I don’t pretend to know everything it takes to be a great leader. I do know that I have tremendous respect for business people who are calm, decisive, energized, and really present. I also know that I’m at my professional worst when I’m frenzied, unfocused, tired, distracted. And I’ve noticed that I often get bogged down by a most curious phenomenon: clutter.

 

This week’s tip is brought to you thanks to my extraordinary partnership with co-author, Charlie Green. It answers this question: What do you do when your client is a jerk?

 

When you think about your biggest role model for keeping it real, I bet you don’t immediately think, “Beauty pageant contestant!”

For me, words like “made up” and “dolled up” come to mind sooner for me than “authentic” and “genuine”—or used to.

 

If you’ve been tuning in for the past two weeks, you know I’ve been sharing three-word phrases that belong in everyone’s trusted advisor toolkit. So far, those are “That makes sense” and “I don’t know.” The third and last trust-building phrase is “Tell me more.” (We could add “I love you” to the list of word triplets, but then things start to get a little too squishy. Or do they?)

Last week I shared the first of three phrases, each coincidentally three words long, that I believe to be an essential part of any trusted advisor toolkit: “That makes sense.” This week’s three-word phrase is “I don’t know.”

Today we flash back 20 years and learn from a video of Steve Jobs at the 1997 Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference. Jobs offers us an invaluable and enduring lesson in how to deal with a harsh critic.

 

It’s an age-old challenge in the consulting industry: how to help the deliverers—the ones who actually labor side-by-side with the client—to develop more business.

The biggest barrier is a mental barrier. I mean, let’s be honest, “selling” is usually perceived as a less-than-meritorious endeavor—whether we’re selling a product or service for a fee, or selling an idea. And delivery people usually falter because they’re just not sure how to approach opportunities in an un-smarmy way.

 

Listen, listen, listen. I harp on it all the time in our programs and in these weekly tips. It’s a critical skill for anyone endeavoring to be a trusted advisor. And I don’t care how adept you think you are as a listener, there’s always room for improvement.

I made my way back up the aisle of an airplane last week and caught a glance of a laptop screen with an all-too-familiar display: a presentation slide with about 20 logos on it. Ah yes, the picture that’s worth 1000 words, meant to convey, “We work with organizations like yours, or organizations that should impress you, or both.” I assumed it was part of a pitch deck and immediately wondered how far into the deck this slide found itself.