David H. Maister > Quotes

“It is important to note that while goods are consumed, services are experienced.”
― David H. Maister, Managing The Professional Service Firm

“In early Greek society, particularly in Athens, democracy meant the equivalent of a permanent town meeting—all decisions of consequence were made in public assembly. As many professional service firms have rediscovered, this view of democracy tends to result in much wasting of time, slowness of response, and extreme conservatism in action.”
― David H. Maister, Managing The Professional Service Firm

“It is ironic that a business in which the serving of clients depends so heavily on interpersonal psychology should be peopled with those who believe in the exclusive power of technical mastery. And”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor: 20th Anniversary Edition

“There is an old saying, “It is amazing what you can achieve if you are not wedded to who gets the credit.” The”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor: 20th Anniversary Edition

“Send meeting materials in advance”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“Clients recognize excessive self-orientation through such things as: 1. A tendency to relate their stories to ourselves 2. A need to too quickly finish their sentences for them 3. A need to fill empty spaces in conversations 4. A need to appear clever, bright, witty, etc. 5. An inability to provide a direct answer to a direct question 6. An unwillingness to say we don’t know 7. Name-dropping of other clients 8. A recitation of qualifications 9. A tendency to give answers too quickly 10. A tendency to want to have the last word 11. Closed-ended questions early on 12. Putting forth hypotheses or problem statements before fully hearing the client’s hypotheses or problem statements 13. Passive listening; a lack of visual and verbal cues that indicate the client is being heard 14. Watching the client as if he/she were a television set (merely a source of data)”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor: 20th Anniversary Edition

“The attitude of exclusive professionalism (which restricts the label of professionalism to the advisor) manifests itself in a number of dysfunctional ways. It reinforces a misleading belief that the advisor’s job is to solve problems rather than to help the client solve problems.”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“Reconfirm scheduled events before they happen. Announce changes to scheduled or committed dates as soon as they change. Intimacy”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“In busy times there is also a temptation to let investments such as training take a back seat to getting the work out the door. Only adherence to the firm's principles and values prevents opportunistic behavior that may have short-term benefits but long-term adverse consequences.”
― David H. Maister, Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy

“My experience has taught me that success comes not to those who swing for the fences every time at bat, but to those who commit themselves to a continuous program of constant improvement, base hit by base hit.”
― David H. Maister, Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy

“Reliability in this largely rational sense is the repeated experience of links between promises and action.”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“The solution for an individual firm must always address three perspectives in any organizational review: structure (how we are formally organized); processes (how different types of decisions are to be made and how conflicts and trade-offs are to be resolved); and people (appointing the right individuals to play the complex roles that will make it all work).
No one dimension will solve the problem: all three must be examined. However, the importance of these three elements in the solution is first, people; then processes; then structure.”
― David H. Maister, Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy

“It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it: That's what gets results.”
― David H. Maister, Managing The Professional Service Firm

“Sincerity, the way we usually mean it, has to do with intentions; we assume it comes from within. But our clients have no way to observe sincerity except through external behaviors. From certain behaviors (attention paid, interest shown, advance work done, empathetic listening), we infer the internal state we call sincerity. Thus,”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“Don’t tell lies, or even exaggerate. At all. Ever. 3.”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“Make specific commitments to your client around small things: getting that article by tomorrow, placing the call, writing the draft by Monday, looking up a reference. And then deliver on them, quietly, and on time. 2.”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“while most providers sell on the basis of technical competence, most buyers buy on the basis of emotion.”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“The trick of earning trust is to avoid all tricks.”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor: 20th Anniversary Edition

“Are there any topics I should avoid because they are too delicate to discuss in a large forum? • Are there any topics on which the views of your colleagues are significantly divided? •”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“Speak with expression, not monotonically. Use body language, eye contact, and vocal range. Show the client you have energy around the subject at hand. 5.”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“life is too short to work on the uninspiring. Being”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor: 20th Anniversary Edition

“Four Essential Elements That Engender Trust (Chapter 8) 1. Credibility 2. Reliability 3. Intimacy 4.”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“Managers should be hassle absorbers, not hassle creators.”
― David H. Maister, Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy

“We need structures that don't squash flexibility and creativity but minimize inefficiency and confusion.”
― David H. Maister, Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy

“It is not enough for a professional to be right: An advisor’s job is to be helpful. David”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor: 20th Anniversary Edition

“unity, pride, respect, loyalty, excellence, and integrity.”
― David H. Maister, Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy

“A good rule to remember is that, in relationships, there are no win-lose or lose-win combinations: There are only win-wins and lose-loses.”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“The best service professionals excel at two things in conveying credibility: anticipating needs, and speaking about needs that are commonly not articulated. For”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor

“I don’t try to replace existing relationships. My role is to leverage and support key relationships which clients have developed over years. For example, if the client has an investment broker, even though I am securities-licensed, I will simply serve as an advisor/coordinator. I am there to augment, to find ways to add value, to be the quarterback who might pass things to others, not to carry the ball alone (to continue the football analogy).”
― David H. Maister, The Trusted Advisor: 20th Anniversary Edition

“between”
― David H. Maister, Managing The Professional Service Firm