Enlightened leaders today hire leadership consultants and executive coaches to help with their leadership development. However, increasingly a number of my clients now prefer me to help them in the role of trusted advisor rather than expert consultant.
This special partnership based on mutual respect and collaboration produces more sustainable results. The role of trusted advisor is open, transparent and fiercely client-centered. Emory University distinguished Professor Dr. Jagdish Sheth offers the flowing wise insights.
Trusted Advisor
Client’s trust in you extends beyond their belief that you will do good work. It is a deeper, broader trust based on both professional competence and personal integrity.
There is a quality of openness and warmth in your client relationships. Both you and your clients feel to bring up touchy or awkward subjects with each other. If on the rare occasion you slip up and miss a commitment, your clients are forgiving.
Nurturing trust on a daily basis puts a daily deposit in the emotional bank account; by taking actions that reinforce trust. Practice not perfection creates success.
Knowing what you stand for is critical to building trusting relationships. Integrity is a wholeness bounded by a set of beliefs and values. What are your principles? What guides your professional and personal life?
Culture Change
Developing a trusted advisor relationship with clients often translates into their creating a parallel culture and climate change in their organizations.
When people experience distrust, they describe their working environment as:
• Threatening
• Divisive
• Unproductive
• Tense
In contrast, when working in a trusting environment, people report the experience as:
• Fun
• Supportive
• Motivating
• Creative
• Comfortable
• Productive
Companies that foster a culture of transparency and trust clearly have a competitive advantage for sustainable success. Working with a trusted advisor and learning to trust can help you create a more sustainable company culture.
Over a twenty-five year coaching and consulting career, I have found the trusted advisor role based on mutual respect and trust to be incredibly energizing. My clients don’t treat me as a vendor or dispassionate expert, but as someone who cares about their success at the deepest level of engagement.
The leaders I work with often express being lonely at the top. Their ability to be open and transparent with me sharing their hopes and fears often leads to more comfort creating an organizational culture based on similar values.
We value that we can often discuss trends in other industries, politics, religion, art, music and other topics that inform the leaders’ personal and professional growth. Leaders appreciate working with a thought partner to develop good judgment, and gain clarity in their decision-making. Establishing unwavering trust is critical to this somewhat sacred relationship.
Are you working in a professional services firm or other organization where executive coaches provide leadership development for senior leaders? Does your organization provide executive coaching to help leaders develop a more sustainable business? Trusted Advisors help enlightened leaders tap into their emotional intelligence and social intelligence skills to fully engage employees.
One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is “Would I benefit from the special relationship of working with a trusted advisor?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching for collaborative leaders who are curious about creating sustainable businesses.