Articles

Valentine’s Day Lies—and Six Relationship Rules That Make Romance Work

By Andrew Sobel Our contemporary culture promotes many trite, misleading, and self-absorbed ideas about what makes for successful romantic relationships. “Just be yourself”, “Find someone who won’t try to change you”, and the old chestnut, “You must love yourself first.” But these truisms don’t point to the real ingredients of rewarding relationships. Popular concepts like […]

10 Power Questions to Ask a Loved One on Valentine’s Day

By Andrew Sobel Hearts, Flowers…and Power Questions?  10 Relationship-Building Questions To Ask Someone You Love this Valentine’s Day A token box of chocolates and reservations at a nice restaurant are, well, nice. But do they really deepen your relationship?  What really makes Valentine’s Day great is not the candy but the conversation, says Andrew Sobel. […]

Ten Listening Pitfalls

By Andrew Sobel There’s a story about a woman, in 19th century England, who had dinner with two great prime ministers and political rivals, Gladstone and Disraeli. Gladstone was the more educated and intellectual of the two; Disraeli more street-smart and intuitive. When asked to compare the two, she said: “After my dinner with Mr. […]

8 Strategies for Staying in Touch When There’s No Business

The Enduring Power of Culture—and Chutzpah: Duff McDonald’s new book on McKinsey

The Firm: The Story of McKinsey is an in-depth profile of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. It was written by journalist Duff McDonald. Many terrible books have been written about the consulting industry, mostly by people who worked for a few years at a big consulting firm and then decided to write a “tell-all” […]

Six Laws for Connecting with the C-Suite

By Andrew Sobel This article is drawn from the new book by Andrew Sobel and Jerry Panas, Power Relationships: 26 Irrefutable Laws for Building Extraordinary Relationships.     THERE are unseen but powerful laws that determine the success or failure of client relationships. Just as an airplane must respect the laws of physics in order […]

Six Powerful Words to Grow Your Business in the New Year

The first word is Why? The first word is Why Every day of the next year will be gift for each of us. That’s why my first word for 2014 is “Why?” When used in the right way and at the right time, “Why?” is one of the most powerful words in our vocabulary. This […]

Do You Offer a Truly Unique Client Experience?

How would you rate the overall client experience that you offer? Is it: 1. Below average (or perhaps very uneven)? 2. Competitive? 3. Truly differentiated versus your competition? Would you like your clients to say, “Working with you really is different”? How valuable would that be, from a retention and referral perspective? In the consumer world, […]