Program:  The life of an external OD consultant has many attractions and can seem glamorous to the outsider.  But behind the scenes, running a successful sole-proprietorship consulting practice requires self-discipline and skills in multi-tasking, including marketing, business administration, customer relationships, finances, career development, contract negotiation, health care, retirement planning, taxes, and effective decision making, to name a few.

In addition to hard-core skills, the micro-entrepreneur consultant must have ways to celebrate success and coping mechanisms to tolerate financial uncertainty, assignment rejection, client blame, and the feast or famine nature of being an independent consultant.  Developing coping mechanisms to manage the internal emotional dynamic resulting from added external consultant work insecurities is essential for personal and professional survival.  Some would say you need nerves of steel.  Internal or external want-to-be or new OD consultants are encouraged to attend.  In addition, if you are an experienced external consultant it will be helpful for you to be with us so that others can learn from your OD practice.

Learning Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this Community of Practice session, you will be able to:

1. Acquire a better understanding of what constitutes external consultant successes and insecurities.
   
2. Learn about adaptive coping mechanisms and how and when to use them.
   
3. Assess in more depth the ins and outs of being an external consultant.
   

Bios:

Stephan Dix is a career and life coach and organizational development consultant who for more than 25 years has assisted both domestic and international, public, private, and non-profit organizations build management capacity.  His coaching practice focuses on leadership and management development and organizational work includes an expertise in organizations undergoing business transformation. Stephan holds an M.Sc degree in Development Management from American University, a Certificate in Organizational Development, Change Management and Adult Training Skills from Georgetown University, and a Coaching Certificate from the Coaches Training Institute.

Mark Sachs is an external organization development consultant and executive coach.  He works with a wide range of government, corporate, and non-profit clients and has a particular interest in helping clients set better boundaries with others.  Mark has a MS in Organization Development from the American University/NTL Institute and MA and BA degrees in Sociology from Rutgers University.  Mark is also an ICF, PCC coach and serves as Adjunct Faculty to the AU/NTL Master’s Program.   

CoP Leader:  Mark Sachs, ma.sachs@verizon.net.

Cancellation Policy: Registrants should contact Mark if they need to cancel.