Toward The Goal Of Becoming A Trust Advisor
David Maister is well-known for his articulation of the concept of "the trusted advisor" and his book by the same title is an absolute must-read for anyone who wishes to develop the closest possible relationship with his or her client. This book had a profound effect on my approach to my own clients, as it no doubt influenced so many others.
Because the topic is so close to my heart, I read Arnie Herz's post "lawyers as trusted advisors" with great interest. Arnie writes the insightful legal sanity blog, and his post pulls together a number of important resources on the trusted advisor topic. While not recent (written waaaaaay back in February), it is a contribution worth rereading. One of the articles Arnie references contains a nice pyramid diagram of relationship development, starting with "commodity work" and ending with "trusted advisor." I wonder how many of us know that we are stuck at Level 3, categorized as "consultative, well thought out advice." How hard it must be to move up that one spot! But the bottom line--that 46% of the surveyed executives had not forged this kind of close relationship with a legal advisor--makes it clear that a lot of lawyers have not crossed that critical threshold. There not only is room for us to be better, but a demand for us to be better too.
Thanks to my friend Dan Hull whose post brought Arnie's piece to my attention.