In his newest release, Patrick Lencioni helps us understand that the wisest approach to client service is perhaps uncomfortable and counterintuitive. He uses his usual style of writing: putting a concept into the form of a fable. Even though this approach is a bit different than other business books I typically review, it is unique and holds the reader's attention. The writing style and voice hit close to home for those that lead or manage others. Most specifically, the style draws important contrasts between the conventional (how most people do things) and his approach (a prescribed way of doing things).

The fable contrasts two different consulting firms that are in the process of merging. One firm is the large, international firm located in the financial district of downtown San Francisco while the other is a small boutique firm with an unconventional culture located in a remodeled elementary school where people dress casually and choose not to be workaholics. While we expect the larger firm to come in and make things significantly more corporate in style, the author illustrates some valuable lessons along the way. Perception is not always reality as we learn that the larger firm might learn a thing or two from the smaller one.

Lencioni reminds us that bigger is not always better and that acquiring and retaining clients is not a matter of Power Point slides and slick marketing materials as much as  it is about relationships and authenticity. Getting Naked turns its focus to client relationships and service in a way that service organizations from the top down should be implementing. Client relationships are about truly understanding challenges, working through alternatives as partners, and even sacrificing short term gain for long view success.

The essential point of the book is that humility is a key underpinning of authentic service.  As Lencioni writes, "...sometimes we forget that the word `service' shares the same root meaning as `servant' and even `subservience'." Vulnerability, truth telling, preferring others, and genuine desire to help, are key ingredients to trusting service relationships. And there can be little doubt that where there is trust, results will be superior to situations characterized by distrust, political positioning, saving face and self-promotion.

I would highly recommend this book if you work in or manage a professional services firm or are interested in overall career development. I believe that if we had more people in the executive world that looked at relationships in this way, business engagements would have more success. Lencioni's Getting Naked resonates with me and is highly applicable. The author has simplified a concept which often eludes us in business relationships and, possibly, in our personal aspects of life. While the book was targeted to the business of consulting, the principles outlined are universal and can be applied to many other aspects of living a "meaningful" life. Lencioni himself, at the end of the book, notes the model outlined in the book "applies to anyone whose success is tied to building loyal and sticky relationships with the people they serve"...just about all of us!

ARE YOU “NAKED?”

Recently I have been encouraged to practice "nakedness"…in the form of authenticity and transparency.  Even though it runs counterintuitive to the principle of "nothing sells like success," I have always wanted to be straightforward.  Author (Patrick Lencioni in "Getting Naked: A business fable…") and thinker/blogger/consultant, Harry Tucker, in his recent blog on "Hubris and Humility: Finding Balance both encourage people along the same lines.

Last year was the worst economically since the Wall Street crash of 1929 for much of the U.S.  Executive search firms were affected and many laid off up to 40% of their staff and those retained were earning perhaps less than half what they were used to.  The largest search firm focused on academic searches was running one search per two consultants instead of the more common three to five searches per consultant.  The Dingman Company, while business was way down, kept all our staff although pay and hours were reduced.  Gratefully, things seem to be picking up now.

Authenticity remains a priority even in poor economic times. Yet with business down, it was common for some firms to say they were really busy often touting how great things were when reality was the opposite.  For example, we have sometimes had a prospective client needing to fill a senior management position using specifications that made the search not feasible or where we could not find four great candidates.  While we would decline the search for those reasons, another search firm might be much more optimistic, landing the search, but might end up not completing it due to the problems we foresaw.  Our decision may have cost us revenue but it did not mar our reputation.

Likewise, transparency and authenticity is appropriate when running a company.  In fact, a good example of this is one of our new clients, a manufacturing company, has created a culture that cements the relationship between ownership, management and employees through a commitment to high values, maintaining total honesty and integrity and has an ESOP (everyone has a vested interest as owners).  We recently spent a day and a half on site interviewing all the key leaders and it was amazing to see how their values translated into high morale, a strong work ethic, and a desire that everyone is treated equally (no status symbols or big egos allowed!).  The firm is perhaps the fastest growing in their industry and quite profitable.

It may be a contrarian point of view but not only is being transparent, authentic and humble the right thing to do, in the long term it can also be a very successful strategy.

FLYING ON "AUTOPILOT" IS NOT WISE!
…a musing with life applications

Flying on autopilot requires less effort and less of our attention as any pilot will tell us. However, doing it in life and in relationships can have disastrous results.

Many go through life without the intellectual integrity to ask the tough questions:  "Who am I...how did I get here...where do I want to go...what is the purpose for my life...what do I believe...how do I maximize my life...how do I get the best out of relationships."  These are strategic questions everyone should ask and resolve to answer while applying them to life, relationships and career.

When living on autopilot a person just goes through life without having wrestled with hard questions. And just as we and our clients look for candidates who are strategic, anyone who thinks they are strategic really isn't if these hard issues haven't been addressed.

There was a "Peanuts" comic strip where Charley Brown had pitched the baseball game...in the rain...and lost badly.  To which he opined, "How could I lose when I'm so sincere."  In his case while sincerity was good he also needed athletic ability.  Likewise, it is not enough to sincerely ask the question, one must come up with the right answer, and an answer is not right because it is popular...it is right because it is true.  So, don't settle for just any answer.  Keep at it until you are confident you have the correct determination for you.  Our life and what we do with it, is our greatest contribution.

As an example, working through these demanding issues has resulted in my mission statement: "To make a positive difference in the lives of people and the lives of organizations."  And that's applied to my work relationship with clients, candidates, peers and my team, to my faith and my faith walk, and with my family and friends.  I want to be authentic, sincere, and sold out to what I believe.  How about you?  

If this musing has sparked any thoughts...I would love to hear from you.
Bruce Dingman
bruce@dingman.com