assumes you are really smart and good with people and have something marketable. Maybe its too obvious to have to discuss. Recommended.

Helpful

Adam Temple

Not life changing, but very good

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2009

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A man walks into a Hotel conference room and asks to have fresh squeezed orange juice for all of his audience. It has to be squeezed within two hours of being served. Nothing bottled! In truth, he doesn't want this service because he knows it would be expensive and out of their normal mode of operation. But depending on the answer he gets back, he will make a decision about reserving the room or not. What would you say as the room manager? I will explain.

Some real time wasters have embittered my reading lately. Let me tell you, a 4.5 rating on Amazon guarantees nothing! Reading The Secrets of Consulting was not a time waster. I rate it as 4 stars.

One principle that came out of it can work for some business types. The man with the orange juice request was looking for one answer: "Yes, we can do it, here's the price". If the manager would have said they can't do it, or he can do it at no extra charge, that wouldn't have worked. Services should be available at an expense.

Weindberg explains trade offs this way. If your client wants it faster or larger, give it to them, but the trade off will be a higher price. Many times clients want everything and they want it now at the best quality. This principle helps me remember what is possible, and negotiations to make it worthwhile.

There were plenty of good principles in this readable book. Weinberg is a technical consultant with a strong taste for principles and illustrations. However, if I were to rethink the title to help my colleagues understand it's usefulness in the workplace, it might be: Wisdom and Influence in the Workplace.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jan Dziekan

How to be an agent of change

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2021

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You don't need to describe yourself as a professional consultant to benefit from this book. Entertaining and intelligent, Gerard Weinberg gives spot-on (and sometimes openly cynical) tips on how to give advice. I just love books which stay relevant despite their age!

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Duncan147

Kindle version littered with typos

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2016

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The kindle version of the text is littered with typos and has obviously been scanned in without being proof-read, hence the low score - it's just lazy.

I'm one chapter in and the book itself seems excellent. The preface alone, advising consultants to "become rational about irrationality" chimes very true.

3 people found this helpful

R. Kuppadakath

An Excellent Book, provides a lots of great insight!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 22, 2013

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I wish I had read this few years ago when I started my way in consulting. But better to be late than never! Provides a great insight into the profession of consulting. Gerald is blessed with a good sense of writing style that captures readers attention starting from page 1. It resolved the confusion I had for a long time on how to price a consulting engagements properly!

H. Doyle

highly recommended.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 11, 2015

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A very readable, pragmatic guide to the world of being a consultant- I made 3 pages of notes. I can see why this is regarded as the bible of consulting, highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

Mr. M. A. Tedone

A good reading, but not a masterpiece

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2010

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This book has undoubtedly some key advices for anyone interested in being (or working with) a consultant . Advices such as "The trick of earning trust is to avoid all tricks" and "People are never liars - in their own eyes" and many others are invaluable. However on certain topics Weinberg goes on his own tangent and a little too much self-esteem emerges, i.e. he over-emphasises some self-behaviors as the right thing to do (like he's always great ideas, his high-fees are always justifiable, etc) and therefore not fully shareable. On a plus note I'd say this book is thick with irony and funny moments, showing that Mr Weinberg doesn't take himself too seriously. Overall this book is a good reading but is not to be taken as a bible as some "self-righteousness " about the author emerges pretty clearly, so take its content critically.

3 people found this helpful

Gregg from the Peg

Different in an Oddball Sort of Way

Reviewed in Canada on October 8, 2016

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The author is obviously very successful in his field but has many strange rules and descriptions detailing them. I have to give him high marks for writing from his practical learned life lessons, it's just that he somewhat loses you with some of his rather strange descriptions of lessons learned. The unfortunate part is that is that there is some sort of barrier which existed for me, the reader, and the author as far as being able to both learn and readily remember exactly what advice he it trying to impart the reader, (me), with. If anything, I felt that the consulting profession was somewhat mysterious to me prior to reading his book and he was able to nonetheless clarify just what consultants do. (I'd never want to be one thank you.) Regardless, it was different in an oddball sort of way.

One person found this helpful

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