The Advisor’s Corner

Clients for Life

September 11, 2023/in Extraordinary Customer/Client Service/by Tom Doescher

Tom Doescher

Recently I decided to re-read “Clients for Life,” a book written by Andrew Sobel and Jagdish Sheth that my partner, Paul Bernhard, highly recommended when it came out 20 years ago. I’m not sure why, but it didn’t impact me back then like it did this time. The target audience is service professionals including lawyers, management and technology consultants, CPAs, corporate bankers, financial advisers, executive recruiters, advertising executives, and even sales executives. If you fit one of those categories, I would highly recommend you consider this book your Bible for client service, and keep a copy of it on your nightstand. To me, it’s the textbook for extraordinary client service. Those of you who have had the good fortune of attending the Harvard Business School Executive Program – Leading a Professional Service Firm will find the content of “Clients for Life” is consistent with Harvard’s findings.

As already stated, the book is rich and filled with a lot of content, significant suggestions, and observations, so I won’t even attempt to summarize it. Instead, I’ll provide what I believe are the seven key attributes of the best professional advisers:

Selfless Independence — Great advisers have an attitude of complete financial, intellectual, and emotional independence. They balance this independence with selflessness; they ‘re dedicated, loyal, and focus on their client’s agenda, not their own. It’s a fine line to draw. On one hand, you’re being responsive to a client’s needs and problems; on the other, you’re maintaining objectivity and honesty at all times.
Empathy — This drives the ability to discern a client’s emotions and thoughts, and to appreciate the context within which that client operates. It enables advisers to diagnose what the problem really is.
Deep Generalist — A continuing passion for learning drives the best advisers to continually broaden their knowledge.
Synthesis — This is the ability to see the big picture, to draw out the themes and patterns inherent in masses of data and information. It includes related skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving. The ability to synthesize sets advisers apart from subject matter experts, who rely mainly on analysis.
Judgment — The culmination of studying a particular complex situation and providing the client with a clear path forward.
Conviction — This comes into play as the adviser offers opinions, recommendations, and judgments. In my experience, the client really wants to know what you would do or what you think they should do. That’s what they hire you for.
Integrity — This attribute comprises a constellation of skills and behaviors that build trust, including discretion, consistency, reliability, and the ability to discern right from wrong.

In closing, if you’re a professional adviser and/or lead a team of professional advisers, this 2o-year-old book is a must-read and a must re-read.

p.s. In addition to the authors’ personal pearls of wisdom, they reference additional outstanding books to support their position. Many of them you may have already read — but, like me, you may find a few new ones to read in the future.

A Great Success Story

August 14, 2023/in Ideas to help you build a solid team/by Tom Doescher

Tom Doescher

Recently I was meeting with a client and asked him, “How is Linda doing?”

First, a bit of background. My client hired Linda through a government program whose mission is to help people who are on some type of government assistance find a full-time job. Over the years, my client has hired a number of team members through this program, with mixed results.

A couple of years ago, he hired Linda to serve as a receptionist and general office helper in his company’s retail location. She fit in well with the other 20 team members and was perfect for the position. As time went on and she observed the other team members, she thought maybe she would like to join the in-store sales team. One day, she asked the owner if that was a possibility. Before committing, he spoke with the other sales team members (in my opinion, this is a best practice and a brilliant move). They were more than happy to have her join the team, and offered to mentor her. Linda had never held a position like this and it was a little bumpy at the beginning, but her coworkers offered her direct, actionable feedback (another best practice) that she took to heart and implemented.

The answer to my question was that she’s doing “Great.” Me being me, I then asked, “What was her total compensation last year?” To which my client said, “Let me look it up.” When he got to the information, he exclaimed, “Wow! She made over $70,000 and is the second-highest-paid salesperson.”

This is why Doescher Advisors does what it does. I want to advise owners like this, who help people like Linda. I could say a lot more, but I think you get it.

Types of Leaders

July 10, 2023/in Sharpening Your Personal Leadership Skills/by Tom Doescher

Tom Doescher

In my last blog, I recommended reading “A Great Place to Work for All” by Michael C. Bush. Almost as an aside to the theme of his book, Bush reminds us of the Jim Collins five levels of leaders from his famous book, “Good to Great”.

Level 1: The Unintentional Leader Unintentional Leaders are easy to spot. They don’t seem to realize the impact they have on others, so their behavior can hurt the people they work with, as well as the organization. Here are a few traits of Unintentional Leaders: They think in terms of employees versus people who have full, complex lives; they take credit for work they didn’t do; and they’re too consumed with worries about personal matters to care about the job.

Level 2: The Hit-or-Miss Leader These leaders are on or off, hot or cold, a good friend or ally to some but not to others. Here are a few traits: They may be in over their head; they can’t focus, due to personal problems; and direct reports often transfer to other departments.

Level 3: The Transactional Leader Transactional Leaders get the job done and nothing more. They value checking things off the list, especially things related to their own goals. Here are a few common traits: They value getting things done over talking to people; they give orders more than they listen to employees’ concerns; and they’re often described as “efficient but cold.”

Level 4: The Good Leader Direct reports stay because of Good Leaders. They’re consistent, inclusive, sincere, and clear about expectations. Here are a few traits: They’re good at developing and mentoring people; they’ll talk to team members about both work and personal issues; and they receive good performance comments from peers as well as direct reports.

Level 5: The For All Leader; A Great Leader For All This type of leader truly has his/her team members’ best interests in mind. Their team loves them, they don’t micromanage, and they’re fair. These are some of their traits: They attract smart, engaged team members who are motivated to do their best; their team members are very innovative and attain above-average business results; their teams work well with other teams; and their team members “love their job.”

I found this section of the book to have fresh, innovative ideas about leadership. If you’re currently looking for a new way to view leadership, I found the terminology and suggestions to be spot-on. You may want to use Bush’s scale to rate your leaders and provide them with some practical, implementable actions. Keep in mind that these ideas are from some of the best companies to work for in the world, based on information provided by employees representing all levels of a business. Good luck!

p.s. In a phone conversation with Michael I discovered that he had the good fortune of having Jim Collins as a professor during his MBA program at Standford.

Clients for Life

Tom Doescher

A Great Success Story

Tom Doescher

Types of Leaders

Tom Doescher

Contact

Explore

SUBSCRIBE