The Joys and Sorrows of Dealing With Clients

Sounds awfully brutal. You're not alone, I have heard the same from many others, but in my career, I never had one. Don't get me wrong, I had accounts that we had done miracles with, that suddenly picked up and would disappear overnight without so much as a goodbye or a why? So I have my stories of woe, but what you are talking about are bullies.

If the bully is the headman, I'd walk, but my experience has been that the top dogs have been exemplary.

I have always had a PhD following my name, which helped me to earn instant credibility, and perhaps that the helped me. And the MBA's I have met were professional, organized and expecting the same of me. We got the job done.

Had I ever encountered a bully I would have documented the abuse by having a co-worker with me, never being with the bully alone. Many times someone of the opposite sex times the bully and their behavior. Whenever a riff occurred I would try to match another of our staff with them. Sometimes it worked and we turned lions into pussycats. Other times I went to the bully's boss and stated the problem. But it never got so bad that we had to resign any business. I would always tell my staff to focus on the work and not on the employee. And I added, remember we work for them and what they really want is for us to make them look good. So go make them look good.

I have had employees who I found out were bullies. One was asking sexual favors from female outside service reps. She came to me, but refused to be specific. I told her that if she ever had such an occasion again to come to me and I would immediate fire him. She didn't, but I talked with him and laid down the law – he took another job within a month. When he left I had a company meeting where I discussed what had happened and to my surprise they told me that they knew and it had been going on for much longer. When I asked why no one here brought this to my attention, I was told that one of our employees told the rep to come and talk with me – but I told them that she refused to explain the problem other than to say it was sexual, and he wanted sex for business. I told everyone I have zero tolerance fro any sexual misconduct – but she refused to confront him or explain to me what the misconduct was. I needed more than that to dismiss him. Later I talked with an employment attorney who had me write an employee handbook where that and other conduct was clearly defined, as were rules and expectations as well as consequences.

So for bullies, try to find someone else who can better deal with them. With naughty employees, make sure you have an employee handbook that clearly defines bad behavior and defines the consequences. Because of these two methods, I was fortunate with both clients and employees. Perhaps it will help you too. But everyone at my agency knew that I would stand up for him or her against any renegade client. I'd dump them (bad client) without a thought. I'd be sure to first talk to their boss first for some sort of remedy. But if it couldn't be resolved that way, I would nicely and neatly resign the business. I'd tell my employees, we don't want to ever get even, and we want to get rich. What helps us get rich? Most of my employees opted for the get rich angle and didn't dwell on the negatives. But for any agency, its employees is its most important asset, and must be protected above all else.

I think there is a better approach to bad behavior. That's to assume a positive intent behind it (human behavior is purposeful), and then approach dealing with it strategically.

While I'm sure there are nice people in the world (I like to think I'm one, and clearly so are you), they often try being nice to people who either don't know about or don't care about nice behavior, and then, stymied and confused, wonder what the deal is with those 'mean' people. I say nice is nice with nice people. With everyone else, something else is needed.

Bad behavior, as far as I can tell (and I've done thousands of interviews to back up this view) is the result of a person's lack of flexibility and resourcefulness in dealing with a changing and uncontrollable world. It's what people do when they perceive that their good intentions are being thwarted by the behavior of others, and they run out of options for dealing with it. In this way, everyone becomes someone's difficult person at least some of the time, by being pushy, negative, disruptive, vague, self absorbed, or completely withdrawn.

The only exceptions I make to this view are people who have substance abuse problems (and thus develop a multiple personality of sorts) or are in some other way truly mentally disturbed (manic depressive, narcissistic, etc.) In such cases, most of us aren't equipped with the time, interest or skills to interact with them, none of the books on your shelf really apply, and the best choice is to get as far away as fast as possible.

Thanks for the article. I found it thought provoking and fun to read. Best wishes, Rick Kirschner

Because when you run a profitable agency or any type of business regardless of size, profit gives you freedom... freedom to choose clients and partners who you genuinely like to work with, and enjoy the relationship and the business value it creates and delivers.

But above all I recall a mentor of mine way back who said..."Great Clients get great work. Bad ones rarely do..." Frank Cartwright, Auckland, New Zealand.