Managing, Strategy, Business: David Maister Live videocast

Summary Proverb

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:00:00 -0500

We will close this series with a proverb that I use to conclude many of my seminars. It illustrates that what most businesses need, is not clarification on what is the right thing to do, but the courage to not give in to short term gratification.

Earning a Relationship

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 07:00:00 -0500

A core element in my view of the world is that everything we want must be given to us by another human being. So weather it is about getting our staff to cooperate with us, or to get clients to entrust us with business, our main task is to make other people, want to give us what we want. We must learn how to earn relationships.

The following video, taken from my personal life, shows a remarkable effective way, of pulling this off.

Dynamos

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In this video clip we're going to look at the issue of energy, excitement, and ambition in a different way and talk about the different states of drive that you and I might experience at different stages of our career.

Think of Work

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 07:00:00 -0500

A core proposition in my way of thinking about business development is that you will have more success if you're trying to market things that turn you on for clients that you are truly interested in. Now this is simple to say, but it appears that it is not the case with the way that many professionals actually come to market. Listen to the following presentation and reactions.

Getting Hired by New Clients

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In this video clip, we explore how you can win business from a non-client who is looking around and talking to many providers. So this is the situation that may be described as a beauty parade or a competitive bid or a request for proposal.
We analyze it by using a direct experience of my own.

Experts vs. Advisors

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In the marketing of professional services, you can come across in one of two ways to the buyer. You are either interested in them, or you are interested in their cash. We will show why the former is the key to successful business marketing.

Marketing To Existing Clients

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:00:00 -0500

One of the biggest ways that professionals and professional firms can improve their marketing effectiveness is to think through and make sure that they are actually putting their marketing efforts in places which yield the highest return.

This is actually not commonly the case. Most firms say that they believe that marketing to existing clients is the best source of new revenue. But when you add up all of the non-billable hours that are spent on marketing you often get surprised that a very high majority of it is diverted to chasing new clients.

In this clip, we examine all of the places that marketing efforts can go. We make some very clear recommendations about where the priorities are.

Rules of Relationships

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:00:00 -0500

We all say we want relationships and we want to be good at romance, but we have not all thought through the actions and behaviors that a Necessary to create those things. In this video clip, we begin to explore the necessary skills.

Romance and Sincerity

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In thinking about business development, there are two basic mindsets that must be distinguished. On the one hand, you could focus on trying to win each transaction, transaction by transaction. Somewhat rudely, I call this the mindset of going for the quick hit, or the one-night stand.

The other way of coming to market is trying to build relationships. Trying to get good at romance, where you're trying to persuade potential clients to enter into a long-term relationship with you.

The key point is that we must understand that whilst either can be made to work, there is a crucial difference between being good at one-night stands and being good at romance.

How We Buy

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:00:00 -0500

The key to all marketing, selling, client service, and client relations questions is actually not about how do you market, or how do you sell. The thing that we need to understand is, "How do clients buy?" And what follows is my attempt to explain that perspective at a recent lawyers conference.

What We Hate About Those People

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 07:00:00 -0500

The key to giving your clients a great client experience is to understand what it feels like to be a client. In the following clip, we explore exactly that, by drawing on our common experience of being the patient of a doctor.

Where Should Marketing Time Go?

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In this video clip, we're going to explore another example of how you go about investing in a relationship in order to get involved in more of the transactions in business that your client has, otherwise known as cross-selling or expanding a relationship. We will explore the tactics that work with a particular emphasizes on how you invest in the relationship.

Accountability

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In the following video we will make the case that, if the employees of an organization are to raise their performance, then logically what is required is that the managers must first be better at performing their role and that, in order to make this happen, the managers must be prepared to be accountable for their performance. In the video, you'll see one idea put forward about how managerial accountability for performing the managerial role could be installed inside an organization.

Managing Dad

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In this clip we dig into the parallels between being an effective manager in the workplace and being an effective change agent within your family. How do you learn how to deal with different family members and bring about harmony and joint action in a family situation? And where does that match what you have to do at work?

Using Language To Get What You Want

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In business, performance appraisal or even out and out criticism supplants skillful use of language and careful presentation of issues and solutions. We will examine a story of exemplary language skills and note the various applications in business life.

Train a Pigeon

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 28 May 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In this video, we’re going to explore the proposition that helping another human being to improve, to fulfill their potential is, in fact, a general process with general lessons which we can draw upon both from within business life and from our experience outside being either a sports coach or helping out children grow. Somewhat humorously, I call the description; how do you train a pigeon?

Getting Others to Give You What You Want

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 21 May 2007 07:00:00 -0500

A crucial difference in our style in dealing with the world is whether we deal with other people as "us," part of the same relationship. Or whether or not we're always thinking of them as "them," people who are on the other side, people from whom we want things. They are adversaries. The following clip tries to illustrate that distinction.

How Managers Should Spend Their Time

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 07:00:00 -0500

Everyone agrees that professional groups need to be led by a player coach or a producer manager. But the balance between those roles is not always agreed even with in firms or within the group themselves. In most firms the emphasis is on the player or the producer role meaning that the main job that's taken seriously is to serve the clients and get out and get revenues. The coaching or the managing is very often neglected. I think this is a very bad economic choice for most firms, as you will see in the following discussion.

Excitement

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 07 May 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In this video we are going to dig deep into the issue of excitement. Of how you ensure that in fact people bring to their work passion and excitement and enthusiasm. And the question is going to be not only about yourself but also the people around you.

Not Qualified to Manage

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In the following video clip, I try to make the case that being an effective manager is not about knowledge, and is not even about skills, but that the crucial element in becoming an effective manager is entering into the role with the right set of attitudes. I also try to make the case that not all of us, in fact, can qualify on those attitudes.

Managing Works

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In this video we're going to explore how management, in a society of professionals, can really be made to work. The clip opens with an example of fabulous management, fabulous coaching, that was done to me early in my career, and contrasts with the sorts of management that we often see, inside professional firms.

Fat Smoker

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:00:00 -0500

One of the most interesting challenges in business is that very often we already know what we need to improve but we don’t always get around to tackling it. The same is, of course, true in our personal lives and in this video, I will use that analogy to suggest ways that we can actually improve our business by drawing upon what it takes to improve our personal lives.

Survey Results

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 07:00:00 -0500

In the year 2001, I did a study, which resulted in a book called "Practice What You Preach", in which I studied 139 professional businesses around the world. This video clip shows the early results of that study.

Strategy is Standards

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 07:00:00 -0500

Among the most important things I've learned is that to succeed, a professional firm needs values, principles, or standards. But you have to use these words very carefully. In many firms, their values are things they aspire to — things they wish to be — and that is not the sense in which I am using it here. I'm using the values in almost the religious sense, that these are the principles we will not be prepared to break. What I am trying to report to you is, firms that have such principles, flourish.

Profit Formula

david@davidmaister.com — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 08:00:00 -0500

In business many factors lead to ultimate financial and business success. The challenge is to identify which factors tend to drive other factors and hence, where you really should start to launch the sequence that leads to ultimate profitability.