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Performance Anxiety: How To Spot The Professional Advisor

Written by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: All the advisors I've worked with have been smart, qualified, knowledgeable, experienced, and young for people with so much to offer. The overarching difference between the rookies and the pros, though, has been confidence. In short, rookies work hard to project confidence they don't feel, and pros are lazier: they feel confidence, but don't feel the need to show it. Whether the conversation with the client is face-to-face, over the phone, or in writing/cyberspace, for the rookie, it's always about himself and his performance anxiety... am I really qualified to render advice to this older, more experienced executive? For the pro, who has survived the brutal gauntlet required to reach senior consultant or partner status (and the ripe old age of about 35), it's never about her own performance, but about the client and his needs.

Performance Anxiety: How To Spot The Professional Advisor

The Surprising Differences Between Rookies And Pros Speaking Truth To Power

For the past several years, it's been my privilege to observe and coach thousands of the brightest business consultants in the world. Over time, I've identified at least ten different behavioral cues advisors give that make it possible to sort the rookies from the pros.

All the advisors I've worked with have been smart, qualified, knowledgeable, experienced, and young for people with so much to offer. The overarching difference between the rookies and the pros, though, has been confidence. In short, rookies work hard to project confidence they don't feel, and pros are lazier: they feel confidence, but don't feel the need to show it. Whether the conversation with the client is face-to-face, over the phone, or in writing/cyberspace, for the rookie, it's always about himself and his performance anxiety... am I really qualified to render advice to this older, more experienced executive? For the pro, who has survived the brutal gauntlet required to reach senior consultant or partner status (and the ripe old age of about 35), it's never about her own performance, but about the client and his needs.

Homework.

Rookies rush to make it clear they've done their homework. They'll make assertions, quote facts, pronounce benchmarks, tell the client what they've learned. In contrast, pros seem to be doing their homework now, in the moment, preferring to ask the client what she knows and thinks.

We, not I.

When you hear someone say "We think this" or "Our Firm has concluded that," you are talking to a rookie. A pro doesn't hide behind others, seen or unseen, on the problem-solving team. A pro says "Here's what I think." Most rookies would gasp at this assertion: isn't that self-oriented? Shouldn't we clearly present ourselves as a team? Who are you, senior partner or not, to speak for all of us? The fact is, saying "I think" instead of "We think" does not preclude the fact that others on the team might have a different view - a fact the client is already aware of, and depends upon.

Surprise!

The rookie is never surprised. To say "That surprises me" to the client would indicate she hasn't done her homework, thought about it, and anticipated the client's view. Clients see right through this, which is why the pro has learned that he is, and should be, frequently surprised.

I know. I've got it.

Rookies are all about knowing. Pros are all about learning. Think about the surroundings of a grad-school classroom, which is where the average advisor was sitting one to six years ago. The pro is the professor, and a good one will tell you she learns more every semester than do her students. The rookies are the students, who are all about showing what they know.

Questions and answers.

In a meeting with your advisors, you'll note that the rookies bring the answers. The pros bring the questions.

Sometimes wrong, but never uncertain.

Rookies come across as "convinced." Pros come across as "curious." It's not that the pro doesn't have a well-thought-out point of view; he certainly has, and could probably give you a pretty good estimate of the probability that he's right. Comfortable in that, the pro has the luxury of continued curiosity about the problem, the client, the outcome, whatever.

Time costs money.

Rookies will fill the time, all the time, every time. In conversation, the rookie is like a radio DJ, worried that four seconds of silence will indicate he hasn't played the record in a timely fashion, and it might get him fired. The pro knows the client needs time to think, and has not only learned to be comfortable with silence, she actually knows how to use it as a tool to get the client to think and experience the "story" in just the right way.

This is serious.

Rookies are almost always dead serious. Pros smile and have fun, even when the work is hard and the problem is serious.

The interviewer.

The rookie, when she does ask questions, asks them as though she's executing an interview. The questions are usually forced-choice or include a built-in answer; the client needs only to fill in the blank. The rookie advisor has already done all the thinking. And the rookie never reacts to what the client says in response to her questions; she just moves to the next question on her list. The pro never lets a conversation with a client go that way. For the pro, it's never an interview. It's true dialogue.

The winner.

The rookie is clearly out to win the debate. The pro is more interested in sharing the inspiration.

If you are an advisor in any field - management consulting, wealth or investment, law, medicine, management of employees, entrepreneurship, whatever - by the time your firm puts you in front of a client you should know and accept that you are a professional. Act like one. How you come across to your clients, both verbally and non-verbally, is critical. It's not about how confident you feel, but how much confidence you can inspire in those you are leading.

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Article Tags: advisors, business, confidence, performance anxiety, speaking truth to power



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