Monthly Archives: April 2018

TNF #132: Email addiction

Welcome Professionals…

…I guess you are drowning in emails. As a top management consultant you most likely deal with a lot of stakeholders, there is a vast amount of information to be processed and extensive communication to be done. Yes, we all know, that checking emails is unproductive, but did you actually know that it is addictive?

Psychologists refer to the phenomenon as the “random awards system”. It was first discussed by American psychologist B. F. Skinner in the 1930ies when he did some experiments with rats. The rats received a reward every now and then for a certain behaviour like pressing a lever in a box. When the reward followed a fixed scheme, it was not nearly as fascinating for the rats as a random award. The random mode turned out to be addictive.

I am far from comparing top management consultants with rats. But it is obvious to see some parallels here. When we synchronize our emails, we usually receive some spam, commercials, cc-fyi, and some additional work. Only sometimes we receive something nice like an invitation to a party, a funny joke from a friend or a compliment from one of our clients. These goodies are random, they do not follow a certain scheme. Thus, checking emails is a highly addictive action, this is why the typical smart phone user checks his emails 150 time a day on average.

Now think about it. Now that you know about the addiction, would you dare to keep the email temptation right next to you while you have some work to do? If I had a tendency of drinking too much, would I keep a sixpack of beer in the fridge at the office? Certainly not!

Deep work and checking email don’t go together!

Stay clean,

Malte

TNF #131: Taking responsibility

Leave a reply

Welcome Professionals…

…Of course we take responsibility and we act responsibly as top management consultants. No question about that. The question is rather how far this responsibility should reach. Where does it stop?

My view is: it never stops. Once we have entered a client relationship, we take full responsibility by making the goals of our client our own. We strive to add value wherever we can, this will most likely reach far beyond our initial assignment. This is the mindset of the trusted advisor.

Let me give you a practical example. I finished a client assignment, the client was very satisfied, we had a final feedback session, job done. A few month later I heard from an ex-employee of the client organization that the solution we had put in place was not implemented and executed the way we had planned it. I did not hear any complaints from my former contract partners, so I could have walked my way without looking back.

The principle of responsibility demands that as soon as I receive knowledge that the goals of my client are in jeopardy, I must take action. So I called the client apologizing for the failure and asking for some further background information. It turned out that although it was neither my fault nor in my area of influence that things had gone astray, I could well be part of a new solution. This has been another moment of truth in our client relationship.

Taking responsibility for the goals of the client is a core principle of the trusted advisor!

Malte

TNF #130: Matching clients

Leave a reply

Welcome Professionals…

…recently I was talking to a highly successful sales manager. I was a bit surprised as this person obviously did not have the high level of empathy that I would normally expect with sales professionals. Furthermore, he did not have a very engaging personality, he was rather distant in a way. If he had ever read Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends and influence people” – the standard book in sales since nearly a century – he had chosen to ignore this piece of advice. Yet, this person was highly succesful in sales. What was his trick?

He told me that his most important success factor was choosing the right target clients. He made a big effort in analyzing the requirements of potential prospects and only made the approach when there was a very good fit between client requirements and the offering of his company. As simple as it sounds, that was it. Of course, he had to put in quite a lot of work in analyzing and understanding the client’s needs. But when he was sure there was a complete match, there was nothing that could have stopped him. Most of the time his effort would pay off in winning a new client.

Imagine, you would only address those prospects that are seriously a good match to your service offering, to your personality, to your own values and to your communication style? Imagine how much fun it would be to work with these clients? And I bet you could spend your client acquisition time much more effectively.

Wishing you big wins that match!

Malte

TNF #129: Snippets of attention

Leave a reply

Welcome Professionals…

…my mother used to do this all the time. She even does it today. Whenever she reads something in the newspaper that could be relevant for me, she cuts it out. During my studies at university, when I was returning home only once a month, I would find a thick stack of newspaper articles waiting for me. To be honest, I did not read everything, but it conveyed one message very clearly: My mother was thinking of me and she cared about my interests.

Back in the days, the habit of my mother seemed a bit awkward, but very nice. It never occurred to me that anybody else could also have a mother collecting newspaper snippets for her of him. The funny thing is, that we now live in a world of snippets. With the rise of social media it seems like everybody is cutting out pieces of random information and spreads it around for others to like that stuff.

Now, think about this crazy idea. Next time you see something interesting that you would like to cut, paste, and spread – pause and think for whom this could be specifically relevant. Send it to this person privately with a note. When you do this occasionally for your important client relationships, they will love you for these snippets of attention. Because they will know: You were thinking of them and you care about their interests!

I will be grateful to receive a snippet from you!

Malte