Observant physicians who have labored at their "doctor work" deep inside healthcare organizations, or who have been active in their medical groups of specialty associations, gain valuable insights into what does and doesn't function well in these workplaces. They then often consider consulting as their next career.

A few words of warning about the pitfalls of consulting might be in order - taken from Ramit Sethi's blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich in the guest blog post by Pam Slim (Escape from Cubicle Nation) that is titled Considering a career in consulting? Avoid these 5 stupid mistakes.

The 5 mistakes she suggests you avoid are:

• Acting like an arrogant colonist.
• Selling your words by the pound. 
• Thinking you know everything.
• Acting like a clone.
• Tying yourself to the coattails of one client.

I considered a move into consulting for a brief time, prior to discovering my real passion for coaching. And while there is some overlap between consulting and coaching, the reason I opted for coaching was to be able to stay away from having to be the Goddess Of Advising. Instead of knowing and providing all the answers, I have made it my life's work to help my clients discover their own best answers instead.

Nevertheless, there are three books geared for consultants that I deem to be the very best, because they stress the invaluable support and assistance a truly authentic consultant has to offer the right organization or group of people.

Instead of being know-it-alls, the consultants who subscribe to the approaches in these books are more inclined to be great thought partners, collaborating with their clients in search of excellent solutions.

Here's my list of most-loved consulting books:

Flawless Consulting by Peter Block, along with its Fieldbook and Companion

Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play by Mahan Khalsa

Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice by Alan Weiss, along with its Million Dollar Consulting Toolkit.

And, by the way, even as a physician in practice, you might find a great deal to chew on between the covers of these books and in Pam's blog post -- after all, you are a very special kind of consultant!