Advisors can be consultants, private bankers, members of the Board of Directors or the Advisory board, mentors or coaches.
We as advisors have always heard this kind of sentence:
“You have an easy job, you are external. You will never sit in our chair.”
We might have been or still are, by the way, in a different industry or company.
But the real point is: do you know what would happen if we were in your daily life? As one image is worth a thousand words, play this short video to see what I mean.
As an advisor, we do not enter client wheel for a very important reason:
if we really want to help our client, we do our best to take our client out of his wheel
Even if it is only one hour a month. Simply said, we see things clients can’t see anymore. Not because we are smarter. Just because we are not in their wheel (actually, we are in ours!). And they should try to get out as well, from time to time, with our support. Everyone deserve an advisor, in his professional as well as private life.
Clients and prospects who believe we have an easy job because we are external may want to consider this is actually one of the highest values clients deserve.
Of course, we have methodology, knowledge and expertise, especially in listening and understanding root causes of clients’ issues and not just symptoms for which we are often called in urgency (more and more with the solution in client’s head and the simple need of an “implementor”). Of course, we have an analytical approach to problem solving, and a systemic approach to framing, planning and implementing sensitive projects and conducting changes.
But I believe our value is elsewhere.
Our clients’ day-to-day business is to manage a company or their position over time, not to deal with one-off projects that they may encounter once or twice in their career.
Our day-to-day business is to manage these exceptional situations: critical problems, change projects; whatever the sector and size; in different cultures and geographies.
The exceptional of our clients is our routine
We may also provide a one-time resource reinforcement, to add capacity, bring specific expertise, pass a difficult milestone or speed-up a project.
But we should limit our intervention in time, to avoid “jumping in the client’s wheel” and to truly serve him.
Our external eye is a great added value not to be compromised,
for best client’s interest
