David Maister's Business Masterclass: Recent Episodes
David Maister
Preeminent business author and global consultant David Maister presents this enhanced podcast series exploring the themes found in his new book Strategy and the Fat Smoker. Each episode is accompanied by a supplementary pdf discussing the related chapter from David's new book.
This summative episode focuses on the importance of Passion, People and Principles for the individual professional as well as the entire firm.
In this episode, we will examine a speech that was written for a newly titled CEO. We will see how these executives can take the first step in leading firm wide accountability and forward momentum.
What in law firm culture differentiates itself from virtually any other type of firm in the realms of management, collaboration and relationship building? In this episode, we explore what makes law firms different and what can be done to improve the s
Internal collaboration becomes increasingly difficult as a firm grows and diversifies. We will look at some of the issues that come up and some possible solutions.
This episode revisits five firms named in a 1985 article entitled “The One-Firm Firm”. We will discuss the differences in these firms and the pertinence of the article 23 years on.
Often, the guidelines an organization sets for what it expected of its managers are unclear at best. This episode focuses on setting non-ambiguous, non-contradictory standards for selecting leaders.
Often, management neglects its own stake in the betterment of the organization as a whole. We will look into ways that managers can become accountable for their own work and improvement and serve as an example to the whole of the organization.
In this episode we will examine the intuitive managerial approach of Jerry Labbate and clarify the lessons you can take to maximize your managerial effectiveness.
The key to great coaching lies in a persons ability get another to commit to goals on their own terms. This episode looks into ensuring that those in managerial roles have the attitudes, skills, and behaviors of a skilled coach.
Too often, companies look to training as a stand-alone solution for behavioral changes in their employees. However, training is a wonderful last step in a committed process towards a common goal, but an almost useless first step.
With so many approaches an organization can take to management, only one of these approaches will, in the long run, produce enduring profitability and abundant business generation. Why are so few firms willing to invest the time?
The basis for any successful marketing effort is the ability of the provider to convince the buyer that they are truly interested in them and are genuinely trying to help. This is however, rarely the focus of marketing discussions within any firm.
Trusting relationships in business are built on the same formulae as trusting relationships in personal life. We will look into some of the cues one can take from personal life to enhance ones professional standing.
The Fat Smoker Syndrome, the inability to do the things we know will help us accomplish our long-term goals, finds no better illustration than in the area of client relations. We will look into different types of client relations and relative merits of
For any organization to achieve a unified, forward momentum, it must first have a solid set of rules and goals for its members to agree upon. We will discuss a number of integrating concepts aimed at getting all players on the same page.
Firm-wide strategy often assumes firm-wide consensus. However, it is rarely the case that all players within any given firm are team oriented. We will discuss some of the widely held player preferences and prescribe alternatives in dealing with them.
A career path is rarely a series of logical steps towards resulting in an ultimate goal, but is more often a series of experiments seen through by the drive and determination to find the next challenge. We will explore this principle in this podcast.
One of the hardest things for a professional to do is to turn down work and everyone has an excuse as to why they shouldn’t. We will learn why the refusal of work that is contrary to your strategy is essential to building a distinguished and special
A strategy, like any other lifestyle altering decision, requires the discipline stick to the plan. Without this determination, most strategic planning is a complete waste of time. We will discuss the tools necessary to do what is obvious but not easy
We will close this series with a proverb that I use to conclude many of my seminars. It illustrates that what most businesses need, is not clarification on what is the right thing to do, but the courage to not give in to short term gratification.
Everything in we want in life must be given to us by another human being. This being the case, a key question in the early stages of a relationship is, how do you get another human being to want to give these things to you?
Professionals at any given time can be one of three things: dynamos, cruisers or losers. What are the percentages in your organization and how will you as a manager motivate and excite in order help under-performers and create dynamos?
Marketing services that excite you to clients that you are interested in brings the odds of winning business significantly higher. However, this appears to be the route less taken in most professional lives. The question is, is this acceptable?
sides of the fence. We will discuss how to thwart this cycle at the root by demonstrating your capabilities first and building a reputation as a trustworthy provider.
In the marketing of professional services, you can come across in one of two ways to the buyer. You are either interested in them, or you are interested in their cash. We will show why the former is the key to successful business marketing.
Most professional organizations spend the overwhelming majority of their non-billable, business generating hours on chasing new clients even though it has the least probable R.O.I. We will examine the alternatives and their relative effectiveness.
There is far more to building a relationship than the point of any given conversation and there is no “going through the motions” or baseline communications. Learn two of the most important aspects of communication in relationships.
In business development it is too often the case that professional strive for the transaction in the short term and neglect the essential foundations for building a lasting business relationship. We will discuss two distinct mindsets for coming to mark
All marketing and selling questions boil down to one basic query: How do people buy? To learn the answer to this, one only needs to look as far as their own experience in buying to find that it’s not only about qualifications but also about trust.
Often times there is a degree of laziness in communication on the part of the professional that is incredibly alienating to the client. Learn a simple exercise that will help you better understand and fulfill your clients’ wants and needs.
The standard marketing practice of proposals and assertions fails in respect to building relationships. We will discuss one of many tactics aimed at earning and deserving existing and new client business through demonstration rather than assertion.
In order for the employees of an organization to raise their performance, those in managerial roles must first be held accountable for their own performance. We will discuss one way that this accountability could be installed inside an organization.
Commonly used tactics in management such as performance appraisals, go against every rule of family life. In this episode, you will learn how the interpersonal, emotional, and psychological skills implemented in family interactions are the very same th
Careful attention to language and an understanding of the best way to present issues are key interpersonal skills. Listen to and learn from an example of phenomenal use of language.
Getting another human being to fulfill their potential is a general process akin to the process of parenting or coaching. What are the steps to unleashing the true potential within an individual?
Everything you want in life must be given to you by others. The key question in getting what you want is whether you engage with others as “them”, people you want something from, or as “us”, people who are part of a relationship with you.
Often times, the coaching or managing role of a professional group leader is neglected in favor of revenue generation and client service. Learn the various reasons that this is a poor economic choice and ways to invest in and nurture the coaching role
Organizations accomplish their missions when the people who comprise that organization are excited and passionate about their work. Learn how to create this environment in your workplace.
The main trait that qualifies a manager is not about intellect or rationality. The job of the manager is to build organizations that accomplish their mission through an ability to deal with people as people.
Motivating people to perform to their greatest potential is a multifaceted skill. Learn the traits, tactics, and dialect to be an effective manager.
All companies know what they need to do to be successful. The trick is to have the determination and courage to not give into the temptation of short-term gains.
The goals of an organization are only attainable through the mobilization of the organization as a whole. How does your organization measure up?
In order to succeed, a professional firm must have values, principles and standards. These should not exist as goals or aspirations, but as solid bottom lines that the professionals within the firm must live up to.
In business many factors lead to ultimate financial and business success. The challenge is to identify which factors tend to drive other factors and hence, where you really should start to launch the sequence that leads to ultimate profitability.
Burnout, the imposter syndrome and the motivation spiral are all key components in a loss of momentum. How does the high-flying professional maintain the momentum that has brought them to their esteemed position?
One of the most common plagues in professional life is procrastination. The key is: Don’t panic! Learn this and several other tools for dealing with this phenomenon.
Self-promoting and networking are sometimes the hardest thing for professionals to do. Learn tips and techniques to get past your resistance and tap into your potential for success in self-promotions in any context.
Over the course of your career development, what is it that you will be recognized for? Through the presentation of a conceptual model, learn four distinctive roles you can play on your path to greatness.
Learn crucial effective management lessons from the intuitive managerial approach of Jerry Labbate.
Accepting the role of manager means accepting the responsibility not only for your own actions, but also for the actions of your entire organization. Learn the necessary skills to excite, energize, organize, and produce with your team.
How do you insure a proper understanding of the wants and needs of the client or boss who delegates the task at hand? Become skilled at RECEIVING the work assigned to you – and find the confidence to take the initiative to do the job right.
Building mutually beneficial, mutually supportive relationships is as important in business as it is in personal life. You can improve your relationships with the Six Rules of Romance.
How do you cultivate trust in the early stages of a business relationship? The key to being trusted is being truly trustworthy. Learn to master the four main components that convey trustworthiness.
Developing your interpersonal skills can improve both your personal and professional life. It is never too early (or too late!) to learn how to earn and deserve trust.
Learn powerful exercises to harness your most valuable professional asset: non-reimbursed time. To neglect your non-billable hours is to neglect your future.
Instead of just milking your existing job skills, here's how you can build new ones to increase your career opportunities.
What does it take to insure a lifetime of fulfilling and exciting career choices? Learn how to coordinate your own Personal Strategic Plan.
John Byrne shares the lessons of his personal career trajectory from business journalist to Fast Company editor to Executive Editor of BusinessWeek, and discusses how managing a knowledge-based company is similar to running a professional business.
Drive, engagement, and passion are more important than even talent to professional success but are often missing from professionals' lives. Learn how to increase the fun in your professional life in order to increase your career success.
What is the difference between a technician and a professional? David Maister pin-points the key attitudes and character traits that make the true professional in today's business world.
Business Masterclass host David Maister shares his insights into how his writing and consulting career came about and what those experiences taught him - along with specific takeaway lessons to make your career more exciting, fulfilling and successful
How does a manager get his or her operation to begin to behave strategically? What systems are needed and what personal behavior by the manager?
How can companies get started on operating strategically with a minimum of bureaucracy and planning? How to focus on the four key improvement areas of all sensible strategic plans.
Modern organizations often have complex structures with departments, industry teams, major account teams and geographic locations. How does a company ensure that these overlapping structures function smoothly together?
What is the key ingredient in the successful implementation of any multidisciplinary and/or geographic expansion strategy? Expansion is not what you do in order to achieve excellence - it's what you are allowed to do after you have achieved it.
What are the separate goals that professional businesses seek in engaging in mergers? We identify a number of types of mergers and examine the pro's and con's of each of them.
How do you ensure that your firm is good at identifying emerging needs, examining them and devising responses? A set of managerial processes is described to ensure that an professional business can evolve along with its marketplace.
In an organization where every decentralized operating unit is responsible for its own strategic plan, what is the role of the company itself? This seminar explores how to ensure that the company or firm acts as more than just a holding company.
How do you get people in multiple disciplines, industries and offices to work for the good of the firm? A wide variety of approaches, ordered from high to low effectiveness are discussed.
What do Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Accenture, Latham and Watkins and Hewitt Associates have in common? A commitment to a model of professional business management which stresses teamwork, collaboration and and institutional loyalty.
Why don't most firms actually live up to the standards and values espoused in their mission statements? Because it's one thing to say you believe in something; it's another to be willing to be held accountable.
Why do most firms in an industry end up looking very similar, offering the same services to the same clients, stressing the same client benefits? Because they don't have the courage to accomplish true differentiation by saying no to off-strategy work.
What do the Most Successful Businesses in a 139-business, 15-country database do to achieve doubled margins and doubled growth rates? Appoint managers who know how to excite, enthuse and energize their people.
Why is Strategy Like Staying Fit? Because we know what to do, why to do it and how to do it, but still not everybody does the right things. Why strategy is more about developing resolve than is about analytical plans.
What is a Strategy and How Do You Develop One? This episode explains the sources of competitive advantage, and describes a process to be followed to identify a competitive strategy.
Reviewing the podcast series, the final episode examines the reasons someone would want to perform the managerial role, and provides guidance to further reading on the subject.
This episode debunks the commonly-held myth that formal performance evaluation systems and compensation schemes are the keys to managing professionals. It shows why pay schemes can, and usually do, backfire.
Groups function best when the group itself defines the rights and obligations that group members have to each other. This episode explains precisely how to accomplish that goal.
This episode moves beyond the topic of managing individuals and examines the challenge of managing groups of professionals. It stresses that the goals and purpose of the group must be explicitly identified before you can do any other kind of managing.
In every professional environment there are people whose individual contribution is high, but who disrupt the performance of the team. This episode explores ways of minimizing the disruption and co-opting these people to the larger team goal.
This episode stresses the key role of managers in helping to raise performance, not just monitor it. It examines the wide variety of reasons that lead individuals to underperform, and suggests practical ways to respond.
Using a model commonly applied in business discussions, this episode explains how you can get a head start in trying to understand how different people must be managed, and how to recognize the type of individual you are dealing with.
Inviting listeners to reflect on what motivates them, this episode explores the factors that cause professionals in all walks of life to move from competence and compliance to excitement, enthusiasm and dedication.
Based on statistical research in 13 countries, as well as in-depth case studies, David reports on the precise characteristics of managers who have created high-achievement teams.
We continue examining the special attitudes and skills of a manager by looking at what makes the manager role different from being a top practitioner. As the title of the episode indicates, the role contains demands that do not appeal to everyone.
This episode is the first in a sequence that examines the essential characteristics of an effective manager. Here we explore the importance of integrity, values, style and competence.
What is the best way to think about the role of a manager in leading a group of professionals? How does a manager really make a difference to the performance of individual professionals and to the team?
Using his own experience as a young faculty member at the Harvard Business School, David describes in precise detail (and with precise language) how he was coached. The general lessons are then extracted from the story.
This episode examines the most effective use of a manager's time, exploring the competing claims of financial administration, personal client work, business development, client relations and time with group members, formal and informal.
The opening episode in this series describes how a 20-something manager of a personal training gym in Boston has discovered, and applies intuitively, many of the key principles in effectively managing professionals of all kinds.
Effectively motivating a firm's employees in generating marketing and business development.
Effectively motivating a firm's employees to participate in marketing and business development.
How to effectively nurture client relationships by guaranteeing satisfaction in work provided.
Evaluation and ranking of common individual marketing tactics for generating enquiries from new clients.
How to nurture and grow a long-term relationship. How to get hired without actually selling.
The interpersonal qualities and tactics needed to build successful relationships - in personal life and at work.
How to ensure your advice is accepted and acted upon; understanding peoples' feelings when giving and receiving advice.
Understanding up-front what clients really want to achieve and how they will assess your work. The need to define 'success' between client and professional.
The tools, tips and tactics that create excellent client service and will lead to return business and new clients.
How you can gain a sharper competitive edge by being better at understanding how clients think - simply by asking them to talk to you.
The rewards of building trusting relationships with clients as opposed to taking a transactional view of marketing.