Leading the client relationship stakes

Watching Luke Nolan ease Black Caviar up and almost get pipped at the post got us thinking at PCE whether no matter how hard you've gone early is it right to ease up before the line in the interests of taking care of the workhorse(s) under you?

We think yes, a thousand times YES.

To become a business of choice that your clients seek out relies on your ability to develop your capabilities to transform the lives and perhaps the businesses of your clients.

To do that you need to have an unwaivering focus on relationships and continuous improvement schedules for yourself and the people in your team.

The differentiatior in business success is relationships.

Your ability to attract, engage and retain the right relationships is the ticket to the races where you compete to practically apply your product knowledge and strategy skills in a meaningful way articulating how these skills relate to a clients world NOT how they show relate to yours.

This way to play allows your business to be incredibly co-herent and in so doing positions you and your people for success. You are clear in your message about how you add value to your clients and your staff understand exactly how your business does that.

Whatever you decide your way to play is then requires you to develop the capabilities that deliver those promises.

The skills you build are paramount but nothing beats attitude, energy and follow up.

To foster an environment that thrives with the passion of this approach you need to foster story telling and sharing at every possibility with your team. These stories become part of your culture and become the "WHY" we do the things we do.

Further looking to develop your teams and individuals within the team so they can be subject matter experts creates the daily positive momentum that drives them towards that finish line in the relationship stakes.

But you can do none of this without process:

- a system for balancing and harnessing the energy of your team and for replenishment
- accountability for activity
- transparency in team actions including the leader
- a daily assessment of team dynamics
- visual reminders of the promises made by all team members
- the fostering of a high EI culture where mood assessment is an individual and team doctrine
- and a focus on the 1 percenters - all the simple things that you'd like to do for clients but never get the time........these are the differences between winning and losing so build a process and automate these small wins and watch the dramatically positive effect on staff moral and client WOW factor

So is is right to ease up before the finish line in one race to make sure that your team and you can sustain repeated excellence over time.

The way to do this is via individual development and the accentuation of positive re-inforcement and extrinsic motivation.

Critically it's about working within peoples daily and weekly rythyms and their lifestyle outside of work.

It is no surprise that the 5 BRW best places to work offered flexibilty and autonomy BUT matched with clear goals, clear reward systems and intermittent random acknowledgement to drive the positive emotions of staff towards the work itself and the clear defined goal oriented outcomes.