Trusted adviser programme

Creating trusted advisers

The programme, which we typically deliver internationally, has several distinct parts including:

• Client interviews

We interview participants’ clients to gather feedback which helps participants set personal development objectives, provides insights regarding potential areas for improvement and affirms existing strengths. These interviews are regarded as a transformational part of the programme by past participants and also directly contribute to the development of client relationships.

• Client Executive sessions

Our carefully selected group of senior GC’s, C-suite executives and buyers of professional services provide a realistic, safe and stretching space to rehearse critical conversations and try out different approaches. These client executives provide valuable insights into trusted adviser relationships and boardroom challenges and share personal experiences with advisors, both good and bad.

• Impactful skills development sessions

Sessions focused on select skills are highly valued and can be practiced in the client rehearsal sessions or applied to real client situations immediately. Past session topics have included: walking in the client’s shoes, building and using empathy, developing and projecting confidence, understanding personality types and styles, making an impact and identifying opportunities, handling high stakes conversations, strategic networking and navigating boardrooms.

• A safe coaching space

Participants value a dedicated coach to personalise their development. This confidential space is where participants set personal goals for the programme and review progress. It is where they can plan how to implement what they have learned to their client relationships, develop skills and experiment with new behaviours. Feedback by those on past programmes has highlighted how highly valued this coaching support is.

Participants often start with a certain, transactional mindset, and one of the objectives of this programme is to shift this mindset.

Their starting mindset is often to:

• Put their or the firm’s interest before the client
• Value expertise over connecting as people
• Disproportionately focus on short term results at the expense of long-term value

Through the four-part programme we aim to shift mindsets to:

• Put the client’s interests alongside the interests of the firm
• Want to be the first person the client calls in a personal or business crisis
• Work in partnership with the client and their leadership team

We find partners and senior executives who are selected for this programme add value through:

• Deeply understanding the client
• Confidently giving a point of view on questions
• Delivering services that transform the client’s business
• Finding solutions to the simple and complex challenges that show they care
• Delivering the whole firm’s capability to the client

More broadly the programme has several key benefits, namely to:

• Retain and attract talented people
• Build a cohort of peers that can share experiences and grow together
• Encourage individuals to be entrepreneurial and improve the firm’s processes
• Improve the firm’s reputation, revenue and relative market position
• Enable the firm to focus its resources on those clients offering the best, long term opportunities