Our Approach
- Advisory
  
  How we align professional development and strategy through ‘The Openside Approach’
- Training
  
  The core professional services skills and behaviours we develop for our clients
- Executive
  Development
  
  How we can work with your best and brightest on an individual basis to help them achieve their full potential
- Keynote
  Speaking
  
  We provide expert speakers for large conferences or smaller workshops and focus groups
- MCA Consulting
  Excellence
  
  Openside is proud to be an active participant in The MCA’s Consulting Excellence initiative
Our Story
- Our People
  
  The Openside team can develop your best and brightest by meeting them at their level
- Our Heritage
  
  Discover our long heritage and deep roots in professional services and why they matter
- Our Commitments
  
  These are the commitments we will make to you and the four key principles that will guide our work
- MCA Associate Member
  
  We’re committed to consulting and proud to be an Associate Member Firm of The MCA
Our Thinking
- Points of View
  
  Our latest articles with actionable ideas for your professional services firm
- Webinars
  
  Register for upcoming events and view our archive
- Video Library
  
  Our perspectives on the key issues facing professional services firms today
Our Work
- Our Results
  
  Read stories from our clients and participants about the impact we have made on their firms
- Our Recent Engagements
  
  Discover a few of our recent client engagements, to help you better understand what Openside does for our clients
Contact

Training

We design and deliver intensive, face to face, interactive programmes that develop the critical skills and behaviours required in professional services.

Throughout their careers, those working in professional services are expected to assume certain core functions on behalf of their firms. How they undertake these will depend on the stage of their career and their firm’s desired strategic position.

We group these core professional services functions under four headings: Consult, Manage, Build, Lead.

If your people are to excel in each of these core functions they need to learn, develop and refine a specific set of skills and behaviours. We help them to do that.

Below we identify some of the core skills, behaviours and competencies we develop for our clients, organised by core professional services function.

Contact us to find out how we can develop the skills and behaviours to fit your firm’s unique context and desired strategic position.

Consult

The core skills and behaviours consultants and professional advisors need on top of their technical knowledge.

Core skills, competencies and behaviours we develop for consultants and advisors might include:

Structured analytical thinking – the core consulting process
Logic development
Storytelling
Presentation skills

Manage

Skills and behaviours that help your people manage client engagements, and become effective team leaders and credible ambassadors for your firm.

Core skills, competencies and behaviours we develop for managers might include:

Engagement leadership
Conflict management
Effective communication skills
Emotional intelligence
Performance management
Negotiation
Expanding client opportunities

Build

Skills and behaviours that develop a stream of business (with new or existing clients) to build your firm in the unique context of professional services.

Core business development skills, competencies and behaviours we develop might include:

Adopting a consultative approach to business development
Forming and offering a point of view
Illustrating the firm’s values through behaviours
Managing critical conversations
Understanding client value and articulating a 4E value proposition
Producing compelling proposals

Lead

The critical areas of leadership behaviour that successful Partners and Senior Leaders exhibit – exemplifying the brand, embodying the culture and ensuring your firm’s legacy and heritage.

Core skills, competencies and behaviours we develop for professional services leadership teams might include:

Exemplifying the brand – status, impact, credibility and reputation
Embodying the culture – modelling the firm’s values through behaviours
Ensuring the legacy – coaching and mentoring skills
Emotional intelligence