There is a class of top level professionals who don’t have to quibble about fees and hourly rates, don’t jump at shadows when a competitor makes a pitch, and don’t worry about whether their firm we’ll be the adviser chosen for the next project. They’re relaxed and quietly confident knowing that for as long as they are active contributors to the client relationship, behave with the utmost integrity and always put their client’s interests first, they will be called on for wise advice and counsel on many key issues and decisions.

This holds true among professionals, accountants, engineers, architects, management consultants and more.

Draw on your wider professional background
Early career exposure to a range of professional specialties and sub-specialties is something to relish. Strong on-going interest in technical developments beyond your core brief is a great foundation for general counsel.

Take a broad management perspective
Experience in general management roles will help. Welcome portfolio responsibility for a series of diverse activities in your firm. A programme of reading will take you a long way. Formal management education can make a big difference. Simply thinking beyond your silo is the first step. Frequent interaction with enlightened managers from many disciplines is the next.

Consider organisational dynamics
Be vigilant for impacts of management decisions and changes on the client’s organisation and how each constituent part interacts with others. Take into account effects on individual and group power, prestige, and status. Be mindful of financial impacts for individuals, teams, and business units.

Communicate clearly and forthrightly
Avoid technical jargon and adopt the preferred vocabulary and communication style of your client. Use anecdotes and vignettes to bring home important points. Make your point unmistakably.

Negotiate skilfully
This is never far from top of the list.

Maintain confidences
Be aware of the sensitivity of information shared with you and always respect confidences.

Be politically aware
Unless you’re an expert with all the time it takes to play to win, avoid politics. But always be aware of the political environment in which your counsel will be received.

Develop gravitas and use it
Play the wise counsel role for long enough and one day you’ll earn the title. Be accepting and non-judgemental. When clients “confess” their sins and shortcomings, avoid any temptation for a witch hunt and blame game.

Exercise business judgement
Advise and recommend what is, overall, in the best interests of the client. Correct judgement calls are predicated on understanding those interests. Gaining that understanding is worth you investment of time and intellectual engagement.

Show the courage of conviction
If you have important advice, give it fearlessly and clearly. Don’t shy away from things your client may not want to hear.

While there is no neat recipe for transitioning to the privileged and powerful role of general counsel and valued adviser, if your objective is to break out of a functional silo or narrow transaction-by-transaction relationship , this checklist will take you a long way. Become the expert professional whose counsel is sought, valued, and relied on by the top echelon of client organisations.

Copyright 2008 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

It is within the power of professionals who aren’t downright delighted with their current careers to re-invent themselves.  Maybe you’ve noticed others who’ve morphed into strong performers in more appealing areas of professional practice.

You, too, can discover a second wind - even well down your career track. Here are some tips to get underway.

Take a little time for serious reflection. Ask yourself:
• What would I most like to do if I had a couple of additional hours available in each work day ?
• If I didn’t have to keep the practice I have going, what work would I most like to do - what would be most attractive to me ?

Enlist some help. Talk with other professionals who work in your sphere of interest. Get some objective advice, sensible input, and maybe expert support.

Be courageous. Fear of failure may limit your potential - be brave if you want to achieve your true ambitions. It’s far better to try than to spend the rest of your days wondering what might have been.

Market test your idea. Determine to give your new professional interest a try for a limited time to see how it feels and whether there are signs that it might succeed. Dip a toe in the water !

Challenge your assumptions. Don’t assume that, having proceeded down one professional path, it’s too late to embark on another. Even if you’ve had a long commitment to one professional course, you can choose to change.

It’s never too late to re-invent your professional persona when you can see the right balance of benefits over obstacles to make a more attractive future for yourself and your practice.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Don’t pollute your communication with clients and prospective clients with unnecessary or unhelpful jargon. Straightforward, clear language will take you much further than jargon and corporate-speak.

Some studies have shown that using jargon is likely to earn you the labels of “rude, obnoxious, arrogant, and out-of-touch”. Clear communication is far more likely to identify you as “energetic, friendly, and one of us - in touch”.

Straight-talkers (on all levels) are more likeable, overall. And being persuasive is substantially a function of being likeable and resonating with your audience.

More dangers attach to jargon than mere alienation - it’s so easy to get jargon wrong.

Many words are indigenous to a particular industry. Be certain you know your audience before you toss them into the language you choose for a meeting or presentation.

Take, for example, “redundancy”. It has a particular meaning - and positive connotations - in technology.

Not so in scores of others. Outside their element, some words take on entirely different meanings.

Rather than impressing your audience with jargon, focus on informing them and avoid the risk of getting jargon not quite right or “off-key”.

Jargon dates, and may date you. Once, a quick, unscientific test of potential success of an idea or product was “to run it up the flag pole”. Now, it’s the “smell test”. Plain old “follow-up” or “getting back to me” is rapidly morphing into “circling back”. “Prohibited” or “not allowed” is now jargonised as “circle slash” (the oral equivalent of a circle with an oblique line through it - like road sign). You can be certain these will date quickly.

Suddenly, it’s fashionable to “empower” your offsider rather than to just plain “delegate”.

Savvy, passionate professionals don’t need obscure language and “clever” jargon to communicate. Rather than conforming to transitory fashions in jargon, which can usher you into obscurity, clear communication is plain to all.

Overcome the jargon epidemic and speak with candour and clarity.

P.S. If you want to be really original, create your own verbs from favourite nouns by adding on “ed” suffix. Like you’ve been “eTipped” on this !

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

As any mediator or psychologist will tell you, how we think about and express a problem has a profound influence on the choices we will make to deal with it.  And, so it is with selling your expert professional services.

Framing a problem can convert it to a challenge. Framing an obstacle can make it insurmountable, or merely an interesting issue on the path forward.

A frame can establish the benchmark standard or status quo - reframing can completely change the complexion of a situation.

Poor framing of a business development challenge or situation will undermine progress and mitigate against success. For example, framing a prospective client’s question as an objection is rarely helpful - much better to reframe as a request for more information or evidence.

It’s worth taking precautions against the adverse effects of negative framing. Try these techniques.

Consider how a problem or situation was framed at the outset. Did you frame it ? Or, someone else ?

Think about your framing of a problem or situation. What are alternate frames or readings ?

If you were another participant or player in the situation, would your reference frame be different ?

How would your thinking change if you changed the framing or simply read the situation a different way ?

And, if you reframed, would all the information or evidence you have collected have the same impact ? Would your feelings and beliefs have the same validity ?

Check that you’re examining all the information and evidence with equal rigour. Are you accepting some, but fully scrutinising others ? Is it possible that you’ve focused on gathering material to confirm your view ?

Build counter-arguments to challenge your views. Play devil’s advocate, or enlist the support of a colleague to test your framing and arguments.

Challenge yourself with different frames. You’ll soon find that how you frame has a significant influence on the business development outcomes you produce.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Clients have problems which professional experts are equipped to solve - that’s our raison d’etre.Too often, though, professionals fail to make the connection between the expertise they possess and solutions to the problems clients confront.

A client’s legal problem is also a business problem, and most show a whole lot more interest in the “fix” you offer than the technical stuff.

Here are some tips to engage a client’s ready-made interest in solving business problems :
• do your background research
• anticipate their issues
• offer a creative and effective solution to their problems
• develop specific details of how your solution will work in practice
• assemble evidence of how your solution has worked for others
• prepare for likely questions
• offer clear, short responses to queries
• devise presentation media or hand-outs to support your case
• reinforce your solution with examples
• quantify expected benefits.

Clients buy the lawyers and other professional experts who convince them that their services will solve real business problems, and offer better solutions than alternatives.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Many professionals are good listeners.  Some are not.  Just about every professional service provider would do well to hone their listening skills.  Nearly everyone likes a good listener. In the professional services arena, clients want more than listening, they want action, but careful listening is a great start.

Here are a few pointers.

Hearing. If you’re in even the slightest doubt, get your hearing checked out. Don’t expect to be a great listener unless you can hear well.  Beyond the age of forty, most of us have some measure of hearing loss, sufficient to diminish our ability to hear well within normal conversation ranges. So, if you do have hearing loss, either become adept at compensating, or if it’s significant loss, get some help from today’s great technology.

Mindset. Good listening depends on a mindset of truly wanting to listen to another’s story, opinion, or experience.

Many professionals have been too strongly acculturated to spending any silent time preparing the next argument, piece of information, or advice to be superb listeners.

Mood. Patience is integral to good listening. Allow time for the full story to be told. That may mean resisting the temptation to interrupt.

If there isn’t time to really listen, consider rescheduling the conversation for a time when there is.

Mirroring and pacing. A good listener will mirror - to a reasonable extent - posture and body language of the storyteller. This will increase personal rapport and comfort in the listening process.

An effective listener will also carefully “pace” a conversation to manage emotion and energy levels.

Probing. Gently asking other questions which probe out more information, signals your understanding, comprehension, and acceptance of the listener’s story. This is a technique worth refining.

Support and rapport. Gentle nods indicating that you are listening and focussing, small interjections in agreement (like “yes, I see” and similar) will help you support their storytelling and confirm that you are actively listening.

Note making. In business settings, note making is a useful way of indicating that you are truly listening, concentrating, and doing your best to understand.

Summarising. (Retaining and summarising confirms you’ve listened and heard.)

By honing your listening skills, you’ll go a long way to developing trust and instilling confidence.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

The dream of just about every enlightened professional is to be so different and sought-after that there are few credible alternatives and minimal competition in a distinctive niche - one carved out to fit like a glove.That dream is reality for a privileged few. It’s a far-fetched rainbow-chase for most because they lack the tenacity or commitment (or both) to do what it takes to turn dream into reality.

Differentiation means having the courage not to follow the pack. A current example: “we are a full service commercial law firm”. It’s hardly a differentiation strategy. More like a sentence to undifferentiated middle-of-the-pack status for most.

Many professionals proffer, as differentiation statements, what are, “sameness” statements.

To attempt to stand out with claims like these is to relegate oneself and one’s practice to the “hard to distinguish from all the others” category.

Ill-informed professional service differentiators include claims of:
• long-established
• caring for clients
• [non-specific] better service
• cost-effectiveness
• friendliness and courtesy
• skilled and experienced staff.

There are lots more. Just grab a handful of professional practice profiles and do a “global search and replace” - most firm profiles would readily fit another. Sadly, almost any other.

If you’re determined to be different, think through what you do which is substantially different from most or all the alternatives.

Here’s a list to get you started:
• markets or industries you serve
• geographies on which you focus
• categories, characteristics, or scale of clients you serve
• special or unusual services or work processes you offer
• unique characteristics of your personnel or culture
• special needs or problems on which you focus your efforts
• price - structure or quantum - at which you offer your service.

Put your answers to the test: do they really make you different ?

If you’re determined to be different - and to profit from distinctiveness - be tough with yourself in working out what sets you apart and don’t settle for the anonymity and pressures of middle-pack.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Many people are tired of the disingenuous management-speak which flows freely in business. Ensure your next meeting or promotion isn’t hung-over with jargon. Clients and prospective clients often switch off when they hear mere catchphrases like “solution”, “results driven”, “win-win”, “go off-line”, “get on the same page”, “value proposition”, and “value added”.

There’s even a chance that you became successful with adept use of the same vocabulary which represents this mindset and is now becoming a negative.

Today, simpler language and clearer communication - words and expressions which don’t require that you’re “in the know” to use and understand - should be the stuff of your everyday conversations with clients and prospective clients.

Reasons to avoid management-speak and buzzwords, include, among others:
• it’s boring
• it’s generic and insufficiently specific
• often it doesn’t sound sincere or real
• it may make some clients feel distanced or inferior
• it straightjackets you as a conformist within narrow fashions in management
• it does little to differentiate or distinguish you from many of your unimpressive competitors
• it can make you look as though you’re obfuscating.

Every profession creates its own jargon. Besides allowing insiders to communicate in shorthand, it produces a great barrier to others. Many legal professionals have invested considerable energy in breaking down these shibboleths, and converting legalese to technical terms to plain English documents.

Too often, though, in the quest to look knowledgeable, these same professionals have been overly eager to adopt the mantra of modern management and corporate culture, only to create a whole new set of problems for themselves, and their clients.

Rather than merely mentioning that you have a “value proposition”, state what is !

Don’t turn your clients off with near meaningless buzzwords.

Watch it: as the CEO of one of Australia’s top companies recently said to me “when our people use management buzzwords, I’m irritated - when our external lawyers get into corporate-speak, I want to tell then to take their jargon and stick it in their core competency !”

There are exceptions: a few clients are completely wedded to management-speak, and worship at the shrine of buzzwords. When with them, follow their lead: ape their jargon. It will change with time - keep up with their fashions.

Never be caught out using yesterday’s buzzword !

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

One proven path to raise your profile as a credible and expert professional is through presentations to the right audiences.

If your PowerPoint presentations are ho-hum, you risk sending your audience to sleep. Or worse your message and impact is diluted or completely lost, and your profile can be damaged.

Here are some practical pointers for a successful PowerPoint presentation.

Golden rules for slides
• maximum of six lines of text per slide and 6 words per line
• keep text larger than 20 points for on-screen shows
• spread your information over multiple slides rather than crowd onto one
• If you have lots of detailed material to cover consider providing a supplementary handout such as a white paper
• dark backgrounds work best for on-screen shows
• light backgrounds work best for overheads
• keep animations to a minimum - unless you are a skilled presenter with PowerPoint they will distract from your message and make you flustered
• a picture speaks a thousand words - suitable images can break the monotony of text heavy slides and provide interesting talking points
• favour using one large picture rather than many small pictures
• keep graphs ultra simple.

Avoid
• Gimmicky fonts, stick to one or two known fonts
• Crazy and garish backgrounds - hard on the eyes and distracting
• Centred bullet points, keep them left aligned
• Using all UPPER CASE
• Underlining
• And too much “punctuation”
• detailed statistical tables
• visual clutter.

Click here to see optimal slide layout rules.

Above all remember PowerPoint should be used as presentation support only - it is not there for you to read verbatim.

Follow these tips to ensure your audience remembers you for the right reasons.

Copyright 2008 Julian Midwinter & Associate Pty Ltd

As I write eTips each week, it’s often the product of business development challenges and behaviours I’ve observed among our clients, or learned second hand. Now, I need your input on the eTips topics you find most relevant, how eTips can improve, and what you’d like more of.

This week, please take this brief, three to five minute survey, and tell me, and the whole JMA team, what you think.

As a thank you, you will be entered into a draw to win a bottle of fine wine.

Of course, if you have any queries or other comments, do get in touch.

Thanks for your support and important feedback.

Linda and the team at Julian Midwinter & Associates