TheLeadershipNotebook

From Technician to Trusted Advisor: 5 EQ Skills That Make a Difference

”Giving advice is not an exclusively logical process,

but rather an emotional duet played between the advisor and client.

If you cannot learn to recognize, process and respond to a client’s emotions,

you cannot be an effective advisor.”

~David Maister

 

A couple weeks ago, I had coffee with Rob Nance of IShade. One of the top issues we discussed was the critical importance for CPAs (and other professionals like lawyers and engineers) to shift into a role of “trusted advisor” to their clients moving from a transactional problem solver or one-dimensional technician.

How can the shy or reticent professional, who is confident in the numbers they’ve crunched or statutes they site, move beyond the role of technician and into a role of a true advisor? Or how can the extravert stop talking long enough to listen to their clients in order to learn their most pressing issues?  

It turns out that developing professionals along 5 specific emotional intelligence (EQ) realms can make the difference between being seen as “just a bean counter” OR “a valued member of the client’s team.”

 

David Maister in his book, The Trusted Advisor, describes several distinct attributes.

Trusted Advisors focus on:

• the client, rather than on themselves
• the client as a whole individual, rather than a person fulfilling a role
• problem definition and resolution rather than technical or content mastery
• new ways to be of great service to the client
• doing the right thing rather versus achieving their own rewards
• quality client relationships

 

Over the next several blog posts I’ll share each of the five key EQ realms along with strategies for building your skills in these areas. We'll talk about the first, self-actualizaton, today.

 

Trusted Advisor EQ Skill #1—Pursuit of Meaning

All the skill building in the world won’t matter if you don’t find meaning or purpose or desire in becoming a trusted advisor to your clients. So ask yourself: What motivates me? Is becoming a trusted advisor a focus for me as I plan for my future? How committed am I to continuous improvement and building the skill sets that becoming a trusted advisor requires?

The process of becoming a trusted advisor is a journey not a destination. It’s a process of continuously honing your skills and abilities to become an outstanding resource for your clients. It often requires moving outside your comfort zone and stretching beyond your current capabilities.

If your answers to the above questions indicate that you are ready and willing to transition into this more advanced role, now take stock of your strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself: What are my best gifts and talents that I can leverage as I make the transition? What do I enjoy currently in my role in serving clients? How can I take the skills I use successfully in my personal life and apply them in my professional world?

Becoming “self-actualized” may sound high minded or philosophical but it’s actually quite practical. When you are interested in persistently trying to improve yourself and engage in meaningful goals and objectives, great things can happen. Success, happiness and life satisfaction involve doing what you enjoy and finding ways to apply your talents and strengths.

Your assignment for the next week is to take stock of your strengths. What do you love to do in your job? What do you excel at? What gives meaning to the work you do? What are you motivated to achieve in your role? How about your areas for development? What are those? How motivated are you to shore those up?

Your journey to trusted advisor begins here.

To your success,

Mary

 

 

Is Your Gas Tank on Empty?

 

“We grow the aspects of our lives that we feed-with energy and engagement-and choke off those we deprive of fuel. Your life is what you agree to attend to.”

 

~Jim Loehr

 

 

Mark,* a high level CPA with a Fortune 100 Company, bounded into our coaching meeting, out of breath and clearly wired. As he caught his breath and calmed down, I asked him what was up. This was the second meeting in a row where he showed up at wits end, clearly having difficulty staying focused and managing the pace of his role. He was in overload.

 

And to catch up and save time, Mark did what he thought was the obvious: He skipped his lunch, ate candy bars in the afternoon for bursts of energy and rarely got any exercise. Making matters worse, he averaged about 4 hours a night of sleep.

 

But Mark was misguided. Rather than saving time, these behaviors were actually undermining his overall effectiveness.

 

Can you relate to Mark? Are you just about out of gas? You’re not alone.

 

When the seemingly relentless demands at work and burdens of a busy life take their toll on work performance, we tend to think that managing our time better will improve the situation. If we can just work faster, multitask more efficiently, things will be better, we think, as we skip another meal or pass up on that extra hour of sleep.

 

However, as Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, authors of The Power of Full Engagement, explain, it is the skillful management of energy, not time, that most significantly affects high performance. Too often, we squander this valuable resource through energy-taxing habits.

 

Take a look at this list of physical, emotional or mental habits and assess how you are managing your energy:

1. I rely on sugary or carbohydrate-rich snacks for bursts of energy when I need an energetic pick-me-up

2. I believe that life is an endless marathon to be endured; you just have to keep on running. 

3. I tend to do what feels immediately pressing and easier to accomplish rather than make intentional choices about how I spend my time and what matters most. 

4. I hate routines; they’re too much like being stuck in a rut. I prefer to be loose and spontaneous.

5. I’m so busy I rarely have time to reflect on what I value most deeply.

6. I seem to be stuck in overdrive; I feel like I’ve lost the ability to shift to any other gear.

7. I work out (cardiovascular and weight training) irregularly, if at all.
 

8. I regularly get less than six hours of sleep.
 

9. I rarely take breaks; that way, I can get more done.

10. When I take the time to notice, my breathing seems shallow; I seem to go a long time without taking a deep breath.

11. Anxiety, frustration and overwhelm seem ever-present for me.
 

12. When I’m under pressure, I easily become harsh or defensive with others.

13. Personal relationships are not something I devote a lot of energy to. If they don’t work, I move on.

14. I smoke and/or drink; to be honest, doing so really helps lower my anxiety level. 

15. I believe that downtime is wasted time. 

 

Hint: If you answered “true” to more than just a few of these statements, you’re probably not performing—or feeling—as well as you could be. Taking more effective charge of your energy can keep you moving strong with a full tank of gas. You’ve got too much to do to ignore the facts surrounding high performance.

 

Is it time to fill up your gas tank? What practices and behaviors have you found that give you the energy to work and live at your very best?

 

To your success,

 

Mary

Give Yourself an “A”

 

“Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.”

 ~Michaelangelo

 

Michaelangelo said that in sculpting his masterpiece “David” that he was merely chipping away from the marble everything that was not David. In other words, one needs only remove the excess stone to reveal the work of art within.

 

When we apply this notion to us as humans, we discover that we are all works of art in all our varied shapes and forms. Life’s true journey is the process of uncovering and removing what’s in the way of our shining through with beauty and brilliance.

 

In support of helping us find the best in ourselves and others, consider the practice called "giving an A" that comes from one of my all-time favorite books, The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. This practice asks us to choose the perspective of seeing everyone (even ourselves!) as holding great potential. You can give an A to anyone—your spouse, children, employer, co-workers—even strangers.

 

Taking the familiar classroom example first, notice that when students think of themselves as C students, they may not bother trying very hard. If the teacher expects them to do poorly, the students are likely to fulfill that expectation. What would happen if the expectation were that the students were A students?

 

Benjamin Zander, a world-renowned conductor and teacher, experimented with giving As to all his graduate music students at the start of school. They were instructed to pre-date a letter to him from the end of the semester, writing to tell him not just what they had accomplished, but who they had become in the process of living up to that A. The results were amazing. Students who had been anxious over their performance and who were playing it safe, began to see themselves differently and participated at a higher level.

 

In our work lives, it is easy to fall into the habit of judging others (ourselves, too..) for not living up to what we think is right and then holding that judgment as always true—in essence, labeling them C or D students. Imagine coming from a perspective of believing in an associate’s creativity and potential. The result can be working together toward a shared goal of excellence.

 

The world is much more beautiful and full of possibility when we choose to focus on the work of art within rather than the excess stone that appears to be the reality. It’s really a choice of perspective. What grade do you want to live into?

To your success,

 

Mary

The Avengers and The Critical Role of Followers

 

“It is the men behind who make the man ahead."

~Merle Crowell

My daughter Emily, soon to be a law school graduate, is an extra in The Avengers movie that premieres today. That’s her, in the back left. I can pick her out.

 

 

Her experience as a cast member in the movie was certainly a memorable one. But it involved long, grueling nights last summer (midnight to 7 am) to shoot the same scenes over and over and over again. And many of her hours were devoted to scenes that will never see the light of day.

But without Emily and scores of other followers like camera people, costume designers and technical crafts people, superheroes like The Avengers would never get to shine so bright. These followers are cooperative team players, persistent and determined, committed to the excellence of their project.

Building and developing leadership skills is the focus of books, coaching sessions and even many of these Leadership Notebook blog posts. But we must remember the wise words of the great philosopher Aristotle: “He who’s never learned to obey can’t be a good commander."

What do you think? What is the value of a good follower in your organization?

To your success,

Mary