We should all do the right thing. Yet the wrong thing often gets done. Indeed, you can’t always trust everyone to do the right thing. And so we have evolved enforcement mechanisms – laws, guidelines, agreements, protocols, commandments. Frequently, those mechanisms depend on some form of auditing – pop quizzes, random drug testing, probable cause. And […]
My last three posts – here, and here, and here – were about why we don’t trust companies. To review the bidding, I’ve said it’s because: Trust is predominantly personal in nature – a fact most companies don’t recognize Corporate missions, motives and mindsets are all tainted by zero-sum, competitive ideologies Trust requires risk, while companies abhor risk. Stripped down […]
This is the third in a four-part series about why we don’t trust companies. The final post will offer solutions. In the first and second posts, I said trust in companies is so low because companies don’t understand the personal nature of trust, and because they hold various beliefs that seem at odds with trust. Call those drivers “ignorance” […]
Yesterday I wrote about three fundamental reasons that most companies aren’t trusted: trust is mainly personal, most companies don’t understand trust, and they make bad choices of tools to enhance trust. Let’s call that Level I of the Corporate Book of Being Trusted. Now let’s look at Level II. Most companies, even if they do reasonably well […]
People don’t trust companies very much. Sure, we trust some companies more than others, and sometimes we trust them more than government (sometimes not), but when you think of someone you trust, a corporation tends not to come first to mind. There are three simple, powerful, obvious reasons for this – every one of which […]
Every age has its fads and fashions. Some of them hold up over time – competitive strategy, business process re-engineering, quality circles. Applying neuroscience to business, I suggest, will not be one of them. In Mark Twain’s classic Huckleberry Finn, there is a passage where Huck tries to explain to Jim that French people speak a different language. Jim […]
In college, I majored in philosophy. I underlined all the important parts in my texbooks – the hard, the empirical, the deductive, the categorical. I underlined about half of each book. What I skipped over were the soft and squishy parts: know thyself, be virtuous, metaphysics, that kind of thing. Years later I deigned to […]
One of the more frequent comments I get in talking about being a trusted advisor is this: “We’d love to practice all the things you talk about, Charlie, we agree with them all. But, we just don’t have the luxury of the kind of time it takes to get there. There are too many other […]
You’ve probably heard “sins of commission, and sins of omission.” It is usually linked to Christian theology, particularly some of the New Testament gospels and Paul’s epistles , but it also has been used by writers like Moliere, and in discussions of Aristotle. Anyway, it’s a simple enough idea to be broadly useful. A “sin of commission” is doing […]
I had lunch the other day with Jack S., a client from 5 years ago. At the time, Jack managed a sales organization in the reinsurance business. (If you think insurance is complicated, try understanding reinsurance!). Since then, the industry has consolidated; Jack works for one of the top three reinsurance brokerage firms. His job […]
You’ve graduated from Question Obsession 101. You’ve learned not to pepper clients with endless questions or craft that perfect “Keystone Arch Question” expecting miracles. You’re focusing on relationships, creating insights, and empowering clients. But have you fallen into the next trap? The Answer Trap. Many consultants who overcome question obsession swing to the opposite extreme, […]
Question Obsession: The Silent Sales KillerMay 6, 2025 - 5:00 pmHave you counted how many questions you ask in your typical client meeting? Do you find yourself carefully crafting the “perfect” question sequence before every sales call? Are your meeting notes filled with question frameworks rather than real insights? If so, you may be suffering from Question Obsession—a condition that’s quietly sabotaging your client relationships […]