By Andrew Sobel Our business culture prizes smarts, expertise, and drive. Nothing wrong with that—these qualities are pretty important. As a consequence, however, many of us assume that these very same qualities create personal loyalty. They don’t. People root for…
By Andrew Sobel It happens to every professional who deals with clients. Something goes wrong with your product or service delivery. Your client’s expectations are not met. They are unhappy with some aspect of the relationship. Here are ten tips…
I once advised a large professional services firm that wanted to reinvigorate its growth. Their slogan, which was plastered on posters and coffee mugs, was “Keep the Focus on the Client.” Like many organizations, however, there was a big gap…
I’ve heard this a hundred times: “There are no bad questions.” Sorry, but there are indeed bad questions. And, there are good questions that go bad when used at the wrong time. For example: “Why?” It can be a great…
What percent of your most vexing problems are created by just a few of your clients? It’s probably a high number. Let me put this more positively: Have you noticed that if you start with the right client, everything is…
Reframing Work and Life #6: The Personal Impact Matrix 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…
Have you ever met someone at an event or party and asked them lots of questions about themselves—and, consequently, learned some interesting things from the conversation? But then, you realized they were utterly incurious about you, and never asked a…
Reframing Work and Life #4: The Intimacy Matrix For many years I have avoided the topic of technology and relationships. Partly, because often the “hot” technology this year becomes a dinosaur next year…yes, I still remember MySpace, which was going…
Reframing Work and Life #3: The Client Aspiration Matrix There is an unreservedly important but often ignored quality that you should always look for in your clients. It is called ambition. Boldness is another way of putting it. Many executives…
Reframing Work & Life #2: Putting client problems in a new light The physicist Albert Einstein reputedly said that if he had one hour to solve a problem on which his life depended, he would spend 55 minutes studying and…
