Small and/or transactional clients can pose many problems. In fact, dealing with these types of clients is a vexing issue for many companies. Here’s why: Small Clients: Are costly to service—they can use up senior time (partners, senior executives) with…

Ellen and Peter are both partners with large, well-known public accounting firms. They both went to good schools and have years of experience in auditing the financial statements of Fortune-500 companies. That’s where their similarities end. Ellen is a trusted…

I get a lot of requests. Very rarely—almost never—the person writing me asks a simple question: Is there anything I can help you with? Those get my attention. Although the last one like that was years ago. One morning, while…

(Note: This true story, told by my co-author Jerry Panas, was published as a chapter in our book Power Relationships) In Oswego, Kansas, people are mighty proud of their twelve-bed community hospital. There are other hospitals in larger neighboring cities. But…

The US presidential campaign is now in full swing. I won’t comment on this campaign, but I will describe something fascinating that happened in a very important presidential race from the last century. It illustrates the power of self-disclosure and…

Steve Pfeiffer had just stepped down as chairman of one of the largest law firms in the United States, Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright). Elected and reelected three times by his partners, he served three terms as chairman…

On November 25th, 2008, Citigroup executive James Bardrick stepped off his plane at the Mumbai airport in India. At the time, he was co-head of Citigroup’s banking business for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. His keen intellect, easy way with…

It was a perfect evening. I still remember it vividly nearly twenty years later. My wife and I were sitting at a table for two at one of the most talked-about restaurants in Paris. You could just spy the Eiffel…

Years ago, I moderated a panel discussion about trusted business advisors. I interviewed three senior executives who were chosen because they had spent a lifetime selecting and hiring professional advisors and suppliers of all types. The audience consisted of the…

Sometimes, the urgency of the lead is inversely proportional to the probability of conversion. It was six in the evening. I was about to wrap up for the day. The phone rang. I was tempted to let the caller leave…