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There is an old saying, "It is amazing what you can achieve if you are not wedded to who gets the credit." The" --
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David H. Maister |
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It is ironic that a business in which the serving of clients depends so heavily on interpersonal psychology should be peopled with those who believe in the exclusive power of technical mastery. And
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David H. Maister |
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The attitude of exclusive professionalism (which restricts the label of professionalism to the advisor) manifests itself in a number of dysfunctional ways. It reinforces a misleading belief that the advisor's job is to solve problems rather than to help the client solve problems.
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David H. Maister |
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Sincerity, the way we usually mean it, has to do with intentions; we assume it comes from within. But our clients have no way to observe sincerity except through external behaviors. From certain behaviors (attention paid, interest shown, advance work done, empathetic listening), we infer the internal state we call sincerity. Thus,
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David H. Maister |
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Send meeting materials in advance
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David H. Maister |
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Reconfirm scheduled events before they happen. Announce changes to scheduled or committed dates as soon as they change. Intimacy
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David H. Maister |
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It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it: That's what gets results.
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David H. Maister |
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Reliability in this largely rational sense is the repeated experience of links between promises and action.
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David H. Maister |
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Managers should be hassle absorbers, not hassle creators.
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David H. Maister |
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The flip side of credit is blame. A tendency to blame others, or circumstances, is generally a recipe for unhappiness in life.
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David H. Maister |
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None of us should wait to be told what to do, or how to do it. Micromanagement kills initiative, judgment and creativity.
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David H. Maister |
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It is not enough for a professional to be right: An advisor's job is to be helpful. David
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David H. Maister |
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treating financial success as the goal rather than as a by-product of a well-run firm
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David H. Maister |
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In busy times there is also a temptation to let investments such as training take a back seat to getting the work out the door. Only adherence to the firm's principles and values prevents opportunistic behavior that may have short-term benefits but long-term adverse consequences.
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David H. Maister |
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We need structures that don't squash flexibility and creativity but minimize inefficiency and confusion.
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David H. Maister |
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The solution for an individual firm must always address three perspectives in any organizational review: structure (how we are formally organized); processes (how different types of decisions are to be made and how conflicts and trade-offs are to be resolved); and people (appointing the right individuals to play the complex roles that will make it all work). No one dimension will solve the problem: all three must be examined. However, the i..
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David H. Maister |
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We try to elevate the empowerment of our people over the organizational niceties of structure and process except to the extent that those structural and process features work to empower our people
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David H. Maister |
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it is better to stop thinking of permanent or semipermanent "departments" and to begin to use the language of "teams"
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David H. Maister |
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These goals are not unique to us. Our best competitors almost certainly have similar, if not identical goals. If we are to outperform them, we don't need a better vision, but a better approach to making it happen.
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David H. Maister |
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The firm exists to help its people succeed, not the other way round.
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David H. Maister |
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The minute you begin to cruise, to rely on skills learned last year, that's the moment you begin your decline.
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David H. Maister |
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By starting with caring (working from the inside out), we open ourselves to possibilities and become willing to go where the client will take us. The skill or action behaviors can then fall on fertile ground. By
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David H. Maister |
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Are there any topics I should avoid because they are too delicate to discuss in a large forum? * Are there any topics on which the views of your colleagues are significantly divided? *
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David H. Maister |
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Where are we likely to encounter the most resistance? *
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David H. Maister |
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A good rule to remember is that, in relationships, there are no win-lose or lose-win combinations: There are only win-wins and lose-loses.
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David H. Maister |
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It is important to note that while goods are consumed, services are experienced.
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David H. Maister |
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We don't want people to be interested in us as a means to an end, as a destination for their own purposes. We want people to be interested in us as fellow-voyagers, people who care about us enough to go on a journey with us.
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David H. Maister |
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10. Return calls unbelievably fast Stephanie Wethered, the pastor referred to earlier, does this. She tries to return calls within ten minutes. She says it's the most trust-creating thing she does; no one expects it, and it demonstrates how much she values the other person. 11.
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David H. Maister |
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Four Essential Elements That Engender Trust (Chapter 8) 1. Credibility 2. Reliability 3. Intimacy 4.
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David H. Maister |
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The best service professionals excel at two things in conveying credibility: anticipating needs, and speaking about needs that are commonly not articulated. For
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David H. Maister |
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if I were in your position, I might be wondering about X. Is it possible that that is an issue for you?
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David H. Maister |
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Don't tell lies, or even exaggerate. At all. Ever. 3.
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David H. Maister |
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Speak with expression, not monotonically. Use body language, eye contact, and vocal range. Show the client you have energy around the subject at hand. 5.
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David H. Maister |
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Make sure you've done absolutely all your homework on the client company, the client marketplace, and the client individual, and that it's absolutely up to the minute. Even if you know them and their business cold, there is likelihood that there will be some news clip about your client that will have been published that very day. 10.
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David H. Maister |
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Less formally, we consider the time it takes someone to return a phone call, whether meetings are canceled or kept, and whether to-do lists are completed. Reliability
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David H. Maister |
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It is important to note that while goods are consumed, services are experienced. The professional service provider is (or should be) as much in the business of managing the client's experience with respect to professional services as in the business of executing technical tasks. Much
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David H. Maister |
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Success, no matter how you define it, is attainable only by persuading another person-a boss, a client, a colleague, a subordinate, a friend or loved one-to give you what you want.
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David H. Maister |
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The most effective organizations are those that are held together by shared and enforced principles, values, and standards.
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David H. Maister |
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WHAT IS IT? The one-firm firm approach is not simply a loose term to describe a "culture." It refers to a set of concrete management practices consciously chosen to maximize the trust and loyalty that members of the firm feel both to the institution and to each other. In 1985, the elements of the one-firm firm approach were given as: *Highly selective recruitment *A "grow your own" people strategy as opposed to heavy use of laterals, growin..
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David H. Maister |
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Profitability will not come from managing hygiene factors alone: Future profitability depends on health as well--and firms' methods of measuring, reporting, and managing need to reflect both.
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David H. Maister |
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life is too short to work on the uninspiring. Being
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David H. Maister |
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I was amazed at how many fools I ran into until I noticed the common denominator in all those interactions: me." Why"
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David H. Maister |
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A new $100,000 engagement can be very profitable, or be one that loses the firm a lot of money. Yet many firms reward partners for the volume of fees (top-line) that they bring in, not whether or not they bring in profitable work.
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David H. Maister |
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The biggest leverage for reliability enhancement probably lies in the emotional realm. The more a provider can do to understand and relate to the usually unconscious norms of the client, the more the client will feel at ease and experience a sense of reliability. Some
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David H. Maister |