Let’s Just Be Honest. Clients Can Be a Pain in the Arse.
The urgency of now pulls at you, doesn’t it? Some of us had a few too many traumatic experiences as a child or young adult or grew up in a way where everything was here and now. It forces you to take life by the balls. In your own way, you want to make an impact, but how and why and when the holy hell is there time? I was just texting a colleague who has 2 beautiful daughters and like 10 businesses.
I’m like how.
The irony of this for me is that our business is essentially managing department heads and business owners, planning huge events and programs and helping people who want to make said impact do so without killing a loved one.
But as you might have guessed, it is not always easy. In fact, while I love our clients and the work we do in order for us to get shit done, we need the people we love to help us help them.
Here are some ways to better manage your schedule and manage expectations:
- Identify the desired outcome of a project: A “desired outcome” is a whole systems way of making your “goal” a noun. It has to be a person, place or a thing. For example, if you need to write a grant. The desired outcome is “a completed, submitted application”. And then you develop smaller desired outcomes to accomplish the main one. We write grants for our clients and the first thing we do is ask questions about their mission, their statistics, and research, but even then you need small bites to accomplish it or it will just sit on the shelf. These small desired outcomes can go a long way to achieving happy clients.
- Set fair ground rules with yourself and clients: Aim low. Deliver high. When you start a new project or with a new client, identify benchmarks for success with yourself and the client or manager. You are an overachiever so your nature is to promise the world because you want to make your peeps happy. Stop it. Be clear on what success looks like, communicate it clearly and said realistic deadlines. If you think it will take two weeks, request the client approve a THREE to FOUR week timeline.
- When you make a mistake (big and small), own up to it quickly: This is particularly important when you disappoint yourself. Take a moment when you fall short of a goal to say to yourself, “I messed up here. What happened? How am I beating myself over the head? When I have moved on/forgiven myself, what can I do to improve next time? This also applies to clients, but in the end, you only really answer to yourself…maybe your kids if you have them, but even then, “you were yours before you were anyone else’s”.
Happy Client Appreciation Month.
Eb
