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| Welcome |
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“What
kind of an idiot do you think I am?”
The
client executive’s tirade was so loud that I could
hear the gory details from my seat in his outer office.
The executive’s assistant glanced my way and shrugged
as if to say this latest purple-faced temper tantrum
was all in a day’s work.
Sadly,
some people are just tough to work with. I’m still
not sure who the villain was in the little drama I overheard,
but I’m pretty sure someone in that room was a
jerk. So how do you handle the outraged client? In the
fifth installment of their Crucial Conversations series,
Kerry Patterson and Eric Patten give us some pointers
on how to talk with “difficult” people about
anything without holding back your concerns.
Many
clients struggle to find the answer to the question,
“How can I improve the performance of my team?”
This month, Alan Weiss asks whether teams are really
a good thing, and whether all that effort to build a
team is really worth it.
We’ve
got something for everyone this month. We’re featuring
articles on what form of legal entity makes sense for
your consulting practice, building eminence in your
market, and we continue Mark Satterfield’s marketing
series with an article on using free reports to build
relationships. Plus, if you’ve ever wondered how
to establish a retirement program, financial adviser
Harry Veldkamp has some solid advice for you.
This
month’s MasterMind interview is with Rob Galford
and Regina Maruca, authors of the new book, Your
Leadership Legacy.
And
we have new
podcasts: We discuss how consultants can use e-newsletters
with Michael Katz, a specialist in using email for marketing
professional services; Stewart Emery, coauthor of Success
Built to Last, shares his views and research
on creating a life that matters.
Enjoy
the issue. And send me an email
if you have comments.
Mike
McLaughlin
Editor, Management Consulting News
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| Interview:
Robert Galford & Regina Maruca |
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 Your
legacies are defined by others. But right now, without
huge effort, you can gain enough perspective about yourself
to see how those legacies are taking shape, and you
can try to influence them for the better.
Can
an individual’s legacy be designed, or is it decided
by others? Rob Galford and Regina Maruca, authors of
Your Leadership Legacy, (Rob
is also the coauthor of The Trusted Leader
with David Maister and Charles Green) suggest that you
think about your legacy now, instead of waiting until
someone hands you a gold watch.
This
month we ask Galford and Maruca for advice on how to
integrate legacy thinking into our daily lives, and
why legacy thinking results in better leaders and higher
personal satisfaction.
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| The
Writing on the Wall, by Alan Weiss |
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 A
Team Isn't Necessarily a Good Thing
There
are teams and there are teams.
We've
all heard about “family” teams and “stranger”
teams, functional teams and cross-functional teams,
permanent teams and ad hoc teams.
Teams
are considered good things to have, which is why so
many organizations are constantly attempting to “improve
teamwork” without really pausing to wonder what
that will achieve in terms of a business outcome. Greater
teamwork, methinks, is not always what the client needs,
even though the client may want it, like wanting world
peace or relief from hunger.
Read
the article
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| Crucial
Conversations: Difficult Leaders |
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by
Kerry Patterson and Eric Patten
Have
you ever had to face down a raging executive who was
armed with an agenda—his nostrils flared and his
ego inflamed? How did you do? Or how about this: the
leader you’re working with eagerly supported the
plan you jointly developed, but when the plan hit a
bump in the road, she stepped away, leaving you to face
the backlash and criticism alone. Or maybe you’ve
been forced to partner with leaders who wear their power
on their sleeves—using it to crush those who are
resisting the change strategy when you’re trying
to win them over.
These
are the clients who keep you up at night. Their own
direct reports describe them as “difficult”
to work with. You can’t help but notice the pause
as they come up with the euphemism “difficult.”
Fortunately,
there are ways of successfully working with difficult
leaders.
Read
the article
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| Coming
Attractions |
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 “When
you are with a client, be totally in the moment with
that client. Act as though you have no other clients
and no other obligations that day.” - Andrew Sobel
Few
words are thrown around more than value. It’s
easy to experience a semi-sleep state when someone utters
something about value propositions, delivering value,
or shareholder value. So what does value really mean
to clients, and how can we use that knowledge to strengthen
our client relationships?
Next
month, we’ll talk to Andrew Sobel, a thought leader
in growing client relationships about his recent research
into what makes clients stay with their service providers,
and what makes them look for new ones.
Look
for the next issue of Management Consulting
News on November 7, 2006.
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