Maybe it was a full moon last week (hard to tell around here with all the rain and clouds these days). Something was certainly in the air that was making our clients and business associates “restless”. We found ourselves mitigating some family business squabbles, helping a client who makes decisions by concensus interpret what they were really trying to say to each other, and doing intellectual deep-breathing exercises with a client who just lost his biggest customer.
Then, it occurred to me that these things were really not all that unusual. In a business like ours, where we are couseling CEO’s on much more than marketing and PR on a regular basis, we should not be surprised when they lay some of these “heavy” and even personal issues at our feet and look for our advice and empathy.
And in fact, in some of these circumstances, that is where we can add the most value of all — just being a sympathetic ear, lending a detacted viewpoint, redirecting a misguided thought. Nearly all businesses are facing challenges right now, and how lucky we should feel to be brought into their innermost struggles and valued for being trusted advisors and friends.
