How to Deliver Results Without Positional Authority as a Consultant or Coach, with Sara Guttman

How do consultants and coaches deliver results without positional authority?

You stop trying to get results by doing the work for your clients or telling them what to do, and start coming alongside them as a strategic partner. That means knowing your value isn't your methodology, staying out of the pair of hands and surrogate leadership traps, and being clear on who you're transferring your knowledge and skills to, so the results last long after you're gone.

As a leader, you knew how to get results.

You had the title. The team. The budget. The authority to make things happen.

But now that you're a consultant or coach, none of that is how you deliver results anymore.

So… what in the world do you do about it?

That's exactly the question my client Sara Guttman brought to me in my group coaching program. (And honestly? She stumped me!)

You may remember Sara from her first time on the show, when we talked about how to start your consulting business right… the first time. Since then, she's launched her business helping nonprofit venues turn their event spaces into reliable revenue. She has clients. Happy clients. And she's a happy consultant.

But she was wrestling with this: How do I actually deliver results when I'm not coming from a place of positional authority?

I know so many of my clients have this question, even if they don't always bring it out in the open. So rather than doing a solo episode and telling you step by step, I brought Sara back for something new on the pod: on-air coaching. She put me on the hot seat, live in the moment.

Listen to or watch our conversation, or read the highlights below.

Your methodology isn't the magic

Here's the thing: Most of us didn't get into consulting or coaching because we lacked expertise. We have a ton of it.

What's new is how we deliver it. As leaders, we delivered results through positional authority. Now relationships and influence are the container for that expertise.

And that's where a lot of us trip up.

We reduce ourselves down to our methodology. I have this expertise. I can tell you step by step. I have these cool proposal templates you can use.

But as I told Sara, "Your methodology isn't the magic. It's what you are bringing to the table that is the magic. It's your client's transformation that's the magic."

Sara pictured me as a handywoman with a hammer and a screwdriver in my tool belt, and I love that, because it's the perfect example. Sure, you need a hammer. And there might be something really cool about yours. But the expertise is knowing how to use the hammer, which nails it's meant for, and when you need it.

Stay out of the pair of hands and surrogate leadership traps

I got my start as an internal consultant at Disney, where our leader ran our department like we were an external consultancy. Very early on, people like Peter Block taught us that our job wasn't to do the work on behalf of the leaders we worked with. It was to equip and empower them to do their own work.

That meant staying out of two traps:

• The pair of hands trap, where you just do whatever the leader wants. That's a freelancer.
• The surrogate leadership trap, where you tell the leader what to do, or do it for them. That's a fractional.

There's nothing wrong with either one, if that's the business model you want. But if you want to be a transformational strategic partner, you have to go for the middle.

"It's not above my client and it's not below my client. It's not even next to my client, it's outside the system."

And how you land the work sets the tone for everything. At Disney, we had a test for every engagement: relevance, timeliness, and fit. Is my expertise relevant to the situation? Is it the right time, meaning will they actually make the time to do the work? And does my approach to getting results fit theirs?

Sara had a beautiful example of this. She presented a proposal to a potential client and made it clear: "I'm not a fractional. I won't be doing this for you."

Their response? "We're very interested in working with you, but we have to admit we don't have the bandwidth for that type of work right now."

An honest answer that saved both of them a whole lot of frustration.

Know who you're transferring your knowledge and skills to

Clients are going to want you to just go in and do stuff. Some might even ask, hey, could you just interview me and hand me back my brand positioning?

And I'd say, well… but you're not going to own it. So when you're at a networking event, are those words actually going to flow out of you?

It's the whole give someone a fish versus teach them to fish thing.

Sara instantly translated this into her own work. Instead of writing the responses to incoming venue inquiries for her clients, she could show them how to write them: Here's the template. Now let me explain the rationale behind it.

That's exactly it. When I taught Sara my discovery meeting script, it wasn't just "here's the script." It was here's what you're listening for, here's why you're listening for it, here are the key transition points, and now let's role play it.

And before you even start the work, ask yourself: Who am I transferring this to?

For Sara, that meant helping her clients pick a point person to oversee their event function, someone she can mentor, plus building systems that will outlast that person if they move on. Even then, you don't just hand over your SOPs. You say, "Here's my straw person. Here's my starting point. Now let's customize them for you."

Your job is to work yourself out of a job

People say it's the dream to have a client forever.

I don't see it that way. If you have a client forever, you're more than likely doing their day-to-day responsibilities.

"I'm not meant to be there forever. I'm meant to be there for a season to get them to that next level."

Think about all the movies we love that have a mentor. Obi-Wan shows up and says, here you go, Luke, here's your lightsaber. Yoda teaches him some skills and then he dies. (Oh, spoiler alert, sorry!)

The mentor doesn't stay forever.

Transformation happens in that in-between place, that liminal space between where your client is now and where they want to go. That's when we're absolutely needed.

So always ask yourself: Whose transformation is this? Is it mine or is it theirs?

Why AI will never replace you with the right clients

Sara asked a great question about where her value lies now that clients can get a lot of templates from Claude or ChatGPT. (She also shared that AI was once giving out health advice to eat a rock a day. A rock a day keeps the doctor away!)

People have asked me for years why I give so much content away for free. My answer: If you can read a blog, download a freebie, watch a webinar, or go to AI, and that's all you need, then you don't really need me.

I recently hired a personal trainer. I hate weightlifting. But my little Daruma doll from my trip to Baja with Katie Anderson kept staring at me from my desk, reminding me of my intention to improve my physical fitness.

My trainer, Lisa, gave me an app, little videos, and a way to track my eating. I could get every single one of those things online or through AI.

But the power of the program is in none of those things. It's Lisa. I can text her. She looks at my eating and tells me what to adjust. And there's a mindset piece too.

Real transformation doesn't come outside the context of relationships. There's a book called A General Theory of Love that says people only change in the context of a relationship, where somebody sees something in you and believes it before you believe it in yourself.

That's the heart of what we do as consultants and coaches. We are selling ourselves short if we think AI can replace us.

For the wrong clients, AI can. For the right ones, no way.

Three steps to deliver results through relationships and influence

So how do you actually make the move from leader to consultant or coach?

1. Vision. Get clear on the real value you bring to the table. (Hint: it's not your methodology.)
2. Positioning. Stay out of the pair of hands and surrogate leadership traps and go for the middle.
3. Transfer. Know who you're transferring your knowledge and skills to, and how.

And then your homework (and Sara's!): Become consciously competent. Look underneath your methodology. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Get so clear on it that you could transfer it to somebody else.

(Sara says that should be a chapter in my book. I'd never thought of it, but now it could be!)

You are the instrument

When I say own the power of what you do, I'm never saying the power of what you do is in your methodology or your tools. It's how you bring your strengths, your experience, and your stories to bear.

You still need your little tool belt on. But when you walk into a client, it's you.

You are the agent of change. You are the instrument. You are the ultimate tool.

(Yes, I called Sara and all of my listeners tools on air. In the nicest way possible!)

Want the tools Sara and I talked about?

Sara assumed my Consultant's Toolbox was a freebie. It's actually a low-cost paid program. (And no, this conversation wasn't meant to be a sales pitch for the toolbox, ha!)

It's organized around the consulting engagement cycle (partnership setup, assessment, solution design, solution delivery, and measurement) and it's packed with the tools I've used for years: around 250 questions you could ask for an organizational assessment, proposal examples, my stakeholder interview guide, how I've run employee engagement focus groups, my 10 best strategy development exercises, and so much more.

Get the Consultant's Toolbox for only $97.

And if you want to go deeper on delivering results through influence, check out these related episodes and posts:

• Influence Clients with C.A.R.E. (Ep151)
• Quantify the Value of Your Consulting or Coaching with Jack Phillips (Ep131)
• Service Provider vs Strategic Partner: Which Is Your Path to Greater Impact and Income?

About Sara Guttman

Sara Guttman is a meeting and event space consultant who helps nonprofit organizations turn their facilities into reliable revenue streams. After a decade leading venue operations at the Boulder JCC, she now partners with nonprofit leaders to help them generate sustainable income through strategic use of their event spaces.

Learn more about Sara at saraguttman.com.

Ready to Own the Power of What You Do as a Strategic Partner?

You already have the expertise. The question is whether your brand, your offers, and your messages position you as the strategic partner you are, or as one more pair of hands.

And it starts with clarity in who you help, the problems you solve, what you uniquely do, and why working with you is so valuable, and then being able to express all of this in words that resonate.

That's exactly what my VIP brand positioning and messaging programs are designed to do.

Learn more about my highly personalized programs, or better yet, book a free strategic clarity call with me so we can co-create your custom solution.