Jean Welsh leaves her Johannesburg office feeling tired and confused after a hard day running the communications function for a medium-sized property group. Still wondering, as she drives home, she thinks about why the meeting did not go well with her managing director Tom Brown.
As an experienced communications manager for the past nine years, including a year now with her current employer, she knows her stuff. Technically, her proposed campaign was well thought out and effectively presented. "Why, then," she asks herself, "did Tom ask me to hold off on my ideas until the business cycle turns?"
She knows the company needs to communicate more with its stakeholders now as there are perceptions that must be addressed and the firm's profile should be raised. "What went wrong?" she asks herself, as she listens to a prominent property company CEO on the radio talking about how successfully their company is performing.
This is why giving advice about communications to CEOs, MDs, and business owners must be one of the hardest jobs in business. It is difficult for others in advisory professions - consulting, accounting, finance, law, engineering, executive search, insurance brokerage, investment banking and marketing - but communications is somehow different. The other professions, except perhaps, consulting, usually have an explicit, pre-defined product or process to solve the client's problem, but communications solutions abound, depending on the predisposition of the communications practitioner and their level of experience.
Another difference is that the ultimate decision-maker often feels that she/he has a lot of personal knowledge about communications in a variety of settings, not just in the company or business context. The communications professional can seem to be working in a possibly contradictory context: the decision-maker is the organisation's top communicator while the communications advisor is the company's communications expert but not necessarily a top personal communicator.
In the past communications professionals tended to be excellent communicators themselves, but as the need for more communicators with formal qualifications - driven not only by the increasing demand from companies, but also by universities and colleges recognising the additional revenue streams, the need to be first and foremost an excellent communicator, no longer seems to be as important.
These issues complicate the client-advisor relationship but ultimately what counts by far, is not the formal qualifications and experience, but the ability to build a trusting relationship that enables the communicator's expertise to be used.
When one gets right down to it, one of the keys to success in communications advisory services is getting your expertise used by decision-makers. Technical or business mastery is not enough to have your advice or solutions implemented or, at very least, influence outcomes in an organisation. You need to be successful in the human side of connecting with your client on a personal level where they are able to trust you to get your expertise put into action.
Peter Block, the widely respected consultant and author of "Flawless Consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used!" says consultants always operate at two levels. One level is the substance level - "the problem-solving, rational or explicit part" of the issue you are working on: the technical/business problem.
The second level is the "affective or emotional side", where the feelings between the two parties play a significant role. This is the relationship level between both parties - where you can feel "acceptance or resistance, high or low tension, support or confrontation". At this level a key to professional success is the "ability to work with clients in such a way as to earn their trust and gain their confidence", according to consultants David Maister, Charles Green and Robert Galford, authors of "The Trusted Advisor", a book which explores building trust between professional advisors and decision-makers.
Although there is probably not yet scientific evidence for it, the Pareto (80/20) principle seems to be at work in client/advisor relationships. Even given the most complex issues or problems to be solved, about only 20 percent of the real reason for the relationship or success of the advice being implemented, is the technical/business expertise. As much as 80 percent of the success seems to result from the emotional level. Success of the client-advisor relationship depends on effectiveness of a range of emotional issues from trust, honesty, and likeability to creating an energised synergy between each other.
You find the emotional factor at work on a personal level too. Just consider the advisor you choose for important issues in your life. There are plenty of lawyers, insurance brokers, estate agents, investment advisors, sales people, medical professionals life and career coaches, ministers, and so on, that you could consult for advice. But which ones do you usually choose? The personal advisor you select would be the one you connect with or get along with, and this emotional connection is usually the basis on which you form a trusting relationship.
This emotional dimension goes even further; consider whom you would talk to in a personal crisis. It's probably a close family member or long-standing friend. And why? Because you feel you can trust the person to give you the best advice in a trusting, although it could be tough, way, without breaking confidentiality. Also, just think about any of the big decisions you make; how much comprises the rational, logical part and how much emotional, feeling content lies below the surface and needs to come out before you can decide and act.
Sales people, probably more so than other business people, know the importance of the emotional side of things. It's no coincidence that even elements such as appearance and attractiveness of the salesperson play an important role in closing the sale or agreement. Studies have shown that an attractive salesperson has a higher probability of receiving a "Yes" than an unattractive person. So what happens if you are not an attractive communications person, you may ask? There's no simple answer to this, except to say that you would need to accentuate other sides to your personal make up. It's no coincidence either that the guy that lacks in many of the attractive departments, often uses other sides of his personality to compensate for any shortfalls. Of course, characteristics that appeal to the client need to be accentuated - congruence and pacing are critical.
The key then to becoming a more effective advisor is awareness of the emotional factors that lead to trusting relationships where advice can be accepted and used.
In our consulting work we've found that there's a lot to building trusting relationships with clients or decision-makers but perhaps this list of questions will provide you with some food for thought:
1. How much time do you spend on building rapport and empathy with your client (internal or external)?
2. Have you really learned how to listen to client problems, concerns, issues (are you able to read between the lines to understand what's not been said or what the client is really saying...)?
3. Do you note what the client is feeling and where necessary draw attention to the emotional content by putting authentically into words how you are feeling about the way in which the relationship is developing, without increasing defensiveness on the part of the client?
4. Do you ask enough open-ended questions that prevent you from prejudging what you are hearing?
5. How much time do you spend on building the connection with your client, doing things that show you have their interests at heart?
6. How effective are you in controlling your emotions?
7. What is the level of your self-orientation (preoccupation with your own agenda)?
8. How effective are you in managing client expectations?
Answering these questions authentically should begin to raise your awareness of some of the key issues in building a more effective trust-based relationship with your client or the decision-maker. With practice, you will be able to move up the client-advisor/relationship trajectory: from subject matter or process expert, subject matter expert plus affiliated field, and valuable resource to the trusted advisor level.
Earning trust, giving advice with the right attitude and in a helpful, non-threatening way, and building relationships will assist you in becoming more effective in your advisory role. Knowing how to uncover the needs, interests and concerns of the client and matching your proposed solutions accordingly (a subject we will cover in more depth in a future column) is all part of the vital ingredients required to succeed as a trusted communications advisor. The next time Jean Welsh meets with Tom Brown there may just be the possibility of getting approval for that brilliant communications campaign.
