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Do you ever have the nagging feeling that you don't have
time to really think anymore? You're not alone. A variety of factors have
conspired to rob us of time for reflection about ourselves, our lives, and the
problems and issues that our clients face.
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Editor's Note:
Andrew Sobel helps professional service firms with client relationships.
He graciously allowed me to share some of his articles here since I
thought that many of his insights would apply to Geek Leaders as well.
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Today, our minds are rarely silent. The average
businessperson receives hundreds of e-mails and voice messages a day, and
vacations for many of us are action-packed weeks more likely full of family
activities than opportunities for repose and contemplation. "Multi-tasking" is
considered a badge of honor by hyperactive overachievers. Commenting on this
phenomenon, Andrew Heyward, the president of CBS News, said, "Whenever I have a
free moment now, I turn to e-mail. It's probably taken away the last few
minutes in my life that were available for reflection." For many modern-day
client advisors, solitude unfortunately comes only during long airplane rides,
and then the time is often spent working on a laptop computer or making calls
from the plane's phone system.
Regular reflection, however, is a hallmark of great
professionals. It allows you to recharge your mental batteries, see things in a
new light, and tap into your creativity. Almost all of the great advisors that
I have studied have found ways to get away from it all-mentally if not
physically-and contemplate their and their clients' most pressing and
intransigent issues.
J. P. Morgan, who was the first relationship banker and the
greatest American financier of the 19th century, was an advisor to
five US
presidents, the Pope, and an assortment of royalty. A notorious workaholic,
Morgan drove himself and his banking partners relentlessly. He regularly
escaped the hubbub of the financial markets, however, by retreating to his
yacht, the Corsair. Moored far out in
New York
harbor, away from the frenetic pace of the Wall Street, the yacht provided
Morgan a seclusion where he would take in the sea breeze, relax, and think. When
trying to resolve a difficult negotiation or industrial dispute, Morgan might
bring executives out to his boat for several days as his guests. There, he
would listen while they talked for hours. Usually, a compromise would slowly be
reached as Morgan brokered a solution.
"I lived in solitude in the country," said Albert Einstein,
talking about the sources of his great ideas, "and noticed how the monotony of
quiet life stimulates the creative mind." Some researchers in the field of
creativity, in fact, believe that insight occurs during the reflection and
relaxation that follows a period of intense activity and work.
Isaac Newton, who was a scientist, educator, and advisor to
the British government, performed what is generally considered one of the greatest
acts of synthesis in scientific history when he developed his laws of motion.
Did this happen while he was ensconced in his office at Cambridge University,
where he had become a full professor of mathematics while still in his early
20s? No. When the plague swept through Cambridge,
Newton fled to
his family's remote rural cottage in the countryside. There, alone and with
plenty of time on his hands, Newton
explained in one fell swoop the basic physical laws of the universe-knowledge
that had eluded mankind for thousands of years.
Reflection helps you to tap into your unconscious, something
that highly creative people seem to do more easily than others. My father, who
used to be a prominent psychiatrist, believes that this is the secret behind
the I Ching, the ancient Chinese book of changes. The I Ching, reputed to be
the oldest book in the world, is meant to be a kind of oracle. You throw coins
(yarrow stalks if you're a real traditionalist!), and depending on the pattern
that emerges, you are directed to read a certain passage in the text of the I
Ching. My father believes that the rather vague commentaries that constitute
the "answer" to your question in fact stimulate our unconscious and allow us to
tap into ideas and thoughts that are normally inaccessible. No doubt ancient
oracles functioned in the same way. Dreams can also tap into this unconscious
creativity. Former Beatle and songwriter Paul McCartney, for example, dreamed
the opening melody to his mega-hit "Yesterday." In another dream his mother,
Mary, came to him and said, "Let it Be," spawning yet another favorite Beatles
tune. Anyone remember those classic Pepperidge Farm commercials with the old
man driving a wagon (this is really dating me)? Advertising great David Ogilvy
dreamed this scene, and then turned it into an award-winning advertising
campaign for his client!
Some professionals I know set aside annual time for
reflection. Best-selling author Ken Blanchard (The One Minute Manager and many
others), for example, takes a "mini-sabbatical" each summer at a country house,
working solely on his next set of ideas and his writing projects. Similarly,
Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz spends most of each summer on Martha's Vineyard, working on his latest manuscript.
Taking off such large blocks of time is difficult for most of us-in practice we
have to aspire to some regular, daily or weekly space for reflection. It can be
helpful to have a quiet place you can retreat to from time to time, even if
only to the public library or a park. Thomas More, chief advisor to King Henry
VIII, built a small, secluded study on his property in Chelsea, away from his main house. He wrote
that a man must "choose himself some secret, solitary place in his own house as
far from noise and company as he conveniently can, and there let him sometime
secretly sit alone, imagining himself as one going out of the world."
Every good client advisor should
have such a "secret, solitary place."
Whether it's a shack in your backyard (the place where Roald Dahl wrote all of
his best selling children's books such as Willie Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory), a walk on the beach, or a long shower, you need one.
What's yours?
Andrew Sobel is a leading authority on client relationships
and the skills and strategies required to earn enduring client loyalty. He is a
consultant and educator to major services firms worldwide. Andrew is the author
of the business bestsellers Making Rain:
The Secrets of Building Lifelong Client Loyalty (John Wiley & Sons),
and Clients for Life: How Great
Professionals Develop Breakthrough Relationships (Simon & Schuster/Fireside). He can be
reached at
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