Blog
Old Normal or New Normal?
It’s Monday morning and you’re ready to begin your week. Question: what is your client service goal for this week? Do you plan on doing anything differently or just coast through what you normally do? If you have no plan to do something more or different than what you...
The Unacceptable Manager
Question: What do you do when you have underperformers? Answer: You give them a poor evaluation and tell them they have to do better. Makes sense; seems right. I can understand and accept a low evaluation rating for those who underperform. But what I can’t accept is...
Take Time To Understand
Everyone struggles with being misunderstood by others. You become frustrated that others assign motive and intent to you that are only partially correct or not true at all. Others do it to you and you do it to them. You see, you only have one filter to interpret what...
When Your Best is Lacking
Your firm and your clients are looking to you for leadership and they are frustrated because you aren’t providing it. They see you as someone who can contribute more and you’re not. Your experience, judgment and wisdom are not being applied to their problems and...
Your Professional Equilibrium
Like you, many professionals have their goals and plans for 2013 in place. Now it’s time to execute. But the goal-execution stage is also where things bog down. So you do what you can: you bear down, focus, recommit, talk to yourself (be careful with that...
Time to Remember
The season we’re in is wonderful because it’s filled with remembrances of what’s really important. It brings a level of clarity that puts everything into proper perspective. You discover that some of the things that stressed you weren’t really that necessary, while...
Why They Are Different
Do you ever wonder why the top performers are better than you are? Are they more talented? More skilled? More motivated? Better DNA? Actually, none of these. But they are more of something. They are more disciplined. They have intentionally worked on developing their...
Why You’re Not Invited
One complaint I hear from professional service providers is that they are frustrated that their clients don’t value what they do or include them in planning meetings. The best excuse providers can muster is that their clients don’t want to pay for their input. In...
“To-do” or “To-K”?
Everyone has a to-do list. You know, it’s the list you use to make sure you don’t forget things and the place you get satisfaction when you cross off something you complete. Your list may be long or short, but you have one. You also have another list. Sometimes it’s...
Leaders don’t, unless…
Coaching leaders in professional service firms for over 2 decades has taught me all kinds of things. One is that leaders are different in what they tolerate and what they don’t. Long story short, what it really comes down to is a reflection of what leaders tolerate in...
