I was recently speaking with a client who was venting about a recent interaction he had with one of his team members (someone who reports to him). The gist of the discussion was that this account manager had cancelled a client meeting because it was raining.
As you might imagine, the manager was beside himself. He could not believe that his account manager had engaged in an active debate about how the cancellation was actually being client centered. His rationale was that it was preventing the client from having to come out in bad weather. I should also say, directly on the heels of this meeting, the account manager was supposed to lock up the client’s business for the next 12 months. Now, unless that client was the wicked witch of the west, or a gremlin, I don’t know how this cancellation could be client centered. It couldn’t be more self-serving.
My client had just spent 30 minutes in this debate, and was visibly upset, a bit shaken, and was looking for suggestions.
I’ll share them with you, in the event that you encounter a situation where this mindset and approach might help:
• We need to have the mindset that all conversations are adult-to-adult, not parent-to-child. In a healthy work environment, we have clarity, alignment, transparency, and 100% accountability. We don’t coddle, enable in unproductive ways, make excuses, or shirk responsibility. In this case, my client needed to shift the ownership of the situation to the account manager, like this:
• Help me understand your rationale behind cancelling the meeting.
• Help me understand how cancelling the meeting is client centered.
• Help me understand how what just happened deepened our relationship, and better positioned us to win the business and be a trusted advisor.
• If the account manager does not have the self-awareness to see that the mindset and actions were inappropriate, the conversation should shift to whether the person is really in the right role. That’s right – it might be time for a graceful exit. If you have a team member who doesn’t share the cultural values and beliefs that your organization has for what it means to be an account manager or client centered, then there is NO place for that person on the team. The longer you, or your team members, dance around this reality, the more damage you are doing to your client relationships, internal culture, and personal credibility.
You are not in the business of running an adult day care of employees. Treat people like adults, and if they are the right cultural fit, they will behave that way.
Andrew Freedman, Principal at entreQuest, specializes in helping eQ’s clients grow by creating well aligned company cultures and strategies that result in remarkable client and employee experiences.
