ABTI | Joseph Riggio International

Consigliere: The Trusted Advisor

Joseph Riggio

Do you need a coach, consultant, mentor or advisor? 

Often what we find our clients need, and actually want without knowing exactly what that is, is a Consigliere.

According to Wikipedia a Consigliere is:

( Italian consigliere “counselor”, pronounced  [konsiʎˈʎɛːre] , roughly  kohn-seel-  yehr  -eh ) is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian and American Mafia ... a consigliere is an adviser or counselor to the  boss , with the additional responsibility of representing the boss in important meetings both within the boss’s crime family and with other crime families. The consigliere is a close, trusted friend and confidant, the mob’s version of an elder statesman. He is devoid of ambition and dispenses disinterested advice”
(NOTE: The emphasis above is ours.)

Now of course we are not, do we intend any connection with, the idea of being advisors to mob boss, or imply any association with organized crime ... BUT, the role of the consigliere itself goes back much further, to the idea of the advisor to kings and queens, someone entrusted to guide in the best interests of the empire and its people.

We think this shortened modified definition for the role of the consigliere is almost perfect,

"The consigliere is a close, trusted friend and confidant, a kind of an elder statesman. He or she is devoid of personal ambition and dispenses disinterested advice in the best interest of their principal/client."
The consigliere implies that someone has reached that status of a trusted advisor, and sustains that relationship through time. The word comes from the Italian, meaning "counsillor" or "counselor" and often refers to a member of a local council, or an attorney who counsels and represents their client.

As a trusted advisor, the consigliere must be able to put personal ambition, feelings and emotional reactions aside and offer dispassionate insight and advice to their client, based on what’s best for the client regardless of the impact for themselves. 

The consigliere can become a strategic sparring partner, someone who you can trust to provide sound insight and options for the ideas and decisions you're considering. In this role the consigliere acts as an external cognitive support mechanism who's knowledge, expertise and thinking process you can tap into, borrow and count on to arrive at the best possible solutions. 

Some of our client's have referred to what we do as, "cognitive horsepower on demand" – and, while it isn't true that consiglieri are an inexhaustible source of knowledge, it is true that the professional consigliere brings a unique process of observation, thinking and challenge to the decision making process with their clients. In this way the role of the consigliere as "trusted advisor" remains in the ranks of the noble professionals, some might even say regal.