It takes ages to build trust in consulting. It only takes a moment to lose it. I call it trust and Geoffrey M. Bellman calls it partnership in his book The Consultant’s Calling: Bringing Who You Are to What You Do, New and Revised
Bellman gives a good list of reasons why partnership [or trust] is easily lost. Here it is:
- The contracting is unclear.
- You work your own agenda.
- The fit is poor.
- The client has too much work and too little money.
- The project becomes less important to the client.
- You accept the work you would not ordinarily do.
- You after the money.
- You catch the client’s "disease".
- You hold naïve positive assumptions.
- You pretend.
I wish I had this list long ago, before I learned it myself.
