{"id":101645,"date":"2017-04-13T11:08:18","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T11:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=101645"},"modified":"2017-04-13T11:28:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T11:28:01","slug":"have-you-got-a-dysfunctional-relationship-with-your-client","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/have-you-got-a-dysfunctional-relationship-with-your-client\/","title":{"rendered":"Have you got a dysfunctional relationship with your client?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/a> love conflict. For me, healthy conflict is an important part of any working relationship. It appears, however, that I\u2019m not alone in this thinking. In fact, a very clever chap, Patrick Lencioni, defined the five characteristics of a highly effective team<\/a>. The second characteristic <\/strong>is<\/strong><\/span>, healthy conflict.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Having just been part of a team that went through the formal training associated with Lencioni\u2019s\u00a0theory, I started thinking about whether this theory could and should be applied to client relationships.<\/p>\n

No matter how much we strengthen our internal team\u2019s relationships, we\u2019ll ultimately not move forward with enough pace if our client relationships don\u2019t improve as well. If I\u2019m soiling myself every time conflict arises between a client and I then know something is not quite right.<\/p>\n

\"dysfunctional<\/a><\/p>\n

So, how do we go about building a healthy relationship with our clients?<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Lencioni, highly functional teams have the following characteristics:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Trust \u2013 they start from the foundation of trust. A degree of vulnerability about strengths and weaknesses builds trust and for a team to function well, everyone must believe that best interests lie at the heart of each individual.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Healthy conflict \u2013 my favourite. Not being afraid to challenge, question, debate and air opinions on ideas and actions. A strong team should mean everyone within it feels empowered to speak up and have their voice heard.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. Commitment \u2013 this is about buy-in. You\u2019re never going to get everyone agreeing from the off. Most teams will still have disagreement about a direction taken. However, importantly the team will have complete buy in that the decision has been made and we\u2019re moving forward.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. Accountability \u2013 my least favourite. Everyone holds each other accountable for their actions. A healthy team doesn\u2019t need a cruel ruler dishing out punishment and keeping everyone on track. They should each be ensuring the other is doing what they say they\u2019ll do<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. Results \u2013 winning for the team. While individuals will and should always be called out for exceptional work, a strong team will always have the bigger picture in mind and share collectively in the successes of the team<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            \"DysfunctionalRelationship_JohnBrown-Hotwire_PR\"<\/a><\/p>\n

            I think as an industry, we get this right internally a lot more than we give ourselves credit.\u00a0We tend to be more comfortable with trust and feedback than other professions and everyone knows how much we love to slap each other\u2019s backs \u2013 just look at how many awards there are out there.\u00a0But when looking at these characteristics through the lens of a client relationship, things become a little more troublesome.<\/p>\n

            I\u2019m going to flip these five pillars of a strong team and turn them into their dysfunctional cousins. What\u2019s more, I\u2019ll try and describe the dysfunctions from the perspective of a client relationship.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. It\u2019s all about the money \u2013 the client sees the agency as always sniffing out the extra dollar or pound without any regard for what\u2019s in the client\u2019s best interest. Equally, the agency believes the client is trying to squeeze them at every turn and is constantly on the watch for scope creep and creative payment plans.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                \n
              1. Put up and shut up \u2013 the agency only sees its role as functional delivery. It\u2019s not there to challenge the client or offer a different perspective. The client sees the agency as lazy but also doesn\u2019t want their views (or their boss) questioned.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                  \n
                1. Go ahead, it\u2019s your budget \u2013 the client refuses to sign off on a campaign or an idea officially but instead just says \u2018if you think it\u2019s how you want to spend the budget then go ahead\u2019 \u2013 total lack of commitment. Equally, the agency reluctantly executes a set of tasks and offhandedly informs the client \u2018well it\u2019s your budget, if you want to spend it like this then go ahead\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                    \n
                  1. It\u2019s their fault \u2013 the agency is the client\u2019s perfect scapegoat. When shit hits the fan, it will be the agency\u2019s head that the axe falls upon. Equally, when the agency is brought in front of the judging panel, the first place they\u2019ll point to is their non-committed \u2018daft\u2019 client who didn\u2019t give them the necessary support.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                      \n
                    1. I win \u2013 here, it\u2019s all about one-upmanship. A constant murmur of, \u2018we won that battle\u2019 rather than a commitment to building results for the team. The client tends to feel that they deserve the credit for dragging the agency with them and surprise surprise the agency feels the same about the client.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                      \"DysfunctionalRelationships-HotwirePR-JohnBrown\"<\/a><\/p>\n

                      Can you spot a dysfunctional characteristic within these five? If so, it might be worth going back to the characteristic before the one you seem to be having a problem with. If you\u2019re suffering from a lack of healthy conflict with a client, it might be because neither of you trust each other enough.<\/p>\n

                      I can\u2019t tell you how to improve your client relationships, only you will know the necessary detail to make specific changes. However, this piece should serve as a guide for potentially spotting opportunities for improvement and identifying which areas may need some work.<\/p>\n

                      Do invest some time reading Patrick\u2019s book<\/a> and in your next team building session, have a think about whether what you learnt could be applied to your clients as well as each other.<\/p>\n

                      [testimonial_view id=2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                      I love conflict. For me, healthy conflict is an important part of any working relationship. It appears, however, that I\u2019m not alone in this thinking. In fact, a very clever chap, Patrick Lencioni, defined the five characteristics of a highly effective team. The second characteristic is, healthy conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":102076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7272,7348],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101645"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103779,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101645\/revisions\/103779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}