Credibility isn’t just content expertise. It’s content expertise plus presence, which refers to how we look, act, react, and talk about our content. It depends not only on the substantive reality of t...
If I were in your position, I might be wondering about X. Is it possible that that is an issue for you?
It is important to note that while goods are consumed, services are experienced.
In early Greek society, particularly in Athens, democracy meant the equivalent of a permanent town meeting—all decisions of consequence were made in public assembly. As many professional service firms...
Unity, pride, respect, loyalty, excellence, and integrity.
Speak with expression, not monotonically. Use body language, eye contact, and vocal range. Show the client you have energy around the subject at hand. 5.
We need structures that don't squash flexibility and creativity but minimize inefficiency and confusion.
These goals are not unique to us. Our best competitors almost certainly have similar, if not identical goals. If we are to outperformthem, we don't need a better vision, but a better approach to makin...
The firm exists to help its people succeed, not the other way round.
It is important to note that while goods are consumed, services are experienced. The professional service provider is (or should be) as much in the business of managing the client’s experience with re...
In busy times there is also a temptation to let investments such as training take a back seat to getting the work out the door. Only adherence to the firm's principles and values prevents opportunisti...
By starting with caring (working from the inside out), we open ourselves to possibilities and become willing to go where the client will take us. The skill or action behaviors can then fall on fertile...
As the chapter on relationship building suggested (Chapter 5), we must find ways not only to be credible, but also to give the client the sense that we are credible. We must illustrate, not assert. Wh...
A good example of ill-conceived (and premature) training approaches is seen in the many calls I get to conduct training programs to help people become better managers. I put my callers through a stand...
We don’t want people to be interested in us as a means to an end, as a destination for their own purposes. We want people to be interested in us as fellow-voyagers, people who care about us enough to...
Warlord firms succeed when management keeps the big hitters happy and productive. The past and the future are not often items high on the agenda. Consequently, over time, the performance of extreme wa...
WHAT IS IT?The one-firm firm approach is not simply a loose term to describe a culture. It refers to a set of concrete management practices consciously chosen to maximize the trust and loyalty that me...
Use the client’s fit and feel around terminology, style, formats, hours. 5.
The solution for an individual firm must always address three perspectives in any organizational review: structure (how we are formally organized); processes (how different types of decisions are to b...
The biggest leverage for reliability enhancement probably lies in the emotional realm. The more a provider can do to understand and relate to the usually unconscious norms of the client, the more the...