The Client Letter
March 29, 2013
Way “North of Lake Wobegon”
Sunny 25 Degrees
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I’ve done a lot of things over the years in an effort to be liked by other people. This is particularly true in some of my work with clients.
I’ve hit ridiculous deadlines…
I’ve kept my opinions and expertise to myself in order to avoid conflict and be “nice…”
And worst of all, I agreed to do many, many things I really didn’t want to do.
Please the clients. Please the clients. That’s always given me a good feeling to do that.
Sadly, it’s also led to a lot of poor decisions.
Many times, doing what I thought would “please my client” required that I bypass what my own gut instinct was telling me to do.
When you do that enough in the client world, you forget who you are.
And when that happens, attracting much of anything becomes a challenge.
Because you’re not clear.
Forget about being liked. Giving in to the desire to be liked will make you a slave. And we are not in this world or in this client business to be slaves, we are here to be free and to help free others.
All you need to help someone is their respect. And you generate respect by having the guts to be who you are despite what’s going on around you.
The next time you’re faced with a decision in your work with clients where you’re tempted to choose the path that will please, ask yourself:
“Am I doing this in an effort to be liked, or will this action work towards achieving the real goals of my client?”
Make the hard choices. Do what’s best for your client. And that is to be true to you. That’s why you’re there.
If you need support and advice for that journey, you can find it here.