Articles
Explore over 350 articles that will help you grow your client relationships and improve your personal effectiveness.
How to Accelerate Relationships
Client relationships can take a long time to develop. This is especially true in large corporate environments where you have multiple stakeholders that have to be won over and executives who are cautious about opening up to an external advisor. It’s very frustrating when the relationship-building process seems stalled. In some cases, my clients report […]
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The Essential Starting Point for any Relationship
Your starting point for building a powerful relationship is always the other person’s agenda. An agenda embraces someone’s goals, but it’s even broader. To highlight how important this is, let me introduce you to Richard Major. Richard taught me a lesson I’ll never forget about understanding agendas. Richard is a senior executive at his company, […]
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The Best Way to Meet CEOs
One of my clients, Catherine, was a senior partner at a major law firm. Before that, she had been the General Counsel for one of the largest companies in the world. It’s a powerful and important position. For most, it would be the crowning achievement of an extraordinary career. Because of this, Catherine has what […]
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Seven Ways to Differentiate Yourself and Stand Apart from Your Competitors
By Andrew Sobel This is one of the most common questions I get from my clients: “Our market is commoditizing and getting more and more competitive. How can we differentiate ourselves more clearly and effectively?” There are, of course, many corporate-level strategies that can be used to make your company more competitive. But let’s leave those […]
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Eight Behaviors Clients Can’t Stand—Are You Guilty?
By Andrew Sobel During the past year, I’ve interviewed a broad cross-section of client executives about “relationship building from the client’s side of the desk.” I usually ask them about pet peeves–behaviors that irritate them or, even, that destroy their trust. I’m amazed at the stories I hear from these senior executives about the irksome […]
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How Do Your Clients and Friends Reflect on You?
Recently, NJ Governor Chris Christie and Dr. Ben Carson both endorsed Donald Trump as a republican presidential candidate. I strive to see positive qualities in everyone, regardless of whether I share all of their beliefs and views. Christie’s and Carson’s endorsement of Trump, however, has pretty much obliterated any esteem I (and many others!) had […]
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Evolving Your Songs: The Beatles Principles – #1
Innovation at the Intersections Sir George Martin, the Beatles’ producer, passed away this week (see NY Times Obituary here). He was a gifted classical musician who did an extraordinary job of drawing out the Beatles’ innate musical ability and creativity while also providing some structure and guidance for their song writing. He was also the only […]
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What Do Gravitational Waves and Money Have in Common?
Scientists recently proved that gravitational waves, predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915, actually exist. The great physicist believed they would never be detected because they are so faint. But new technology has allowed their measurement. These gravitational waves, which were created by the collision of two black holes a billion years ago, distort the fabric of […]
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