Customer Reviews

TRUE PROFESSIONALISM : The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients, and Your Career

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"True Professionalism" expresses Maister's core message: do work
you love with people you like and everything else will come
with ease. Few of the lawyers I coach have heard this message
before. If they'd read Maister they'd realize that business
development isn't about selling, with all of its worst connotations -- it's about helping people you respect and whose problems are meaningful to you.
Maister encourages the reader to consider the "radical" idea that work should be enjoyable and that if it is, then success will come from doing it well and with sincere caring. I agree with him and enjoy being reminded each time I re-read this wonderful book.

You're a consultant, lawyer, accountant or some other professional in a practice which needs to sell to survive.

This book gives good, simple, guidelines to succeed. Follow them and you'll do well.

Don't worry that your competition will do the same because many of the recommendations will get lost in the "Too Hard" basket. For example, Maister's treatment of unchargeable time is simple and cuts right to the chase: how is non-chargeable time measured? What is the RoI of this time? Is there a schedule or a programme for what is essential investment in the future?

The logic is impeccable, but it will lead to little action precisely because unchargeable time by definition doesn't contribute to the bottom line immediately.

It is a book which seeks out many of the sloppy, unimaginative practices prevalent in professional firms and provides practical remedies. It is a book that will be much recommended but too hard to use, and the reason why is best illustrated by Maister's recommendation on guarantees:

"Guarantee your work to the complete satisfaction of the client. If the client is not completely satisfied, accept that portion of the fee that reflects the client's level of satisfaction".

This stuff is just too scary. To trust clients and staff that much is asking a lot. To force a firm to live up to its marketing claims is, for most, a risk not worth taking.

David Maister does a great job of explaining the fundamentals essential to anyone that has a job or is looking for a job in consulting. Splitting the book into three sections made it flow well and easy to follow and comprehend. Furthermore, Maister really focuses on the things that you should look for within yourself as well as the firm and clients. He makes you think about what one should really focus on in your career and the benefits you can receive from your job. This book also guides an employee in explaining situations that will probably occur at some point in their working career. David Maister gives you the tools that you need to be successful; all the person has to do is apply it to their everyday life.

The principles that Maister discussed in his book showed me that there is a balance between the client, the firm, and yourself. This balance is important because it dictates how successful you will become. It is also important to value your client as well as engage with them so that you really know who the client is and what their needs and wants are. Even though you must achieve your goals, you should help others to do the same by establishing a relationship, which in turn will make the working environment healthy and successful.

There is so much information you take a way from this book that will help you in your career as well as your life. I advise everyone to buy this book, because it is very beneficial to the success of anyone's career. Through the use of catchy phrases and clear, practical explanations, I feel that anyone can read this book and take something from it to apply to their career.

Finally a book that speaks to the heart of what consulting is(or professional services in general), with no hype, no distractions or flavor-of-the-month thoughts. I had heard David Maister at a recent consulting conference and was quite struck by his focus on people and 'execution of strategies' as being the core of successful consulting firms.

This book is pithy without being trite and if you have been in consulting a while, you can directly relate to what the author is referring to. There are many suggestions in this book that are insightful, practical and feel right on the money to a practictioner.

While by no means a classic, it is certainly a must read.

David H. Maister has written a valuable book about what it really means to be a professional. Presented with depth, insight and plenty of practical advice, the book is intelligently written and can be applied to anyone's career, no matter the level or industry. Maister also has plenty to say to companies about their professionalism and lack of it. We [...] recommend this book to professionals in all areas, and if you want to be a better one - or if you're not sure whether you are one or not - start reading.

I thought that this book would extend the concept of professionalism out of its traditional realm and into the world of business. But I was dismayed to find that professionalism as Maister thinks of it doesn't apply to me... because I work for a corporation. Maister sees a "professional" as someone who provides a service to a client, and who could work as a sole practitioner. His book seems to be mostly geared towards lawyers and consultants, and more specifically law firms or consulting firms.

Also, it often seems like, because I work for a corporation, with no real expectation of autonomy, I already by default have the skills he claims professionals so badly need - like the ability to work as part of a team or to accept management.

Half of the book is spent implying that professionals (or possibly people overall) are unable to be internally motivated to excellence, and repeatedly insisting that the only way to make them perform at a high level is to have an external force demand that they do so, and strictly enforce those demands. He describes such a policy as "intolerant" and uses this word A LOT. He further suggests that professionals should want and accept this, because they too should realize that they can't achieve excellence on their own.
It is a little offensive, and I would imagine that such a firm taking such a faithless approach would have great success among the average, but would drive away the best.

The other half of the book, strangely, implies that actually you can't change people that much, and should adjust your firm to contain only people who share the same standards and values.

This book is sometimes called inspiring and perhaps that is because Maister suggests that a fulfilling professional career is in fact possible (even though many may feel like it's "just a job"). And he does offer some decent, albeit obvious, advice about how to get there (think about times in your work when you were happy, or clients that you liked, and then DO THAT - find more of that kind of work, or that kind of client).

Overall I thought this book was quite muddled, with mediocre advice presented in a poorly organized way.

Note about the Kindle edition: this book has a lot of lists, and about half of the lists are incorrectly formatted in the Kindle edition (they appear as a long run-on block of text instead of a bullet list). Also, this book in print form has quotes from the main text set off in little side boxes meant to emphasize important ideas. In the Kindle edition there are no boxes; instead the quotes are just repeated in line in bold text, producing a weird effect of redundancy.

A former professor at the Harvard Business School, Boston-based David H. Maister is the world's premier consultant to professional service firms. His core principles spring from good, sound logic: Believe passionately in what you do, never compromise your standards and values, and care about your clients.

Maister passionately believes we should do all these because they are the ethical things to do and because they are the primary road to commercial success.

True Professionalism is a candid treasury of practical wisdom in which Maister expounds some eternal truths about the individual professional, the firm, and the client.

Should be required reading for anyone aspiring to develop themselves professionally in a professional services firm. Especially pertinent for leaders and managers.

As Maister points out, some of his recommendations require the courage of ones' convictions to be realized. Yet, this book provides inspiration (along with wonderful advice) to achieve its ends.

Maister is simply the best in this niche...and this book, once again, demonstrates that.

Bill Wiersma, Author, The Big AHA

Mr. Maister's True Professionalism is a pretty good description of "professional" behavior. Part One is (Mostly) About You"---I found this section more fluff than anything; but in Part Three (Mostly) About Your Clients, Maister offers good advice and counsel for dealing with existing clients and expanding one's presence. In particular, his chapter on "What Clients Want" was worth the price of the book. In this chapter, Maister walks the reader through the logic of determining "what" your clients "value" and how to expand customer satisfaction (hint: do more of what your client value). I have Maister's The Trusted Advisor (have never read the whole book, just parts) and Strategy and The Fat Smoker (which I've read, but haven't reviewed---it is very good, btw)--True Professionalism is a must read for a consultant (also read everything written by Alan Weiss) and will help the novice avoid common mistakes. Recommended.

This is a great book for people just starting out in the accounting industry. I highly recommend everyone who enters to read it.