“True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients and Your Career”; David H. Maister: My notes and thoughts from the book

Why this book?

This is the 4th book in my Year of Reading 2018 which itself is one of my responses to my One Word 2018 of “Focus”.

From the Year of Reading post:

“In May to understand and assess my level of professionalism in my service delivery across all areas of my life, I will read and apply David Maister's "True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients, and Your Career"

I have always wanted to be professional in all I do. That is at my core.

But I am aware that each one of us has our own definitions of “professional” and “professionalism”. What is yours?

For me, professionalism is all about delivering a high quality service, “owning” the client’s problem/ opportunity, understanding what that is, recommending actions and solutions for the client as if it was your own business you were implementing the solutions in, going the extra mile for the client, building a deep relationship with the client so that you are on the same team and not taking advantage of the client from a cost charging point of view. All of this with the overall objective of generating incremental profitable business with the client over the long haul if that is in the best interests of the client. Delivering a quality service has always been my number one driver and over the years I have had to address a perfectionist streak in me and quite recently I have got over myself in areas of my life where I need to “ship” and not just stall or procrastinate (e.g. in content production).

I do not remember where I first heard of David Maister. He is one of the few people I have come across that has analysed and recommended best practice in professional service firms. I bought this book over a decade ago and this is the first time I have read it! I have high hopes that it will have stood the test of time. I have been quoting him increasingly in tweets in response to Twitter Chats and other questions that I have seen on Twitter and elsewhere. He is now retired but his web site has lots of content that is very helpful and practical. In some cases, this is the only place I have seen this kind of material covered.

I am now in my 33rd year of an IT career and I have delivered many types of professional services in all kinds of roles, in all kinds of organisations and as a sole deliverer or as part of a team (leading, managing or as a team member).

The word “professionalism” came immediately to my mind a few months ago when an organisation asked Twitter what our number one value is. I responded as follows:-

my core value is "professionalism" | marking #WorldValuesDay today | what's yours?#wol #showyourwork #esnchat pic.twitter.com/XmNcR9hK7G

— Simon R.J. Fogg (@srjf) October 19, 2017

It is interesting timing for me reading this book now as I have just finished reading Edgar Schein’s “Humble Consulting” as part of a book club in a Workplace by Facebook WOL Circles, Designing Your Life groups and Book Club community. That taught us some best practices in delivering consulting-type services. The David Maister book takes us to a higher level perspective on professionals and managers and leaders of such professionals to advocate specific ways of working in developing and delivering those services.

Who is the book aimed at?

My view is that the book is aimed at any person delivering any kind of service in any kind of organisation regardless of whether that person would consider themselves a deliverer of a conventional definition of professional services.

It is also aimed at senior managers of such organisations.

It is also aimed at team leaders, team managers and so on who are looking to improve the performance of their teams.

I am confident that we all have a lot to learn from this book that we can then practically apply in the various roles in our lives.

My application of this book

Now that I have read this book there are a number of application areas as follows:-

• as an individual to up my game in specific areas regardless of where I work
• my service delivery to external clients is already of a high quality but it can always be higher
• I used to be better at understanding my clients’ businesses and being proactive in that
• as an individual with a career
• my lack of a plan was exposed yet again
• my sense of plugging away and working out loud and people inviting me to collaborate or more (!) is not happening as I had hoped it might – I am still hopeful that that might happen but I am not specifically tailoring my WOL activities for that purpose – I remain committed to being a contributor and adding value proactively and reactively
• the book certainly provides tools to help me assess my client assignments for fit to what I ideally want to do – and what actually is my ideal client assignment anyway!
• as a professional working as for a PSF
• I need to be more proactive in providing input to business development regardless of whether I am a formal part of those processes
• I need to seek out opportunities to apply PSF development processes outlined in the book to my day job
• I need to apply some of the service development approaches to the services that I currently and want to deliver

Confirmation of my choice of this book

I had already started reading the book. I was writing up notes from the Introduction and I had one of my serendipitous moments that I love having.

While I was reading the Introduction, Tom Peters and his view from a a decade ago on Professional Services Firms and how internal organisational teams should transition to operate like a PSF (like its own business). Tom has been a continual inspiration to me and he has recently published a summary of his life’s work – “The Excellence Dividend”.

I stopped reading the current book and went a-Google-ing and sure enough I rapidly found this pdf by Tom in 2002 from which the following is taken, read carefully, I was amazed (surprised, not surprised) when I got to the “red” (my colouring!) text. This may further encourage you to read David’s book.

==========================

3. Enter the “PSF.”

GE – Thomas Edison’s proud manufacturing company – embraces the Internet with Edisonian vigor. And may shed close to 100,000 jobs as a result of the efficiencies brought about thereby. Sara Lee dumps its manufacturing ... and becomes ... ASSET-LESS. Corporations in developed countries, at least, become ... Heads With No Bodies.

Do we have any “models” that will guide us? We tried, a few years ago, and with some success, to Invent a New World from Scratch ... by coining the phrase “virtual organization.” An organization that subcontracts all the non-essentials, and holds on to a core competence or two. Fine enough. But, despite the madness of the moment (and many moments to come), I think there is an important Back to the Future opportunity.

There are some folks who’ve been “doing this stuff” for a long time. Names? Arthur Andersen. McKinsey & Company. Ogilvy & Mather. EDS. Et al.

We call “them” ... Professional Service Firms. And we have paid no damned attention to them. Ever. In fact, we’re embarrassed by them. They don’t lift bales of hay and cotton. They don’t push glowing hot slabs of metal into blast furnaces. They don’t smash away at seams of coal at the face of the mine.

They’re wimps. Wear suits. Always have a white collar. “Just” use their heads.

BUT ...

I posit: There is a New Building Block for the New World Organizational Order. And I call it, yes: THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRM.

Fact: Every “white collar activity” performed in the corporation today ... from benefits management in the human resources world to state-of-the-art research & development in biotech world ... is performed ... on the outside ... FOR PROFIT ... by some flavor of professional service firm.

David Maister. Lives in Boston. Has a unique distinction. ONLY HUMAN BEING ON THE PLANET EARTH TO STUDY PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRMS FOR A LIVING. (I think I know the turf, so I think that outrageous statement is actually true.) But the question remains: WHY? Why is there only one person who has studied this class of firms ... that I’m arguing is now about to become DOMINANT?

My casual hypothesis. When I started to work for the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., back in 1974, the consultants and the lawyers and the ad agency types and the industrial designers and the accountants were seen as ... parasites living off the sweat of REAL MEN’s brows. Now it’s a new world order. “We” have won. The small remaining number of people in the steel mills are, in fact, the captives of the software being invented by all those “soft” nerds. (Or, BILLIONAIRES, as we now call the best of them. Ellison. Gates. Andreessen. Yang. Jobs.)

Game over. Victory to the ... PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRM. Thence, my suggestion. (Demand!) A few minutes ago you saw yourself as Department Head of Finance. Running a 73- person shop that supports a 4,000-person division. Forget it. I changed your job title. (And, I hope, your outlook on life.) Now you are: Managing Partner, Finance Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of that 4,000-person division embedded in MegaCompany.

Okay?

The nugget of the idea. I said that you were running a 73-person “finance department.” My point: I see no difference ... NO DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER ... between you, that “department head,” and ... Nancy Smith, Managing Partner of a 73-person Deloitte & Touche office in downtown Kansas City. No difference. No difference whatsoever.

Well, that’s not strictly true. Ms. Smith’s D & T Office Administrator ... at the end of the month ... sends out invoices which are subsequently paid. The nature of her work is such that it is valued ... HIGHLY ... by her Clients. And what if you ... HR Director ... IS Director ... Finance Director ... sent out bills (big ones!) to your internal clients? They’d either throw up. Or laugh. (Right?)

Hence the notion that “real” professional service firms ... on the outside, like Deloitte & Touche ... or inside, per my new model ... do ... Work Worth Paying For. The WWPF Idea is paramount!

And where does it begin? The same old place. Boring. ATTITUDE.

April 2000. New Orleans. I’m the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the National Association of Purchasing Managers. To be frank, purchasing used to be about favors done by vendors to ensure the business of their customers. Tough negotiations were rare. Then the BCB/Big 9 Competitiveness Battle began ... and purchasers and their vendors squared off ... and went on a cost-cutting binge. But now, even that is history. I addressed those purchasing managers and said:

“When I look out at you I see Rock Stars of the B2B Age!”

Some heard me. Many didn’t. But I’ll say one thing for myself: I was serious! Dead serious! Because, as I see it, the Imaginative Ones amongst those purchasing chieftains will gather together with their colleagues in logistics and finance and IS ... and become the co-architects of the eCommerce Strategy of their enterprises. They will be paid for their imaginations. They will potentially add billions of dollars to the bottom lines and market capitalization of their firms. They are ... beyond doubt ... Rock Stars. (If they see it that way.) (And I’m afraid that far too few, even in Y2001, do.)

We wrote a whole book on this topic, titled The Professional Service Firm50. But I can summarize those 230 pages in just a few words:

(1) All work becomes High Value Added Projects. HVA Project Work is important, but not necessarily the alpha and the omega in the average “department.” At Deloitte & Touche or McKinsey: HVA Projects Are Life. It’s HVA Project or Die. (Professionally.)

(2) Pursue Pioneering Clients. We grow to the extent that we are around those who will foster our growth. (Period.) Sure, as an internal service provider you’ve got to serve “everybody” ... but not really. Smart “internal service providers” seek out the strangest & most curious& most innovative amongst their “internal clients” ... shower them with the greatest resources ... and Co-Make Revolution with them. You will be as “cool” as your “coolest” (internal) clients, period.

(3) The PSF will inculcate an Adventurous Culture. “Adventurous Accountants.” The ultimate oxymoron? I think not! I believe that every “internal” “staff” activity in the firm is ripe for major ... wild & weird ... innovation. HR. IS. Purchasing. Logistics. Finance. Engineering. You name it. And so ... Bold Pursuit of Exotic Adventure ... makes as much sense ... if not more ... for the former “finance department” (turned PSF) as it does for marketing or new product development.

(4) A Proprietary Point of View. There’s a “McKinsey Way” of doing things. And an EDS Way. And an Accenture Way. These “proprietary methodologies” are worth ... literally ... billions of $$$$$. And what about yours? Does your “PSF” (formerly the Logistics Department) have a ... Seriously Cool Proprietary Methodology ... worth billions? (If not, why not?) (Damn it.) (Marketing & Ideas Uber-guru Doug Hall claims, with a ton of supporting data, that only the services that demonstrate a “Dramatic Difference” make Big Money in the long haul. Needless to say, I think this holds for “internal” “PSFs” as well as “marketers.”)

(5) W.W.P.F. Work Worth Paying For. Period. What if you sent out invoices at the end of the month to your ... internal Clients? Well, perhaps that’s a non-starter. But you get the 10 idea, I presume. But here’s a more practical idea: I strongly believe that within ... 12 months ... at least 25% of your work should come from Billable Activities with Outside Clients.

NO BULL!

It’s simple: If you can’t find somebody on the outside ... who will pay you well ... then the work you are performing is not worth doing inside. Your company should subcontract it. (PERIOD.) I’ve seen it coming, in “old” arenas such as manufacturing. I worked with a decrepit GM plant, years ago. Corporate headquarters finally allowed them to seek outside work ... with competitors. They’d been talking about quality forever at this place. And the results were marginal. But now they sought outside work. And, in fact, based on their pricing, won a contract with Honda of America Manufacturing. Talk about a tough customer! Honda taught them ... ORDERED THEM ... to Get With The Program ... posthaste. They made some money. More important, they went on the world’s fastest learning program ... thanks to a Seriously Cool Client (Honda) who wasn’t up for screwing around. Same thing holds, as I see it, for an “internal” training department. Or a finance “department.” Or a logistics “department.”

So?

=======================

My Book Notes

Introduction: The Power of Principles

Opening quote:

“The Saints did not pray to the Good Lord for instructions on what to do. The Bible was already clear on what was expected of them. Nevertheless, the Saints got down on their knees every day of their lives – to pray that, in spite of daily temptations, they could find the courage and strength to do the right thing”.
(Old Mexican proverb)

how often can one repeat the basic advice of “listen to your people, provide outstanding service, train your people, look for and eliminate inefficiencies and act like team players”

problem is not in figuring out what to do but is to do what we know to be right

“do it and we’ll pay you” smacks of more of prostitution than professionalism

“this is not only good business but it is the professional, ethical thing to do”

easy to argue with & dismiss mgt tactics but harder to argue with principles

principles (or values) are the most effective mgt tools a firm can use

differentiates individuals and organisations via their strict adherence to values, i.e. to professionalism

Example: do you maximise of minimise the bill?

how do you incentivise your people? what do you clients think about that or what is their perception?

ethical/ professional thing to do is work hard to achieve the client’s goals at the minimum possible cost to the client on each transaction

a true professional knows that this will yield repeat business

clients when they see this get the point very quickly

Supervising Client Projects

ask junior professionals in your organisation whether it is usually true that:-

• when tasks/projects assigned, they understood thoroughly what was expected of them
• they understood how their tasks fit into overall objectives for the engagement
• they were kept informed about the things they needed to know to do their jobs properly
• they received good coaching to help improve performance
• they received prompt feedback on their work, good or bad
• they felt that they were a member of a well-functioning team

when discussing this with professionals, I ask them what benefits the above will bring:-

• motivated staff
• better quality work product
• better trained, skilled staff
• less wasted time
• lower “write-offs” of unproductive work that can’t be billed
• more timely delivery of work
• greater ability to delegate since staff will be better trained
• free up partner time to focus on high value-added activities
• clients would notice better service, more teamwork, more motivation

note the issue that some have re clients will not pay for supervision time

supervision is taking due care of the client

in most professional firms, excellence in project supervision remains the exception rather than the rule

Caring for clients

client is always thinking “why are you trying to sell me something?”

they conclude:-

• either just to get more revenues
• or because they are interested in the client, truly cares & is sincerely trying to help

beware! faking sincerity is a prostitute’s tactic not a professional’s

What is “professionalism”?

many professionals are not having fun – low morale and enthusiasm are common

financial targets often account for this

true professionals commit themselves to the pursuit of happiness & do not allow themselves to lapse into self-satisfied contentment

difference between “espoused values” (what you/org say you believe in) and “values-in-action” (how you/org actually live your professional life) – terms from Chris Argyris

the book is all about bringing these 2 in line

if you value something, you must monitor it

people need to be helped to get back on track if not meeting that standard

production often nagged but rarely client service, supervision of juniors or collaboration

so there needs to be consequences for non-compliance which need not be and should not be punitive – you are allowed to fail but you are not allowed not to try

you need to be close enough to your team to quickly see where this is not happening

requires helpful coaches

compensation reductions or even exit for non-compliance – these would indicate your “system” is not working!

To enforce values:-

1. pros agree to be coached/ managed to strictly-enforced & agreed-upon standards
1. team leaders judged solely on performance of team
2. their job to coach team members
3. act as primary agent for introducing consequences for non-compliance with excellence standards
1. consequences: help, support, encouragement, concern
2. teamwork mandatory not optional
1. each team member donates minimum non-billable hours to the team, jointly scheduled by team with strict accountability for projects committed to
3. continual investment must be made in getting better
1. each team submits quarterly non-billable hour budget for actions in:-
1. generating better, not just more, business
2. lowering the cost of performing selecting pro tasks
3. becoming more valuable to clients on current tasks
4. disseminating skills, horizontally and vertically
4. enforce excellence in wise management of clients’ resources and firm’s finances
1. measure/ track engagement profitability not just individual billable hours
5. excellence in client satisfaction is an enforced standard
1. client feedback on every transaction that is acted on & rewarded etc
2. ultimately, offer clients an unconditional satisfaction guarantee
6. excellence in managing those you supervise is an enforced pro standard
1. mandatory “upward feedback” on project supervision
7. personal professional growth is non-negotiable minimum standard
1. every pro required to demonstrate pro/ career progress every year
2. personal progress on a personal strategic plan is a strict accountability
8. all partners must show a sincere interest in clients’ affairs and a sincere desire to help them
1. all pros required to demonstrate an understanding of their client’s business and thereby contribute to biz dev
9. departmental resources are considered collective assets and cannot be allocated autonomously
1. team leader responsible for staffing, no pro has the autonomy to staff their own job
10. primary focus on relationship building
1. nurturing designated key existing clients should be GE 60% of all non-billable marketing hours
11. be intolerant about the pursuit of excellence
1. fire any pro who does not take part in these programs
2. allowed to fail, not allowed to not try

Create your own set if need be BUT to achieve excellence, the values must be clear and enforcement mechanisms real

Summary

you cannot become a world leader in anything without truly caring passionately about what you do

true professionalism wins!

Part One – (Mostly) About You

1: Real Professionalism

often ask pros differences between a good and a great secretary/ PA/ Executive Assistant

great Exec Assistants, I am told:-

1. Take pride in their work, and show a personal commitment to quality
2. Reach out for responsibility
3. Anticipate, and don’t wait to be told what to do -they show initiative
4. Do whatever it takes to get the job done
5. Get involved and don’t just stick to their assigned role
6. Are always looking for ways to make things easier for those they serve
7. Are eager to learn as much as they can about the business of those they serve
8. Really listen to the needs of those they serve
9. Learn to understand and think like those they serve so they can represent them when they are not there
10. Are team players
11. Can be trusted with confidences
12. Are honest, trustworthy and loyal
13. Are open to constructive critiques on how to improve

can summarise as great executive assistants care

this list is applicable to all of us!

also a reasonable definition of what it means to be a professional

[ Simon: The author speaks about this list in this podcast.]

[ Simon: I had another serendipitous Working Out Loud (WOL) event while reading this chapter. The day after I heard an Entreleadership podcast interview about the importance of the Executive Assistant-type role with Jan Jones and her book "The CEO's Secret Weapon: How Great Leaders and Their Assistants Maximise Productivity and Effectiveness", I stumbled over Michaela Buhr on Twitter on 1 May 2018 when I saw her send her first tweet. Michaela is an Executive Assistant working for the ZF Group in Germany. I sent her a welcome to Twitter tweet after seeing she was using the #WOL hashtag. We then exchanged a number of emails after a 1h 15m Zoom call in response to me offering to show her how to use Zoom. I sensed through Michaela's enthusiasm for her work and the passionate detailed way in which she explained how she is striving to help her colleagues work more effectively and to do so herself that she was one such professional. ]

note that the list has nothing to do with technical skills

opposite of “professional” is “technician”

professionalism predominantly an attitude not a set of competencies

[ Simon: I have worked with some amazing line managers during my career. In one such role, I was part of the management team overseeing around 70 IT project managers, business analysts, developers, testers and trainers. One of the best things we did was to develop a set of competency definitions for the entire division regardless of role. This included both hard skills (the technical skills required to perform a role) and the soft skills (the inter-personal type skills required to complement and supplement the technical skills. This was part of a company-wide roll-out of these competency definitions in a major electricity and gas supplier in the UK as part of the deregulation of those markets allowing customers to switch suppliers for the first time. Despite these being done 18 years ago (!) it is amazing how well they stand the test of time. ]

a real professional is a technician who cares

one executive assistant (Julie)’s response as to why they strive for these standards:-

1. Professional is not a label you give yourself, it’s a description you hope others will apply to you
2. You do the best you can as a matter of self-respect
3. Having self-respect is the key to earning respect and trust from others
4. If you want to be trusted and respected you have to earn it
5. These behaviours lead to job fulfilment.
6. The question should really be, “Why wouldn’t someone want to do this?”
7. If someone takes a job, or starts a career worrying about what’s in it for them, looking to do just enough to get by, or being purely self-serving in their performance, they will go nowhere
8. Even if they manage to excel through the ranks as good technicians, they will not be happy in what they are doing
9. The work will be boring, aggravating, tiresome and a drag

[ Simon: I find these encouraging words and consistent with what I continually try to be and do myself. ]

Traditional Views of Professionalism

real professionalism implies a pride in work, a commitment to quality, a dedication to the interests of the client and a sincere desire to help

[ Simon: loving the reference to “sincere desire to help” having read just before this book Edgar Schein’s “Humble Consulting: How To Provide Real Help Faster”“. Love it when things come together! ]

traditional definitions of professionalism refer to:-

1. status
2. educational attainments
3. “noble” callings
4. right of practitioners to autonomy (the privilege of practicing free of direction)

cf “All professions are conspiracies against the laity” (George Bernard Shaw)

scarcity of true professionalism may be due to recruitment that emphasises  educational qualifications & technical skills but not attitudes and character

should hire for attitude and train for skills

penetrating question: why do you do what you do?

ideally answer is “I like helping people”

bad answer is prestige and/or money

“You’ll have more fun and success helping other people achieve their goals than you will trying to achieve your own goals” (Dale Carnegie)

[ Simon: re helping, loving the resonance again with Edgar Schein’s Humble Consulting book ]

in past professionals given respect/ trust automatically because of their position, no longer, you now need to earn/ deserve them

need to teach people how to serve clients and work with staff at all levels of the delivery organisation

dealing with people now a core skill

It’s Not (Just) About The Money

if it is true that professionalism works, why do people not operate like that?

some use excuse of not being paid for doing that

you would eventually but some not prepared to put that work in

often how people are managed prevents people being professional !!

some say why should I do this when no one else is

what encourages people to act professionally (back to Julie’s view):-

• show appreciation to someone who goes extra mile or surprised you with exceptional performance
• give people increasingly responsible assignments (trust them) & try again with coaching if not perfect
• get people involved, share info so people see big picture & where they fit
• coach constructively with a sincere desire to help them improve
• do not promote teamwork & then only reward the captain; use multiple reward types

& from the author:-

• inspire people to be as professional as they can be
• treat them as professionals – be tolerant of nothing less

to all readers (including exec assistants & managing partners), think about these frequently:-

• do other people consider me a professional per earlier list?
• do I work with others who work for me in such a way that I encourage their commitment & professionalism or do I suppress it?

2: Are You Having Fun Yet?

professional success requires more than talent, it also needs:-

• drive
• initiative
• commitment
• involvement
• above all, enthusiasm

often these are missing from professionals’ lives

think of your past year or so’s work, categorise each assignment (sample responses):-

• I so love this, this is why I do what I do (20-25%)
• It’s OK, I can tolerate it – it is what I do for a living (60-70%)
• I hate this part – I wish I could get rid of this junk (5-20%)

[ Simon: This exercise is similar to exercises in Designing Your Life. May be worth doing if you have done or planning to do DYL. ]

think of recent clients, categorise each:-

• I like these people and their industry interests me (30-35%)
• I can tolerate these people and their business is OK – nether fascinating nor boring (50-60%)
• I’m professional enough that I would never say this to them and I will still do my best for them but they are not my kind of people and I have no interest in their industry (5-20%)

results above provide single biggest reason to reintroduce some energy into your professional life

more than anything else a professional should be involved in marketing – the better you are at marketing, the better the chance you have to work on fun stuff

many professionals do not expect to like their clients

often it is organisational policies that induce the dissatisfaction and lethargy re finances not your satisfaction

take control of your own business development and reap money and fun

this is a virtuous circle – you will be more successful marketing to people you like on issues that interest you

while others may seek jobs, the defining characteristic of professionals is that they seek careers

do not abdicate your responsibility for your own future

we can all do business development!! being good at it involves nothing more than a sincere interest in clients and their problems & a willingness to go out and spend time being helpful to them (see Chapter 17)

[ Simon: & their opportunities !!! ]

if you really are interested in a (particular type of) client and clearly demonstrate both your ability and your willingness to help them, getting hired has no magic to it

need to understand who you do like (and why) and plan to get more of their work

[ Simon: reminding me I am far more interested in clients that are dealing with physical products or people and not industries like financial services. In some cases this is due to me not understanding or enjoying the complexities of financial services. ]

part of the art of achieving a fulfilling work work life is always seeking the angle to make it a challenge and fun i.e. your frame of mind

[ Simon: Interestingly, I have no direct involvement in business development in my current role. If I was to start doing as this chapter suggests, I may have to start doing this underground. I have mentioned my lack of involvement where I work. I am aware and have said that I am at the mercy of the work that comes in to the company and in some cases this has taken up 18 months and 2 years of my time on 2 major assignments which have both been interesting and varied projects. ]

[ Simon: Also making me think that for me the role I have on client assignments is also key. I love eliciting requirements, performing consultancy, facilitating large/complex workshop sessions and variety in the roles I perform, ideally on the same piece of work! ]

3: No Regrets

[ Simon: any excuse for a song … https://youtu.be/aszIgThW8JA ]

best piece of career advice I ever received when I was looking for tenure at Harvard: told I was asking the wrong question …

“The rule here is very simple. If the rest of the world wants you, we’ll probably want you. If the rest of the world doesn’t want you, we probably won’t want you. Focus on being the best you can be at what you want to do.”

[Simon: that word “focus” again!! My One Word for 2018 ]

do whatever you enjoy

followed the advice went from academia to consulting

success comes from doing what you enjoy, if you do not enjoy it how can it be called success?

The Power of Passion

career/business planning is not primarily an analytical task

in predicting professional success, enthusiasm and passion (and the hard work they inspire) count for much more than extra piece of ability

lifelong drive/ determination more influential in predicting professional success – hard to find discipline if doing something you do not love

what do you care about?

Figuring Out What You Want

few professionals have good answers to:-

• what do you want to do next?
• where would you like to be 3 years from now?
• what kind of clients would you like to have in 3 years?
• what next career challenge would you find most exciting?

need a continuously updated/ revised strategic plan for your career

not your firm’s needs/ goals!

where am I going (next) in my career?

The Recent Past

when did I have the most fun? when was I most fulfilled?

list every assignment over the past 3 years and ask those questions

With Whom Do You Want To Deal?

you will be happier if you like/ respect the people you work with/ for

life too short to be dealing with idiots

who do I want to impress? whose approval do I want to win?

Evil Secrets

to discover what you truly like/ love, ask what the things are that you do not like to admit about you

play to your “evil secrets”

Planning Horizons

often we outgrow what we do

do not think too far ahead

[ Simon: heard this podcast 2 days ago about how your top 3 things can change dramatically over time: programme on books/reading ft UK Olympian
rower Katherine Grainger, K mentioned a Nora Ephron commencement address. ]

[ Simon: also reminding me of Designing Your Life’s prototyping your life, taking steps in a direction to see where it leads you. ]

many successful careers viewed retrospectively were not planned in full ahead of time

the longer term will take care of itself

[ Simon: my current feeling about this for my own career is not necessarily this positive and I do need to do something about it. ]

The Advice of Others

ban the word “should” from your career planning

fatal to be over-influenced by others

others can help with options, ideas, suggestions, market/ business opportunities

you need to figure out what you value and value highly enough to throw yourself into  with unqualified passion

Don’t Sell: Buy!

happiness in professional life determined much more by the role you play than by the org you work for or profession you are in

[ Simon: reminded of Stephen Covey’s work on roles we play in every area of our lives. ]

find out from others who are doing what you are thinking of doing

[ Simon: this is precisely the objective of Designing Your Life’s Life Design conversations!! Great overlap. ]

do not sell but buy for yourself

nothing is more impressive (and hence marketable) than someone who clearly knows what s/he loves and why

you can either buy yourself a career or be bought by one

4: Dynamos, Cruisers and Losers

dynamo (10-20% of people in a firm):-

• acting as if in middle of career not a job and on your way somewhere
• personal strategic plan that you are enthusiastically working to fulfilling
• always learning something new
• continually adding to skills/ knowledge
• actively building their practice in new/ challenging areas
• look to get out of repetitive work (even if skilled and best person to do it)
• less about marketing  & client devt (they may be required), more about active career devt and continuous self-improvement

cruiser (65-85%):-

• fully competent
• successful professional
• work hard
• do good work
• take care of clients
• live off existing skills
• not going anywhere

loser (5-15%):-

• you do not meet basic standards of quality, client service, hard work
• temporary or permanent, can be caused by many things:-
• disruption in personal life
• loss of energy
• dying practice area

we all cruise some of the time

a professional cannot cruise for ever

a key to success is to find a way of to only cruise (if at all) occasionally and for short periods

challenge is to develop the cruisers given they are doing well!

everyone can and must become a dynamo

if you are not learning new things you are becoming obsolete

How Do You Tell If You’re Cruising?

profit = margin x rate x utilisation x leverage

profit: profit divided by you

margin: profit divided by fees

rate: fees divided by hours

utilisation: hours divided by people

leverage: people divided by you

[ Simon: I did not understand the “You” bits above! I found this article that helps a bit … I suspect the author is making the point that you could calculate these figures about you specifically as an individual. ]

hygiene factors: margin and utilisation

health factors: rate and utilisation

ways of increasing profit:-

• work more hours per person – donkey strategy
• charge more
• control overhead expenses
• deliver same /more service in less time

increase rate & leverage: dynamo

rate & leverage same: cruising

Passion, Hard Work and Success

difference between dynamos and cruisers is attitude

dominant competitive advantage is passion and persistence

understanding your client’s business and operating environment is often not done yet is key to engaging with client in areas beyond current assignment and may win new business

simply needs discipline which is the result of passion

doing things out of duty is drudge but out of passion is a joy

as a manager of professionals you need to create excitement and enthusiasm and help colleagues find the fun in being a dynamo and be intolerant of crusiing and demand (and help create) true achievement

be a net creator of excitement, not a net destroyer

[ Simon: so if I was to rate myself, I have dynamo tendencies re learning lots of new things and stretching myself but that is not directly targeted at applying that in a personal plan for my work and career, revealing again (!) my lack of proactivity,  definitely more in the cruiser group and occasionally in the loser group via loss of energy for certain tedious work ]

5: It’s About Time

a perverse belief held even by some of the best professionals and PSFs that only billable time really counts

tight systems for managing billable time but few have effective procedures for managing non-billable time

what you do with your billable time determines current income BUT what you do with non-billable time determines your future

invested properly your non-billable time could go into “asset- building” activities internally/externally

How Much Time Is There?

a majority of a professional’s hours are non-billable, unaccounted for and almost certainly unmanaged

what percentage of your non-billable time is spent constructively? typically 10-35%, mostly spent on (unstructured) marketing activities

how much of your non-billable time is spent on activities that were planned/ scheduled with a clear purpose? typically well below 50% and often close to 0%

your working life could improve by learning to take charge of the vast quantity of unstructured, unproductive, non-billable time and put it to productive use

to make life more fulfilling/ successful & less burdensome tomorrow, we must invest our non-billable time wisely today

[ Simon: I do recommend time recording down to 15 minutes for your working time. Done this for almost all my working career. And then use it to see where your time goes. Could also do this for all your other time and monitor your sleep, exercise etc. The key is to set targets and then monitor actuals against it. I need to do this more. ]

[ Simon: This is topical for me as I have been checking time records for work I am responsible for and it is a challenge for some to input their “official” time records into the corporate system. ]

[ Simon: I currently use Toggl for work time recording then export each week’s time records to an Excel spreadsheet and then do a pivot table to get totals by workstream and day to then input into my employer’s time logging system. ]

New Time Categories

stop thinking about billable and non-billable time

start thinking about:-

• income time (serving clients)
• investment time (creating one’s future)
• individual time (everything else)

this is to start treating investment time as seriously as income time

both billable targets and investment projects need to be met/ completed

keep investment time sacred

we are NOT increasing total hours worked!

this is all about focus-ing investment time

still need time for “administrivia”:-

• downtime between tasks
• reading (e)mail
• collecting one’s thoughts
• other small activities

suggest you start with 50% of current unbillable time and structure it with specific investment activities – then increase that over time

for 1,400 non-billable hours per annum, this is 700 hours!

[ Simon: The maths for my working days and hours per annum calculated as follows: starting with classifying each day in 2018 in a standard MS Excel list (part of the year only in the picture!) and then presented as an Excel pivot table taking off my annual leave. ]

Managing Investment Time

suggest that some non-billable hours are pooled with others on group projects

suggest you choose two groups to be a part of

group membership needs half of your investment time

held jointly accountable for results

3-monthly planning and review cycle, do this 4 times per annum – more likely to ensure that the planned actions are done

[ Simon: spooky, this is the OKR time period !! ]

Where Should The Time Go?

see list of critical business processes of a professional services firm:-

(9-13 only apply to firms)

1. Creating Innovative Solutions to Client Problems
2. Finding New, Efficient Ways to Lower Cost (to us) of Performing Professional Tasks
3. Earning Unprompted Referrals from Client Work
4. Turning Individual Client Assignments into Long-Term Relationships
5. Continuously Gathering Market Intelligence and Tracking Emerging Client Needs
6. Generating Awareness of Capabilities in Important Markets
7. Turning Inquiries into Assignments
8. Developing New Services
9. Attracting High Quality New Recruits
10. Transferring Skills to Junior Professionals
11. Developing and Growing New Senior Professionals from Junior Ranks
12. Disseminating and Sharing Skills and Knowledge Among All Professionals
13. Helping Professionals to Continue to Grow and Develop their Capabilities Throughout Their Careers

evaluate yourself against these, then your firm - for which of these processes do you have an explicit investment programme?

prioritise those that are most critical to your future success

typically only #1 scores highly

[ Simon: #1 also reminding me of a fave course that I have ever been on called “The Service Account Manager” from Pink Elephant. This covered defining the services you offer and how you develop services. It also covered account plans for your current/ prospective clients. I use this material still years later. Incredibly helpful. ]

#2 regularly scores low

re #3/4, two factual questions:-

• what % of assignments done for new clients turn into a long term relationship?
• what % of your clients refer you, without being asked, to their friends/ business acquaintances?

[ Simon: re referrals, reminded of Net Promoter Score that I came across via work I did with a WOL circler (not in the same circle as each other) from BMW in Germany. See The One Number You Need to Grow (HBR). ]

the list above is not new! we know this list!

the list of items for firms are among the least well-performed

the list needs to be tackled in a disciplined way

you cannot work on the whole list at the same time

get started … do something

[ Simon: working on this using the OKR processes would be an ideal way of doing this!. ]

A Personal Example

none of this is intellectually complex or hard to do

writing articles regularly is important to my reputation and my future

not billable and do not produce immediate results

I protect that writing time by diary entry – if it gets cancelled for client work, I reschedule it and stick to due dates

there is enough time for income time and investment time

if there is a choice between my reputation and my income, I should be smart enough to choose my reputation else this is self-destructive

[ Simon: this was in the days before blogging !! I remember those days!! ]

6: Are You Willing to be Managed?

in a PSF you can only manage what the professionals will let you manage

if people are not prepared to be held accountable for what they do, unlikely that they will achieve much

without accountability most of us will cruise along far below our true potential

what are you as a professional prepared to be held accountable for

A Conversation

[ Simon: good example of a Humble Consulting conversation ]

[ Simon: re outstanding customer service, reminding me of a fave ever course I did with the then-Kaset International titled Managing Extraordinary Service. I still use the material today. It included 360 degree feedback involving clients. A key part of this course was the use of Jan Carlzon’s moments of truth where the customer (internal or external) interacts with your organisation are analysed and radically improved as appropriate. This content could usefully be applied to employees with the new label of “employee experience” becoming more popular cf customer journey and now employee journey. ]

this is but one example - involve the client in getting feedback

issue of agreeing to be held accountable for financial performance but not for outstanding client service

Autonomy Versus Achievement

to achieve excellence in any area you must be prepared to put in a forceful monitoring system to ensure diligent execution

cf diets and exercise programmes, simply needs self-discipline and action

you can only achieve a goal if it is not treated as an occasional thing

Nagging Rights

needs self-discipline supported by  external conscience

give someone nagging rights over us in the relevant area

nagging only effective when you give someone permission to nag us

needs to be seen as supportive not negative/ punitive

cf athlete and coach

Democracy Versus Anarchy

moving to an org-wide perspective

you have a choice – what kind of firm do you want to belong to: one that maximises your and others’ autonomy OR one that rigidly enforces high standard in various areas

high standards, rigidly enforced, creates the accomplishment and the prestige

this is not a dictatorship

7: Why Should I Follow You?

the time comes when you must learn how to lead other professionals

most professionals do not want to be led or managed and are highly resistant to anyone making suggestions about how they practice or commenting on their performance

questions every professional asks when a new leader is appointed/ elected:-

• why should I follow you?
• why should I listen to what you have to say?

4 tests to meet:

Motives

need evidence that you are primarily committed to success of the team/ org rather than your own benefit

my primary concern is your integrity

how do you convince me of this?

• track record of helping other people
• bringing others into client relationships
• passing on responsibility to others

needs to be demonstrable in your track record

Values

what are your core values?

we need to share similar values

your personal philosophy of practice needs to inspire me and for me to share

need to be demonstrable in your track record

past actions consistent with those values

concerned with getting better not just bigger

infect us with your personal enthusiasm

be passionate about our work, fascinated with our clients and their problems (and opportunities) and care deeply about achieving something meaningful

Competence

you need to have constructive new ideas on how to improve things

not just a vision but an implementation strategy

demonstrable in your track record

make truly constructive suggestions in how I can improve

Style

an effective coach helping me/ others to stretch and fulfil goals

set me challenging goals

you need to be supportive and nurturing AND continually demanding & nagging me to stretch for my next achievement

key is consultation: extensive prior consultation on major issues for me to have the chance to make a difference

comms is not about telling me more but I want to be listened to more

demonstrable in your track record

Summary

… and all of the above applies to all the people inside the organisation and our clients

a leader does not build a business, a leader builds an organisation that builds a business

need someone who has an interest in building a team and who thereby gets satisfaction from the accomplishment of others

Part 2 (Mostly) About Your Firm

8: Values In Action

standards and values are not defined by your aspirations but by what you are prepared to enforce

you can only say you have values to the extent that there are clear, non-negotiable, minimum standards of behaviour that you/ your org will tolerate and there need to be consequences for non-compliance

[ Simon: the example of customer satisfaction surveys and orgs not acting on findings is easily remedied. In the customer service training I mentioned earlier, I subsequently implemented a survey for each of my team and me where we asked internal customers 5 questions with quantitative and qualitative answers. These results were included in each of our performance review documentation and acted on and that info passed back to the relevant customer. The questions included what would be extraordinary customer service to you, how would you grade the member of the team on that definition, where did the member of staff fall short, if at all, on that definition etc. ]

benefits to the org and you only come when you are reliably, consistently superior

the missing element in all this is usually management

beware anyone thinking that OK is acceptable

this needs to apply to external as well as internal working relationships

[ Simon: the parts of this about supporting and helping others has strong resonances with Working Out Loud re generosity and contributions. ]

making money is not a goal rather it is a by-product of a more noble pusuit

[ Simon: reminding me of lead and lag measures from The 4 Disciplines of Execution. You need to manage the lead measures and the lag measures will follow. ]

this will not work if less than 100% act in these consistent and enforced ways

this becomes a virtuous circle that once all people within org are acting in these ways it becomes the way we do things around here and requires less management time to enforce

most professionals want to belong to an org with real values

9: The Value of Intolerance

many incentive schemes do focus on individual performance but are not fussed about individual performance, we will just pay you less if performance is poor

but if incentives are team-/org-based, everyone shares consequences of your poor performance thereby encouraging others to help you up your game (or to get you off the team)

this leads to an environment of true excellence

it is the issue of tolerance that influences the success of the org

key in creating high-performance org is not reward system per se but whether there is an effective/ functioning performance-counselling system that addresses performance issues

if this is based on individual incentives, often an excuse for managers not to manage and abdicate their responsibility for coaching, counselling and assisting

requires incremental changes in behaviour via coaching not here is the end point that you need to achieve (cf pigeon psychology experiment)

you need to put in place incentives that cause performance to improve not just reward it when it happens

tools available to influence performance:-

• financial controls: measures
• social controls: discussions, peer pressure

easy to rely on former

important questions requiring “Yes”-es:-

• how good is the performance appraisal/ counselling system that acts as input to compensation decisions?
• do appraisals that feed the compensation decisions result in substantive, constructive feedback/ guidance to person being evaluated?
• does s/he know why they received the evaluation they did and what can be done about it?
• have other professionals pitched in to help underperformer achieve more?

not just annual reviews but ongoing informal counselling/ guidance sessions

timely feedback required and not relating to compensation at the time the feedback is given

have a shared level of intensity about performance

all professionals in an org need to be in agreement for this to work

10: A Time For Healing

many outstanding professionals feel alienated, devalued, disillusioned and cynical

in many orgs there is a fight for its soul – a fight for a new guiding ethic

there is a strong need for some optimism around here

lots of people acting more as independent contractors or free agents

What’s to be done?

firms must not only require professionals to succeed but actively help them to succeed

firms are good at demanding that people succeed but pathetically bad at helping them do that

some questions:-

1. do those who are good at biz dev help those who are not getting better at it?
2. is there any perceived reward for helping others?
3. does the firm hold intellectual-exchange meetings regularly so that professionals learn from each other (even though means less billable hours for the time)?
4. does the firm have practice-group leaders who are significantly less billable than the other professionals in the group so they have time to coach, influence work assignments and persuade the strong to help out those still learning?
5. does the firm reward those who develop templates, tools and methodologies that others can use in their practice?
6. are there joint marketing efforts where firm refuses to acknowledge, assign or accept allocations of biz generation credit to individual team members but insists that success or failure is that of the group?
7. does reward system minimise individual performance and base most rewards on group success by dealing with individual performance issues as a matter for guidance and counselling and not as matter for financial rap on knuckles?

people who exit should be able to say that the firm helped them to try to meet the standard and that they were helped into another position

effectively functioning small-scale practice groups are key with the following benefits:-

1. exchange of substantive professional ideas
2. creative assistance on client matters
3. collective self-development through sharing practice experiences
4. mutual development of practice tools
5. hard (financial) and soft (satisfaction) rewards of building a shared market reputation

these benefits are not automatic, they result from the following approach emphasising creation of joint intellectual property:-

1. practice group active in holding practice group meetings to exchange latest ideas/ developments
2. practice group emphasises development of shared methodologies, tools, training and marketing approaches
3. ensure that value to clients not solely in individuals but reflected in accumulated wisdom, experience & knowledge of the whole group

crucial role of practice group rather than whole firm in developing professionals to succeed due to:-

1. mutual learning/ assistance most likely to occur at small group level
2. even if firm-wide initiatives present to assist, better to start small and go for early success
3. (most important) many firms missing mutual trust and loyalty which is easier to build in small group

particular emphasis needed to help professionals in business development:-

1. organise as team activity
2. number of professionals jointly executing an integrated plan to develop a well-defined sub-market

provide professionals with appropriate support:-

1. support staff not always present (and have been cut)
2. used wisely can make professionals more effective (e.g. market research)

role of practice group leader:-

1. firm leaders need to be involved to ensure they are coaching and not policing
2. offer suggestions
3. being supportive
4. providing creative ideas
5. help people think through their roles and their best use of time
6. be participants in planning meetings, answering questions, offering ideas on practice issues

practice leaders should continually look out for new tasks/ roles for people as motivation

per Pygmalion, treat people like winners and they will turn out to be winners

re turning a firm round, re business decisions, a lot of pain for a few people in a short space of time wiser approach than small amount of pain for a lot of people over a longer period of time

[ Simon: I have done little formal service/practice development work but the process is not difficult! Just need to define the services we are offering, how we sell them, what the benefits are, what tools, methods do we use in their delivery, how do we price them, what is the current and target markets for these existing and new services, what the existing customer assessment of these services are. My best experience for doing this is when project managing the implementation of IT account management within an internal IT division where the internal customer business divisions could use their IT budget in any way they chose: we had every scenario ranging from total outsource to keeping all spend internal with the “friendly” internal IT team. I believe this approach needs to be widely adopted by all organisations regardless of size and including solo entrepreneurs and freelancers. I would be happy to discuss this with anyone who has this as a WOL circle goal or career/ personal development objective. ]

11: How Firms (Should) Add Value

re your value, many pros say they would be equally successful in other organisations

many pros believe that they work for the firm but the firm does not work for them

but do clients just get the wisdom/talents of the individual pros or do they get all that plus the collective wisdom/knowledge of the firm

firms need to ensure that there is value in the firm itself

Ways for firms to be valuable:-

1. provide pros with benefit of shared skills/experience within the practice group
2. support the pro with investements in shared tools/ methodologies/ templates, research etc
3. facilitate access to the skills of others in different disciplines
4. establish procedures to produce well-trained junior pros
5. achieve high level of referrals, cross-selling and access to clients of other pros
6. provide superior support staff/ systems to facilitate conduct of the practice
7. instil a system of supportive, but challenging, coaching to bring out the best in each pro, senior and junior
8. create an emotionally supportive “collegial” environment
1. “collegial”: “relating to or involving shared responsibility, as among a group of colleagues.”
9. provide for diversification of personal risk – in good times and bad
10. establish a powerful brand name that makes marketing easier

how well is your org delivering against those?

what is your personal order of priority of this list?

What does it take?

1. effectively functioning practice groups that deliver on potential for intellectual exchange
2. organised approaches to learning, even for senior pros
3. practice group meetings facilitating learning from one another and also develops a sense of community and heightens a sense of being engaged in a joint enterprise
4. shared resources collating as collective knowledge of the firm
5. stop reinventing wheels unnecessarily
6. well-run support systems, admin, tech to increase productivity

assess this by how often assistance is requested, offered, given informally

what is a firm all about?

1. some cohesion on a personal level!
2. not necessarily liking each other but that helps!
3. need to have something in common!
4. commitment to the firm

a firm needs to define itself by some sense of common purpose, common approaches and shared underlying values

get started on the systems and the philosophy will follow

[ Simon: I have real challenges in this area currently. We have documents etc scattered over multiple drives for ISO, security clearance reasons. I do try to only ever share links to files but that does not work when third parties are involved. Still issues around version controlling docs/xls’s etc when 2 organisations update them in parallel. We are trying to get more common approaches but working with developers and other professionals who each have their own preferred way of working. The challenge is real. Input on this and suggestions all gratefully received. ]

[ Simon: this is reminding me of personal knowledge management. As solo practitioners these issues also apply but clearly you are the form and, also, what happens when you start expanding and start using associates etc. ]

12: Success Through Skill-Building

firms can gain significant competitive advantage by developing new/existing skills and then outperform its competitors

you do not get competitive advantage by hiring better people than competitors but from superior ability to develop them

need to rapidly create new skills

this is a low priority for most firms

most learning is opportunistic, disorganised, haphazard and slow

(and usually the responsibility of the junior pro – sink or swim)

The Benefits of Skill-Building

advantages of skill-building better than your competitors:-

1. higher quality work product
2. increased ability to delegate with confidence and hence less stress on senior pros
3. fewer write-offs of unproductive time spent by junior pros
4. greater junior pros morale/ enthusiasm leading to better productivity/ efficiency
5. lower turnover of junior pros and hence lower recruitment costs
6. higher calibre of recruits due to spreading reputation for excellent training
7. greater client acceptance of using junior pros on assignments (and hence higher leverage) if they are seen to be well-trained
8. over time, earn (and deserve) higher fees due to higher skill levels

lots of firms do not do this due to the following myths:-

1. Training is expensive
1. having untrained people is more expensive
2. look at ROI not expense
3. correlation between high profitability and high investment in training: e.g. 14 days per annum
2. Skill-building is for the junior professionals
1. every pro needs to and should be expected to continuously learn
2. all pros should have a personal career strategy to make themselves more valuable in marketplace
3. all should constantly seek out new areas of practice to get involved in & seek ways to delegate the work they are more familiar with
4. zero tolerance for cruising
5. assess them not on volume of work but type of work done and its quality
6. can’t build fast skills if much of the work is repetitive/ routine so firm needs to be actively pursuing frontier, asset-building “new” work
3. Skill-building should be the responsibility of a Training Director
1. not just training but skill-building is required
2. majority of this is done on-the-job
3. does not happen automatically
4. all pros need to be effective coaches
5. learn by observing as well as by participation in the thought process leading to decisions on how assignment is to be handled
6. lead pros set stretching tasks and show how these fit into the whole
7. supervision through assignments
8. this is not hard to do just need to devote time/ discipline to it … every time
4. It is not worth training those who will leave
1. the best pros will always be the most mobile
2. weak, untrained “pros” will stay
3. aim is to develop all to be the best they can be, knowing that most will not make partner but as and when they do leave, will be loyal alumni of the firm
5. Training does not work (we tried it and failed)
1. people need to know that they need a skill before they get trained
2. ideally training done by your own pros – training is real, practical and believable
3. we all need to be good at delivering training
4. you also learn when you teach/train
6. Skill-building should focus primarily on technical matters
1. train soft skills too including how to deal with clients
2. widen to business skills in client’s business areas
7. We can change training without changing how we manage
1. need to reward/penalise those who are/are not coaching others
2. this needs to be seen by all as an investment that is worth doing for the long term success of the business

[ Simon: so my lack of a career strategy is highlighted once again but more positively I am certainly developing my skills on a lot of fronts that need to be channelled by me sorting out which areas do I want to major on ideally. May be some opportunities with current org to start influencing things down the route mapped out by the author. ]

13: What Kind Of Provider Are You?

how a practice should be run depends critically on how it is positioned (what key benefit the client wants to buy)

2x2 matrix:-

• degree of customisation needed to solve client’s problem
• degree of client contact the client requires in service delivery

The Pharmacist

low customisation, low contact

standard service, minimum cost

key skill:-

• supervision of low-cost delivery team

profit drivers:-

• high leverage, established methodologies

The Nurse

low customisation, high contact

guide the client through the process

key skill:-

• making client experience comfortable, user-friendly in going through set process

profit drivers:-

• above-average fees, good leverage, established procedure

The Brain Surgeon

high customisation, low contact

customer just needs the answer

price insensitive

key skill:-

• creative, innovative solutions to one-of-a-kind problems

profit drivers:-

• premium fees, modest leverage

The Psychotherapist

high customisation, high contact

client involved throughout

key skill:-

• real-time diagnosis of complex, ill-specified problems

profit drivers:-

• high fees, low leverage, referral of work to others

Difference between practices

each of the 4 are profoundly different

how provider makes money differs

different use of junior & senior professionals

Who makes most?

in principle, all 4 provider types can be equally profitable

the 2 most consistently profitable practices are Nursing and Brain Surgery

reducing the cost of delivery is a continual challenge

trying to always use junior professionals is only possible when low customer contact

The need to focus

which box you are in is determined less by the profession you practice than by market segments you are trying to serve

your service response needs to be appropriate to the customer including the right mix of senior/ junior professionals

customers are increasingly savvy so they usually know now if they need standard or tailored services

standardised services now increasingly common in customers’ minds

customers now often want to be involved in the process

[ Simon: interesting, this was written 20+ years ago. Is this still the case? If you get a standardised response, does that give you competitive advantage? Is this just all about speed of delivery and first-mover advantage? Reminding me of Schein’s Humble Consulting re understanding the client problem with personalised approach to listening etc. ]

[ Simon: also reminding me of some church stuff we have done over the years .. “the right people in the right places for the right reasons” and “whay are you doing what others can do and not doing what only you can do?”  … certain types of animals can run, swim, fly etc but some are specialists at running (cheetahs), swimming (otters) and flying (eagles). So in a services context, why should you as a senior pro do what the juniors can do. ]

practitioners in these 4 areas lead very different lives

depends not only on profitability & market size but also on how you wish to spend your working life e.g. amount of supervision and selling, amount of time explaining what you are doing, dealing with worried clients, staying at the forefront of your subject area, amount of time diagnosing problems with/without client interaction

these attract different personality types

Is there a career path?

these quadrants allow for a career path for juniors starting out as pharmacists and then moving on to other quadrants

often basic client skills hold some back!

c.f. hiring strategies, you do not need experienced specialists to deliver a pharmacy service

The Pharmacist:-

• hiring: para-professionals and other low-cost resources
• training: formal, structured
• promotion: few opportunities
• ownership: closely held

The Nurse

• hiring: inter-personal skills stressed
• training: formal, including role-plays of client situations
• promotion: limited if remain in this box
• ownership: profit sharing but little equity sharing

The Brain Surgeon

• hiring: best/ brightest from top schools
• training: informal, apprenticeship
• promotion: fast-track, up-or-out
• ownership: partnership or “open equity”

The Psychotherapist

• hiring: very selective, experienced experts with industry experience
• training: experiential, if any
• promotion: up-or-out in short timeframe
• ownership: broadly shared

Marketing

marketing and client relations differ markedly in the 4 boxes

pharmacy: market the firm itself

nursing: word-of-mouth and referrals

psychotherapy & brain surgery: emphasis on reputation/ skills of individual professionals

Managerial style

pharmacy would be like the military

psychotherapy needs participative & consultative player-coaches

understand your box and manage/lead accordingly

a firm can deliver all 4 types of services but this needs to be clear and managed appropriately – a challenge!

on large pieces of work, you may need all 4 types of professionals

[ Simon: most of this may be obvious but as always lots of business stuff is applied common sense. As I have read this chapter, it has been really easy putting the services my organisation delivers into the appropriate box and wonder about how well or otherwise the pros in each area are managed and deliver. We do deliver services in all 4 boxes. ]

for most firms as well as individuals, there is great power in knowing precisely who you are, precisely what you specialise in & precisely which client needs you intend to excel at

what kind of provider are you?

[ Simon: if like me you are a multi-potentialite or someone who is a generalist fighting not to be a specialist but has broad and deep interests, experience and skills, this is a depressing ending to the chapter. I do not want to specialise and I bring a raft of things to any table I am at. This remains one of my career issues as most of the world appears to demand that we are in a box. ]

14: Managing Your Client’s Projects

clients want us to actively manage the totality of the engagement

many report that we do not have internal systems to do this properly: evidenced by inability to supply progress reports etc

the most important unit of analysis is not individual pro or practice group but the engagement

Engagement-level P&L statements

need this for all engagements

helps practice development efforts

assists resource allocation

assists in effective mgt of engagement

Doing the maths

doing this at an engagement level is usually not difficult from existing accounting systems

revenue from invoiced engagement

less the cost of junior pro time on this assignment

• for each junior pro, annual salary + benefits divided by target number of billable hours to get cost per billable hour for each junior pro = total non-partner labour cost
• deduct any other costs for the engagement not reimbursed = gross contribution
• this is the amount available to cover overhead and partner profit
• (note if not a firm, instead of partner, do same calculations for senior pro time on this assignment)

how account for partner time?

use each partner’s compensation divided by billable hours

re terms, could use “cost” or “partner equity” invested in this assignment

need to cover overhead however!

can get more sophisticated over time

Using the reports

many questions could arise from these numbers:-

1. more profitable if we had used less highly paid partner?
2. could we have done this at same quality but with less partner time & more supervised junior pro time?
3. should we have used more senior partner time and charged more?
4. could we have saved cost/time anywhere on this assignment?
5. is this kind of assignment consistently below our target return? any lower cost methods of doing this or stop doing this service?
6. is there a good reason to accept below average profitability for this assignment? e.g. investment for existing client or encouraging new client

figures will prompt queries

Implementation details

using standard number of billable hours provides more objective comparisons and fairer basis for specific resource assignments e.g. not always using busy people or those with high cost based on person-specific actual hours & cost/hour

usual argument about just work junior pros harder (see all the book content to date about that!)

some may say incentivised senior pros to record fewer hours to raise their ROI – other systems needed to compare wider metrics with these as a set to spot such game playing

overhead argument as a challenge; overhead allocation schemes often controversial to some e.g. if I use fewer junior pros on assignment should that not reduce overhead cost re less use of space etc on this assignment?

• rarely changes results significantly
• metrics intended to initiate discussion/ thinking about efficiency/ productivity

do need to be able to split revenue at engagement level – should be in place given clients need that visibility

Extra Benefits

implementing engagement profitability system yields additional benefits:-

• easy to manage unbilled work in progress and overdue accounts receivable – charge an interest cost to see profitability of engagement reduce in real time – partner will have incentive to manage this
  
  Example:
  Net Cash Receipts
  minus
  Cost of non-partner time (non-partner hours x cost per hour of each person)
  minus
  Uncollected disbursements
  minus
  Cost of unbilled time (value of hours not billed within n (e.g. 30 days) x cost of borrowing
  minus
  Accounts receivable cost (bills outstanding over 30 days x cost of borrowing)
  equals
  Gross contribution
  divided by
  Partner investment in the matter (partner hours x cost per hour of the partner)
  equals
  Return on Partner Investment
  (could tweak if not partnership by including senior staff in non-partner time above)
  
  
• could use costing system to differentiate between junior staff who are learning and those who are being rotated with lower charge rate for the former to encourage their use
• where lots of seasonal work e.g auditing at year end, could charge higher rates for profitability in peak seasons to encourage partners to get work done in quieter times at lower cost

Rewarding and recognising supervision

successful implementation needs every engagement to have a supervising partner

does not have to be the person who brought in the work or is managing the work day-to-day

managing an engagement is a critical role to be performed and one that requires critical skill

“finders, minders and grinders” … need to measure and reward minding – the wise management of engagements

[ Simon: interesting how my mind works .. I was expecting this chapter to be all about work management and not financial management of the work …. being a Type A project manager getting work done and solutions delivered! ]

[ Simon: I am not involved in any of these areas in my current role. Although I do track my time and am aware of the work that I do for multiple clients/ workstreams including new project delivery work as well as supporting live systems for other clients. I would be interested to hear how anyone else does any of this reporting etc in their organisations. ]

15: Why Merge?

mergers can be successful, few of them are

they need to create additional benefit for clients not just the firms

is a merger the best way of achieving your objective?

merger types:-

1. menu
1. add additional services
2. needs you to have been good at cross-selling before
3. ask clients their view prior
2. bulk
1. you have to be big to be credible
2. good marketers do not necessarily need to merge
3. option of last resort
4. few of the things that determine success are critically dependent on size
5. “volume is vanity, profits are sanity”
3. dots
1. combine similar firms in different regions
2. may be OK for clients who need that new coverage for simultaneous coverage but do they really?
3. few clients consider geographic coverage as selection consideration
4. better to develop international people
5. benefits that can be achieved & how:-
1. most likely to occur at practice group level not firm level
2. primarily about creating new capabilities, not primarily about marketing
3. effects almost always different for each practice area
4. alchemy
1. expectation of synergy
2. this can be done
3. most powerful of all merger types
4. challenge is integrating variety of diverse specialists
5. clients need prime contractor to project manage assignments
5. crisis
1. one of most common
2. creation of immense disruption within merged firms enables major managerial/ personnel changes that may not have been possible politically prior
3. radical change often hard to build consensus for
4. changes need to be done within 12-18 months

Lessons

despite cynicism above, some mergers can be wise strategic moves

focus on talent (or methods and tools) acquisition not client acquisition – note: can do that by cherry picking staff

concentrate on client benefit immediately

pre-requisites for merger success:-

• you know exactly which clients will benefit
• you now exactly what those benefits are
• you have direct evidence that these clients want those benefits
• you have a concrete action plan on exactly how you will achieve the extra value for clients

[ Simon: not had any driving input experience in mergers but have been the casualty of one having no input in the process at all. ]

[ Simon: I view mergers as simply a different type of business change programme with its own distinctives but the process of leading and managing them are similar. ]

16: The Adaptive Firm

predicting future is exercise in futility, misses the point

strategic challenge for PSF is not this but to ensure firm is effective at adapting to (or driving) market change

lots of these changes are consistent over decades

most PSFs are resistant to change themselves

{Simon: Loving the irony given that we in PSFs drive change in our clients on assignments! ]

Devil’s Dictionary quote: “plan” – “the best method of accomplishing an accidental result”

Louis Pasteur: “Chance favours the prepared mind”

issue for many PSF change initiatives is we have the what but not the how

why plan in unpredictable world? through planning you can make sure that the way you run your biz makes you more adaptable and adaptive

key obstacle to this is being comfortable in your current environment

need to listen to your environment and pick up change signals early

have numerous experiments & pilot projects testing new ideas/ approaches

avoid complacency

good at understanding what we want people to do but not at the mgt systems that are needed to ensure that happens

if you do not change measures and rewards you have not changed strategy

key question: how shall we change our mgt practices so that our staff willingly adopt new behaviours?

this is an ongoing process not a one-time deal

need to be an org that welcomes change

what characterises a responsive, adaptive, flexible org?

1. aggressive listening to the market
1. listen do not talk at
2. listen for new ideas, needs, wants
3. needs to be done routinely and systematically
2. using market intelligence
1. after doing the above, drive out a list of actions to be executed practice group by practice group
3. raising the level of innovation
1. innovation needs to come from below
2. what have you done that is new? what are you going to do that is new?
   
   [Simon: reminding me of 3M who have a target of sales revenue that comes from products that were not on sale 3 or so years ago. ]
   
   
3. mgt role to stimulate experiments and encourage innovation
4. small plays better than grand schemes
4. sharing new knowledge
1. must become good at sharing results of experiments
2. reward those who contribute to intellectual capital of org via their new approaches
3. effectively a knowledge mgt platform
4. contributing to the success of others should be a primary requirement of all professionals
5. pressure for personal growth
1. biology: those who are the best adapted (doing well now) are the least adaptive (able to change)
2. we have too many people cruising i.e. doing a good job, meeting standards etc BUT not learning and growing
3. we must demand continuous personal growth “encouraged” by systems and personal interaction
6. management behaviour
1. at firm and practice group level, leaders can act as facilitator of change or barriers to change
2. they act as brakes not accelerators
3. they must be leaders not as controllers of change efforts
4. champion protect those who are taking risks with innovative approaches
7. measuring success
1. are our assignments for new things?
2. do we learn from completed assignments?
3. what are we doing now that we did not do 3 years ago? (!!!)
4. ask these/other questions at least annually to drive biz dev efforts

Next Steps

meeting conversation starters:-

1. in past, why have we not responded as well as we should to environmental trends we knew about? what held us back? what were barriers to change?
2. how good are we at listening to our markets systematically?
3. what can we do to systematise this process to find out what our different markets want and need? what would they like us to change?
4. how can we stimulate more experimentation? how can we get more people seeking out innovations? how can we pilot test new ideas?
5. how can we promote sharing of new approaches? how do we transfer lessons learned on assignments across the org rapidly? how do we encourage contribution of ideas?
6. how can we encourage all staff to strive for personal growth? how do we pay more attention to growing our assets, as well as short term financials?]
7. what is role of mgt in creating org that seeks out change? what should they do to encourage it? what do they have to do to stop discouraging it?

[ Simon: this John Maxwell book is on my list “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential” ]

( Simon: reminded of this tweet that I sent recently: “never really thought about it in these terms but today "human capital" reminding me that people/we need investment, planned/preventative maintenance and that people's knowledge etc depreciates over time if static, also it is a waste if those assets are not "used" #ldinsight” ]

Part 3: (Mostly) About Your Clients

17: How Real Professionals Develop Business

single thought in client’s mind when you try to see them additional service, why are you trying to sell me something?

possible reasons:-

• you are really interested in me and my company and have a sincere desire to help me
• you are just trying to generate additional revenue for your firm

best way to sell is not to see but to care

professionalism works!

[ Simon: again strong resonances with Schein’s Humble Consiulting. ]

do good work and clients will come (and you will get good word-of-mouth PR)

to be successful in marketing your PSF:-

1. ask clients how to serve them better: more of, less of, as now
1. keep going till they tell you what qualifies for a “you are terrific!!”
2. target at least 90% of clients give you written testimonial and 50% new clients come from unsolicited referrals from existing clients
2. invest heavily in current clients by showing interest in their business
1. work harder on the business relationship not just personal one
2. retention is professionalism
3. concentrate on this vs new business
3. if referrals not providing enough new business for your needs, repeat 1 and 2 then decide which new clients you would service for free (not that you will but gives you insight)
1. alters your mindset
2. act like a professional!
3. dream a little in your marketing
4. not ideal delivering services to companies you do not care about – do not just go for low hanging fruit
5. cf earlier personal questions about what % of your work you find intellectually stimulating and what % of clients you really like
4. design package of activities to demonstrate your special interest in your target clients
1. your clients want some evidence on which to base a sensible decision
5. once a prospect shows interest in you, stop talking about yourself, listen to what the client needs/wants
1. listen
2. good selling based on really understanding the client’s needs/wants
3. be helpful from the beginning

ignore brochure-ware and the like as your primary marketing weapons

good news is that professionalism and marketing are not in conflict at all

Dale Carnegie (How To Win Friends and Influence People): you will have more fun and success when you stop trying to get what you want and start helping people get what they want

18: Finding Out What Clients Want

primary source of quality failure in professions is miscommunication and misunderstanding between client and professional

largest component of miscommunication is how “success” is to be defined

1st task of every professional is to identify the clients’s true requirement whatever they may be

Alternate path to alternate goals

alternate definitions of success:-

1. permanent fix
• deal with the client problem once and for all
• we often assume that is what the client wants
2. quick impact
• not as disruptive as 1
• quick results even if temporary
• certainly explain to client benefits of 1/2 but ultimately let client decide
3. lowest up-front cost
4. least disruptive
5. etc

client needs to choose after informed educational discussion

professional’s steps:-

1. identify/explain all options available to client
2. help client understand risks, costs, advantages, disadvantages of each option
3. make your professional recommendation of which  option to pursue

Help clients decide for themselves

in some cases you need to help clients to both analyse their problem and reach their own decision

cf doctor giving you the options but it is your body and it is your decision as to what happens next

not the task of the professional to choose for the client

this is a negotiation

a significant part of a professional’s added value is in the generation of options

either/or discussions, pros/cons, clear choice

Reconfirming implicit objectives

an agreed proposal is not the final statement of the objective

you may get all kinds of confidential info after this point

client politics are central to a professional’s life

document and agree what definition of success that all parties are working towards

the perfect time to renegotiate the “psychological” contract or even financial one is as soon as you know about a change in client expectations

Changes in scope always happen

written and agreed scope is key and then renegotiate scope as changes come

a continual process in the life of an assignment

Is everyone on board?

all parties to an assignment need to understand the agreed goals etc

clear instructions need to be given to junior pros on approach on THIS assignment re products, format, dates etc

[ Simon: Nothing new to me here. This is project management 101 to me. Love doing product-based planning, product dependency diagrams and product definitions. This stuff is not hard. It just needs nailing each and every time. Reminder of Stephen Covey’s “Begin with the end in mind”. What does success look like at the end of the project and then work back to identify all required tangible and intangible products to get from here to that point. I love this stuff ]

19: Why Cross-Selling Hasn’t Worked

few if any firms have made cross-selling work on a systematic basis

issue is doing it the wrong way

Who benefits?

often turf wars re client ownership within firm

main issue is cross-selling does little, if anything, for the client

needs to be not just good for the firm

surely firm would win the 2nd etc business on the merits of that other team

need to demonstrate that client will get extra benefit from using 2nd team in same firm

sources of extra benefit:-

1. leverage the firm’s understanding of the client’s business
1. staff from 1st assignment to inform 2nd team
2. requires collaborative working of the 2 teams

cross-selling (no overlap in delivering 2 distinct services) vs integrated selling

note that integrated selling also brings down cross-team barriers

Why are you here?

need to organise to market to existing clients

role of account managers and account teams producing account service plans

key word is “service” not “sales”!

clients expect us to earn follow-on business

need to take an interest in the client’s business. including client contact on/off current assignment

service plan needs activities to understand the client’s business in an organised way

expect feedback re client’s business from all those working on assignments for the client

What clients want

clients welcome/expect suggestions from us about how to improve their business

they do not want hard sell

Making it happen

client needs to get a good result from an assignment and feel that it was a pleasure to work with us

invest in client relationship so that we are visibly seen by client as earning/deserving future work

have a true desire to help

20: Measuring Your Marketing Success

sales revenue is an insufficient, often misleading, indicator of marketing success

marketing should be about getting better business not more business

tests for better business:-

1. The Income Statement Test:-
1. more profitable than existing business
2. focus on profitability considerations
3. reasons why firms focus on volume
1. insecurity
1. go after any business you can
2. risk of not winning the better business
2. over-emphasise business origination (i.e marketing success)
1. profitability nice, but secondary
2. winning business is the key measure not the later hard work bit
3. this is classic short term thinking
4. need to focus on true profitability
2. The Balance-Sheet Test:-
1. are we bringing in work that will help us improve our skills and stay competitive
1. asset-milking  vs asset-building
2. marketing activity must bring through the latter
2. suggested approach: quarterly practice group meeting assessing each assignment in prior period:-
1. learn new skills?
2. expose us to important new client (prominence, source of referrals, etc)?
3. increase, not just, sustain, an important existing client relationship?
4. allow us to leverage more than in past?
5. allow us to command higher fees than in past?
6. allow us to work “higher” in client organisation?
7. introduce us to a new industry?
8. lead to other work with this client?
3. need to have a majority in building catergory
4. ideally include a third party sceptic
5. can also use this ahead of time in a prospect screening process

Marketing Statistics

metrics to answer following questions:-

1. recurring business: percentage of revenues will recur next year without any effort
2. capacity: total marketing capacity, measured in person-hours
1. cost often measured but hours drive marketing success
3. proposal budget: person-hours spent on a typical proposal
4. win-loss ratio: percentage of assignments that you pursue that you win
1. helps also to identify patterns e.g. bigger ones won/lost
5. assignment size: size of average assignment
1. larger tend to be more profitable
6. penetration: percentage of all fees spent by clients on services that you deliver that they pay to you
1. are you dominant/ lead supplier?
7. sole-source: percentage of business is won on a non-competitive, sole source basis
1. the best measure of quality
8. new-client: percentage of this year’s revenues are from clients new to you this year
1. if too high, means more marketing activity
9. client-retention: percentage of top 10 client were top 10 3-5 years ago
10. new-service: percentage of your revenues come from services new in past 3-5 years

21: Satisfaction Guaranteed

you can gain competitive advantage by explicitly guaranteeing your work

e.g. Christopher Hart’s consulting firm (from book “Extraordinary Guarantees”

“Our work is guaranteed to the complete satisfaction of the client. If the client is not completely satisfied with our services, we will, at the client’s opinion, either waive professional fees, or accept a portion of the fees that reflect the client’s level of satisfaction.” 

note this does not guarantee a specific result

what is the alternative?

“if they don’t like your work, don’t take their money” (Secrets of Consulting; Weinberg)

some clients put e.g. 20% into escrow and only pay at end of year when happy with work

Who decides value?

performance billing:-

• where client tells you proposed fees are high
• offer to client for them to pay 75 – 125% of proposed fee based on their satisfaction

[ Simon: becoming more exposed to payment milestones on projects I am managing which does influence how I need to manage such projects. None of this, yet, is like the suggested approaches in this chapter. ]

cf time and materials and fixed price and impact on both parties to the transaction

increasing desire for clients to take control of the money they are spending via visibility of what work was done in how much time

Making the guarantee work

pilot this with a select group of existing clients (needs to be for all work for those clients for consistency)

identify who in the client makes the value decision

trust for this to work means you assess clients carefully

helps with work management and the quality of the products