The cost of efficiency, speed, and perfection is our humanity. As a consultant, your job is to bring a quality of aliveness into and through all your work.
Confronting your own resistance is a vital process in and of itself. It’s not something to be used as a tool of manipulation but to take responsibility for your own life.
If things are not going well, ask yourself, “what is my contribution to the difficulty I’m having?” By asking yourself the tough questions, you treat yourself as an active player in your life and work.
There aren’t any blueprints in human systems. We can’t predict the future. We fall into the habit of identifying familiar solutions, which makes it hard to get anywhere new.
You can’t change anyone; that’s their responsibility. Your responsibility is to shift the narrative.
If you want to work in a true partnership, you must be ready to make demands on the world. Even in a service profession like consulting, you’ve got to say “here’s what I want from you.”
Fear doesn’t have the best reputation, especially in the workplace. When you or your client acknowledge your worries, the vulnerability you express creates a trusted connection.
Giving feedback can quickly reinforce an idea of helping or control. When we fail to be authentic when offering feedback, we fail as consultants and business partners.
Peter Block encourages people to realize they have the power to make choices, and the right choice is not necessarily the most expected.
Regularly addressing what you appreciate means communicating expectations for how clients can work with you.
It’s easier to spot gifts in clients than in ourselves. How you look in the mirror often reflects how you show up in the world.
When your clients worry about what you’re offering them, selling them on it won’t work. How do you navigate this resistance?
When people say “I’m fine,” they aren’t necessarily lying, but they are playing a role. Give people three chances to break character by asking the same question three ways. If it doesn’t work, move on.
Rather than focusing on “fixing” your client and others, step back and ask, “What is it that I need to understand more fully about you?” This is when building trust comes into play.
The steps to the consulting process often aren’t linear, but that’s ok. Eventually, they all lead to the implementation you and our clients seek.
Especially in a service role like consulting, collaborators want to connect before getting into the content. Authenticity takes courage, but that’s also what makes it interesting.
Despite the pressure from our clients, you know that change requires time, and it’s your job to hold space for it.
In the business world, mystery often isn’t welcome. What if we restored an acceptance of the unknowable in the workplace? Cultures of service can’t always be based in proof.
The typical business culture is one of high levels of control, working toward dehumanizing processes. If you want to make an impact, restore the human element in the workplace.
Problems often go much deeper than how they are initially presented. Your job is to dig to find the root of it all.
Project management and starting a good business start with a purpose. Ask yourself, “what is the community of people I need around me in order to create something bigger?”
The question isn’t, “are you optimistic?” Optimism and pessimism are concepts of no use. Try asking instead, “what would restore you?” Our faith in each other is the future.
In a service profession like consulting, your job is to shift the narrative from a high-control system focused on results to one of relatedness with the purpose of making an impact on the world.
Setting up a room in a high-engagement way always involves the creation of small groups. In small groups, people can get present, be heard, and listen deeply to the experience of one another.
You’ve done what you can but still can’t help but think, “this isn’t working.” Some jobs aren’t meant to be, and anyone who promises a particular outcome is trying to sell you something.
Flawless Consulting is a book meant to give order to your experience, to help you make sense of it. You can take what you learn about yourself and create a world you want to inhabit.
Nothing will ever get accomplished if you cannot connect with your team and come to a mutual understanding of your mission.
Clients want an easy fix, a solution that will enable them to get back on track in a hurry. However, you know that the correct answer does not come right away.
Sometimes we think that the higher people climb in their careers, the more secure they must be. That’s not true; even your boss has a boss. We all live in a political system.
