True professionalism (1997)

by

David Maister

This gentleman has shaped the way I think about consulting, client-services, and my craft. If you look on the bookshelves of senior partners at law firms, accounting firms, consultancies, they have multiple books by David Maister.  Recently, I took down this “oldie-goldie” from my bookshelf and found 60 quotes that encapsulate so much about this craft. 

All the content in blue color are direct quotes from True Professionalism, Maister 1997 (affiliate link). 

NB: Wouldn’t have spent this time, if I didn’t think this is fairly clear, awesome.

Have Principles 

  1. Principles are the most effective management tools a firm can use
  2. Successful firms are clearly differentiated by the strict adherence to values (e.g., professionalism)
  3. Firms must be intolerant on the matters of value or strategy
  4. If they don’t like your work, don’t take their money
  5. How long does it take for the market to recognize your trustworthiness and efficiency and then reward you with new business?  Quickly.

Professional = Excellence; Technician = Competence

  1. True professionalism means the pursuit of excellence, not just competence
  2. Firms should hire for attitude and train for skills. Skills you can teach, attitude and character are inherent
  3. Many professionals, I have learned, are not having fun
  4. The opposite word from professional is not unprofessional, but technician
  5. Professionalism is predominantly an attitude, not competencies

Passion, Persistence, Pride

  1. The dominant competitive advantage in professional services is passion and persistence
  2. Professionalism = pride in your work, commitment to quality, dedication to the interests of clients
  3. If people are not prepared to be held accountable for what they do, it is unlikely that they will achieve much
  4. Waiting for the firm to change before you change is only to cheat yourself
  5. You are allowed to fail, but you are not allowed to not try

What next challenge will fulfill you?

  1. Success comes from doing what you enjoy.  If you don’t enjoy it, how can it be called success?
  2. They often already have money, prestige, title, and standing. What they don’t have is fun
  3. Play to your evil secret. Don’t suppress them.  You are a lot less flexible than you think
  4. Few career choices are forever.  The choice to be made is not what you want to do with your entire career, but which next challenge would fulfill you
  5. Dynamos are vigorously in finding ways to get out of the flow of repetitive work

Work on harder, more valuable problems

  1. If all you work on is what you already know how to do, you’ll be eventually overtaken by someone younger
  2. “Cruisers” do well for a time being by living off their existing skills. They are not working to expand their abilities. They have a job, not a career. Cruising translates to dedicated, high-quality work. We all cruise sometime. . . however, a professional cannot cruise forever.
  3. It’s remarkable how scarce sustainable ambition can be among those who already have achieved a degree of success
  4. What you do with your billable time determines your current income, but what you do with your non-billable time determines your future
  5. To say you made more money by working more is not evidence of immense intellectual creativity. In fact, I call it a donkey strategy.

Leaders build Leaders

  1. A leader doesn’t build a business – a leader builds an organization that builds a business
  2. Be substantively helpful to me, and I’ll listen to you. Otherwise, stay out of my office.
  3. Nagging is truly effective only when it’s perceived to be supportive rather than negative or punitive
  4. If your job as a leader is to influence and motivate me and my colleagues, then you must infect us with your personal enthusiasm
  5. Do other people consider me professional?

Professional paradox = noble path wins

  1. Paradox about professionalism: The noble path wins. The more you act selflessly and give clients honest advice, even when it may be counter to your own interests, the more trust you earn, and the more future business you get
  2. Without common purpose and values, a firm becomes nothing more than a convenience for practitioners wanting to share space, support services, and a name
  3. If you really want to help someone improve, the time to give feedback is as soon as you spot the need, giving your critique in small bites and with no financial implication
  4. To function effectively, the firm needs professionals to share a single intensity level, be it high or low.  There needs to be a social compact
  5. Contributing to the success of others should be primary requirement of all professionals

Run a system which causes performance to happen

  1. What many firms misunderstand is that their standards and values are not defined by their aspirations but by what they are prepared to enforce
  2. To create a great firm, management must run a system which causes performance to improve, not simply reward improved performance where it happens to manifest itself
  3. Many senior professionals believe that whereas they work for their firm, their firm does not work for them
  4. Firms are very good at figuring out what they want their people to do differently.  They are not so good at figuring out the management systems to get them to do it
  5. Management’s job is to stimulate experiments and encourage innovation.  It must create a fund lots of small scale R&D efforts, rather than pour vast funds into grand-vision schemes

Business development is a long game 

  1. It is hard to convince a client that you care about his or her business when it is evident that you don’t know what is going on
  2. New business will be won only to the extent that the client believes that the professional is interested, cares, and is trying to help
  3. You need to actively manage the totality of the transaction
  4. If your client’s aren’t actively telling their friends about you, maybe your work (or service) isn’t as great as you think it is
  5. Decide which clients you would be willing to serve for free.  You won’t – but think about which ones you would serve for nothing if you had to. 

Don’t Wait; start helping Today

  1. Don’t wait until you’re being paid before you’re helpful.  You’re a professional – prove it by being helpful from the beginning
  2. The task of the professional is to both give the client an education in available options, and make a pertinent recommendation. It is not the task of the professional to choose
  3. Apart from the issue of the amount of cash that will have to be paid out, clients are also troubled by issues of uncertainty, ambiguity, control, and risk
  4. So it is with training – if you think it’s expensive, try having untrained people
  5. There should be no tolerance for under-delegation

Leftover stuff – all good

  1. The better you are at marketing, the better the chance you have to work on fun stuff, and less trapped you become in being forced to take on work and clients you truly don’t enjoy
  2. Most professional firms are very good at demanding that people succeed, but are pathetically bad at helping people to do that
  3. Fast skill-building strategy is the active pursuit of frontier, asset-building work
  4. In a firm that really cares about skill-building, all professionals would be required to function as effective coaches
  5. The “one stop shopping supermarket” approach has been tried in numerous businesses and professions, and has been discredited almost everywhere
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