The Trusted Advisor

by Maister, David H.; Green, Charles H.; Galford, Robert M.

• ISBN13: 9780743212342
• ISBN10: 0743212347
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-09
• Publisher: Free Press

Summary

In today's fast-paced networked economy, professionals must work harder than ever to maintain and improve their business skills and knowledge. But technical mastery of one's discipline is not enough, assert world-renowned professional advisors David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford. The key to professional success, they argue, is the ability to earn the trust and confidence of clients. To demonstrate the paramount importance of trust, the authors use anecdotes, experiences, and examples -- successes and mistakes, their own and others' -- to great effect. The result is an immensely readable book that will be welcomed by the inexperienced advisor and the most seasoned expert alike.

Author Biography

David H. Maister, a leading authority on the management of professional service firms, is the author of the bestselling Managing the Professional Service Firm, True Professionalism, and Practice What You Preach. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
How to Use This Book	xiii
PART ONE: PERSPECTIVES ON TRUST	1	(66)
A Sneak Preview	3	(4)
What would be the benefits if your clients trusted you more?
What are the primary characteristics of a trusted advisor?
What Is a Trusted Advisor?	7	(10)
What do great trusted advisors all seem to do?
Earning Trust	17	(10)
What are the dynamics of trusting and being trusted?
How to Give Advice	27	(10)
How do you ensure your advice is listened to?
The Rules of Romance: Relationship Building	37	(14)
What are the principles of building strong relationships?
The Importance of Mindsets	51	(8)
What attitudes must you have to be effective?
Sincerity or Technique?	59	(8)
Do you really have to care for those you advise?
PART TWO: THE STRUCTURE OF TRUST BUILDING	67	(66)
The Trust Equation	69	(16)
What are the four key components that determine the extent of trust?
The Development of Trust	85	(6)
What are the five stages of trust-building?
Engagement	91	(6)
How do you get clients to initiate discussions with you?
The Art of Listening	97	(10)
How can you improve your listening skills?
Framing the Issue	107	(10)
How can you help clients look at their issues in a fresh way?
Envisioning an Alternate Reality	117	(6)
How can you help clients clarify what they're really after?
Commitment	123	(10)
How do you ensure clients are willing to do what it takes to solve their problems?
PART THREE: PUTTING TRUST TO WORK	133	(70)
What's So Hard About All This?	135	(14)
Why are truly trust-based relationships so scarce?
Differing Client Types	149	(12)
How do you deal with clients of differing types?
The Lieutenant Columbo Approach	161	(4)
What can we learn from an unorthodox winner?
The Role of Trust in Getting Hired	165	(6)
How do you create trust at the outset of a relationship?
Building Trust on the Current Assignment	171	(8)
How can you conduct your assignment in a way that adds to trust?
Re-earning Trust Away from the Current Assignment	179	(6)
How can you build trust when you're not working on an assignment?
The Case of Cross-Selling	185	(12)
Why is cross-selling so hard, and what can be done about it?
The Quick-Impact List to Gain Trust	197	(6)
What are the key things you should do first?
Appendix: A Compilation of Our Lists	203	(20)
A comprehensive summary and list of concepts, insights, tips, and tactics
Acknowledgments	223	(2)
Notes and References	225	(4)
Index	229	(10)
About the Authors	239

Excerpts

Chapter 1: A Sneak Preview

Let's start with a question: What benefits would you obtain if your clients trusted you more?

Here's our list. The more your clients trust you, the more they will:

Reach for your advice

Be inclined to accept and act on your recommendations

Bring you in on more advanced, complex, strategic issues

Treat you as you wish to be treated

Respect you

Share more information that helps you to help them, and improves the quality of the service you provide

Pay your bills without question

Refer you to their friends and business acquaintances

Lower the level of stress in your interactions

Give you the benefit of the doubt

Forgive you when you make a mistake

Protect you when you need it (even from their own organization)

Warn you of dangers that you might avoid

Be comfortable and allow you to be comfortable

Involve you early on when their issues begin to form, rather than later in the process (or maybe even call you first!)

Trust your instincts and judgments (including those about other people such as your colleagues and theirs)

We would all like to have such professional relationships! This book is about what you must do to obtain these benefits.

What changes wouldyoumake to this list? What would you add? Delete?

Next, let's consider three additional questions:

Doyouhave a trusted advisor, someone you turn to regularly to advise you on all your most important business, career, and perhaps even personal decisions?

If you do, what are the characteristics of that person?

If you do not, what characteristicswouldyou look for in selectingyourtrusted advisor?

Here is a listing of traits that our trusted advisors have in common. They:

Seem to understand us, effortlessly, and like us

Are consistent (we can depend on them)

Always help us see things from fresh perspectives

Don't try to force things on us

Help usthinkthings through (it's our decision)

Don't substitute their judgment for ours

Don't panic or get overemotional (they stay calm)

Help us think and separate our logic from our emotion

Criticize and correct us gently, lovingly

Don't pull their punches (we can rely on them to tell us the truth)

Are in it for the long haul (the relationship is more important than the current issue)

Give us reasoning (to help us think), not just their conclusions

Give us options, increase our understanding of those options, give us their recommendation, and let us choose

Challenge our assumptions (help us uncover the false assumptions we've been working under)

Make us feel comfortable and casual personally (but they take the issues seriously)

Act like a real person, not someone in a role

Are reliably on our side and always seem to have our interests at heart

Remember everything we ever said (without notes)

Are always honorable (they don't gossip about others, and we trust their values)

Help us put our issues in context, often through the use of metaphors, stories, and anecdotes (few problems are completely unique)

Have a sense of humor to diffuse (our) tension in tough situations

Are smart (sometimes in ways we're not)

What wouldyouadd to (or delete from) this list?

Using the Golden Rule (we should treat others as we wish to be treated), we can probably make a fair assumption (or at least a good first approximation) that this list, or your list, is not much different from a list your clients would make.

So, if you want your clients to treat you as their trusted advisor, then you must meet as many of the "tests" on this list as possible.

Ask yourself: Which of these traits do my clients think I possess? (Not whatyouthink you possess, but whattheythink you do!) If you suspect that you might not demonstrate all these traits, then how do you get better at each of them? That's what this book will try to answer.

Note that this book is not (just) about the wonderful benefits that wait at the end of the rainbow for the full-fledged trusted advisor, who does (or is) everything listed here. The early benefits of beginning to earn trust are substantial and can be obtained quickly. The ability to earn trust is a learnable skill, and we shall try in the succeeding pages to show "the yellow brick road" that leads to success.

Copyright © 2000 by David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford

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Excerpted from The Trusted Advisor by David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, Robert M. Galford
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