The 10 Most Difficult Clients You Meet on Earth By Eric Swartz, The Byline Group As a consultant, you meet all types of executives in business — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Driven by big egos, big jobs, and big money, some C-level honchos can be tough cookies. Even though the vast majority of them are smart, savvy, intuitive, charming, talented, persuasive, and colorful, there are a few enfants terribles who have elevated bad business practices and behavioral eccentricities to an art form. These "execs gone wild" can severely strain business relationships and make your life profoundly difficult. Consultants are often brought on board to solve a problem in times of rapid growth and impending crisis. While their ostensible goal is to confirm the client's problem, suggest a path or a process to tackle it, and implement a solution that will produce tangible, measurable, and desired results, their real objective is to make sure their clients don't impede or undermine their efforts. These archetypes are drawn from behaviors all too common in the business world. The most difficult executives are an amalgam of these archetypes and share several commonalities: distrustful, controlling, aggressive, inflexible, paranoid, and occasionally tyrannical. It is facile to suggest that these behaviors are always intentional or driven by a sense of malice. Rather, it is fear, ignorance, insecurity, and thoughtlessness that are at the root of the most egregious worst practices.
Bureaucrats are easy to spot. They seek shelter with the herd and are rarely found in one-to-one settings. However, don't underestimate their ability to throw a monkey wrench into your project and sabotage your best-laid plans. They have a penchant for making eleventh hour changes and questioning the earlier decisions of others. Recommendations: Since procedure means the world to these individuals, avoid confrontation and play into their strengths. Ask them to explain the rules. Get everything in writing, including sign-offs. Acknowledge their status while establishing mutual expectations. You'll find that you can work with them as long as you don't violate any deeply-cherished institutional edicts.
Autocrats rule by whim. They flourish in a relatively flat organization and find it difficult to delegate to subordinates. Autocrats will subvert the rules in order to assert authority and control, and are convinced of their own self-importance and infallibility. Autocrats use intimidation to keep you off balance (e.g., calling before and/or after business hours, making unilateral changes to written agreements, changing strategy without warning, etc.). Recommendations: The best way to handle Autocrats is to stay calm, hold your ground, and negotiate new ground rules. Warning: Autocrats won't change their ethics overnight. At a certain point, you simply may have to walk away.
Know-It-Alls "know" what's good for their business and can't wait to demonstrate their capabilities to you. They'll challenge your ideas, devalue your work, and sometimes even do your job for you. No matter what you accomplish for the Know-It-All, it's never good enough. Recommendations: Build a contingency into your contract to ensure you will be paid for any work beyond the scope of the agreement. Know-It-Alls perceive outside expertise as a threat. Be that as it may, they really do need help. Since Know-it-Alls have the final word, strive for agreement every step of the way, and be sure to present alternate concepts and approaches. They may like what you show them, but, ego aside, it was their idea from the start.
Easily the consultant's worst enemy, Wafflers can be a major roadblock. Despite their position, they are not born decision makers. Within their own company, they are often lauded as a team players and consensus builders; however, for consultants, they represent delay, doubt, and indecision. Wafflers will not go out on a limb for you. They won't even go out on a limb for themselves. This can seriously affect the progress of your work and the success of your project. Wafflers have a difficult time committing to anyone or anything, especially if it means making a bold decision for which they'll be held accountable. Recommendations: Wafflers need reassurance and a lot of hand-holding. Give them a milestone chart and deadline reminders, and reemphasize the objectives of the project. If roadblocks still persist, move up the value chain and seek alignment with more responsive and committed contacts within the client company.
Signing an NDA with a client doesn't mean you'll be told everything you need to know to do your job well. Tight Lips are notorious for not communicating the essentials — business trip schedules, company plans, valuable feedback, etc. This situation is exacerbated when their native language is different from your own or when their communications abilities are minimal at best. When Tight Lips are paranoid about their company's supposed intelligence, you're going to find yourself out of the loop. A high degree of confidence is required before a new consultant can be entrusted with privileged information. Until such time, expect to be informed on a "need to know" basis and greeted with a veil of secrecy surrounding most company decisions and transactions. Recommendations: There is no simple solution here. Probe, ask questions, throw out a few assumptions to see whether they stick to the wall, and hold the Tight Lip to account when important details are glossed over. If you've crossed over an imaginary line, you'll know it.
Hand Wringers predict catastrophe wherever they go. They see the glass as half empty and are shocked when things go right (a deviation from the norm). They trust no one, have little or no confidence in themselves, and tend to second guess their own judgments. Like many other archetypes, Hand Wringers are high-maintenance and need a lot of reassurance. If you're the impatient sort, you may not enjoy the constant phone calls, questions, whining, and complaints. Recommendations: Stay positive, communicate clearly, and focus on achieving realistic goals. Break the project down into bite-sized chunks that are palatable and digestible. Sure, it's nice to be a tower of strength and a beacon of understanding, but, remember, you're not a panacea for the Hand Wringer's anxieties. In order to deflect negativity and incessant worrying, you need to remain impassive and firm in your beliefs and expectations.
Nothing is more frustrating than having a client who doesn't give you straight answers, won't return phone calls, and is constantly inaccessible and unreachable. Absentees are elusive control freaks who wield their authority from afar where you can't get a handle on it. But, then again, maybe you can. After all, you're the one controlling the work, especially its outcome Recommendations: Don't use e-mail to communicate with Absentees. Instead, leave very brief and matter-of-fact messages on their personal cell phones (try to get the number). Talk about consequences with a sense of urgency that they can understand, e.g., the impact on their bottom line, their company's credibility, and the market opportunities they're missing. Whatever you do, don't get bogged down in minutia. Eventually, Absentees will resurface or come down from the mount. When they do, be prepared to move with speed, determination, and an unflagging sense of confidence in your ability to get things done.
Some people can live in chaos and confusion. This isn't the case with the Perfectionist. Perfectionism, however, is only a symptom of a deeper disorder — a desire to control people and events coupled with a fear of change. Without getting too deep into psycho-babble, let's talk about this in practical terms. Your job is to manage the project and, as evidenced in this paper, manage the client. Perfectionists typically like to be assured that everything is proceeding on course according to their expectations. Recommendations: Keep Perfectionists in the loop and in control by meeting with them in person. It is extremely difficult to manage this relationship by phone. Let them throw in their two cents and make the operationally mundane decisions governing your project. Acknowledge their need to tweak, fiddle, and keep order. However, give them forced choices so they can choose the best option. If you keep things too open-ended, they'll never be secure in their decisions.
Industrious, prodigious, and hard-working consultants beware: At some point, your client will take advantage of you and your goodwill. Assuming that you have an agreement which spells out your work and fees in detail, Exploiters will still try to get more out of you. They'll leverage whatever they can — your friendship, your expertise, and your good nature — and do it with a smile. That makes it really difficult to say "no." If you cave in too often, though, you're in danger of becoming an indentured servant. Recommendations: Remember, the Exploiter will keep pushing until you push back. When you do push back, keep an eye towards compromise. There are a few favors or freebies you can throw in that won't eat up your time, but will satisfy the Exploiter's need to extract more while the day is young and you're still under contract.
If you think the Hand Wringer is tough to manage, the Emotive will try to push all of your buttons at the same time. This is a person who really believes that high drama will lead to greater understanding and stronger business relationships. These histrionics may work with friends, family, and a few colleagues, but not with a steely-eyed consultant like you. Still, be on guard. Emotives are looking for a crutch — a person who will listen, intervene on their behalf, and share their pain. Recommendations: Don't get involved in company politics or the personal problems of your clients. Keep your wits about you, stay above the fray, and remain a neutral party. Sympathy is fine, but empathy crosses the line. Keep the relationship on a professional plane and refrain from responding to emotionally-laden appeals or outbursts. As long as you're the paragon of cool judgment and impartial observation, your status as a consultant will not be compromised. Consulting is all about building and sustaining business relationships, the cornerstone of which is a healthy dose of common courtesy and mutual respect. Real people are more than the sum of their behaviors or the instructions on their archetypal labels. However, when you do run across the abovementioned eccentricities, see them for what they are (ugly little distractions), try to invalidate them with just the right word, gesture, or consulting agreement, and get on with the business at hand. This article was published by the American Marketing Association as a best practices paper on MarketingPower.com in March 2007. |
