Articles
Explore over 350 articles that will help you grow your client relationships and improve your personal effectiveness.
Upside Down: How to Change Behavior Through Questions Rather than Commands
Many of my clients are successful professionals. They have good clients, make good money, and enjoy their jobs. The challenge is getting them to recognize that they could be even better at what they do. Just because someone is successful doesn’t mean that everything he or she does is effective (that’s why I don’t bother […]
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The Small Client Problem: A Comprehensive Guide to Solving This Tough Issue
By Andrew Sobel Every firm has small clients. Some have thousands of them. Are they a waste of time? Or, potentially, a valuable source of future growth? Nearly 30 years ago, at my old consulting firm, we had a big debate about small projects. Some partners argued that they were an entry point to a […]
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How One Extraordinary Woman—and her powerful empathy—Shaped the Modern Middle East
In September of 1921, Gertrude Bell received an urgent message. It was from King Faisal—the first ruler of modern Iraq—who had been appointed ruler of Mesopotamia, now Iraq, only a few weeks earlier on August 23. Bell, who had been the principal architect of the British government’s reconstitution of Iraq after World War I, had […]
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My best blogs of 2014: 12 Ideas to help you thrive in 2015
My best writing and newest ideas are regularly featured in my weekly blog. I invite you to subscribe, here, to conveniently receive these fresh strategies by email. Just enter your email address in the form under my photo in the left column. Here’s what you may be missing: Below, you can review 12 of my best […]
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How Success Can Lull Us into Excess
Can success subtly and gradually lull us into destructive excess in our professional and personal lives? Yes, it can, and the process is insidious because it’s hard to see that it’s happening to us. We become like the frog that doesn’t jump out of the pot because he doesn’t realize the water is slowly getting […]
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The Single Most Important Idea for Your Personal and Career Development
By Andrew Sobel We would all like our work to be satisfying and meaningful. And to that end, there is an entire industry of books, life coaches, and assessments dedicated to helping people discover what they should really be doing. The dramatic story you read about the fellow who quits his job as an accountant […]
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Itzhak Perlman and James Taylor in 48 Hours
My wife and I had the unusual pleasure of seeing both the great violinist Itzhak Perlman and singer-songwriter James Taylor perform in the space of two days. Their artistry, virtuosity, and passion left me reeling. This is about the two concerts, but at a bigger level its about the powerful collision of excellence, passion, and […]
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Eight Essential Things Clients Wish You Would Give Them
By Andrew Sobel Over the last 15 years I’ve interviewed over 1000 senior corporate executives about their most trusted advisors and strategic suppliers. I’ve asked them about who has earned a seat at the table with them, and how it was done. I’ve explored—from their side of the desk—the ingredients of great, long-term trusted partnerships […]
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