How to Lead a Values-Based Professional Services Firm

How to Lead a Values-Based Professional Services Firm

by Don Scales, Fran Biderman-Gross
Released January 2020
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119621522

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Book description

We live in a values-driven world.

As times change, businesses must evolve. The way that leaders have run companies for generations is no longer relevant.Today -- Purpose wins over products. Values win over features. Stories win over pitches.Everyone everywhere craves fulfillment. You must share the reason why you exist and infuse it into everything you do, in order to thrive.

Many leaders see the shift in the market and make an effort to adapt. Companies quickly learn that one-off workshops and off-sites are not enough. Purpose is more than a press release. Your vision and mission statements should live in practice as well as print, and permeate through every aspect of your organization. You must close the gap between the messages you declare and the experiences you deliver.

How to Lead a Values-Based Professional Services Firm shares the vital experience and valuable insights that leaders require to evolve their organizations and navigate the values-driven world we live in.

• Live your purpose to stay alive and build a faithful following of clients and team members.
• Employ your authentic values as your guide through the modern market and drive profitability.
• Share meaningful stories that emotionally connect with today's clientele to transform them into tomorrow's brand ambassadors.

3 keys to unlock purpose and profit will enable you to turn the obstacles of the shifting market into your greatest opportunities, soar above your competitors, and grow your revenue beyond your highest projections.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. About the Authors
  3. Introduction
    1. Half a Century of Combined Experience
    2. We're Not in the Business We Think We Are
    3. Not Just a Logo
    4. Finding the Three Keys
    5. Note
  4. 1 Create Your Three Keys
    1. Understand Your Brand Foundation
    2. Understand the Three Keys
    3. Purpose: The First Key
    4. Values: The Second Key
    5. Story: The Third Key
    6. Apply the Three Keys to Your Business
    7. Are You a Values-Based, Purpose-Driven Firm?
    8. What Can You Do Now?
    9. Notes
  5. 2 Values-Based Culture
    1. Three Building Blocks of Culture
    2. Innovate and Evolve Culture
    3. Create a Culture of YES!
    4. Culture and the Three Keys
    5. What Can You Do?
    6. Notes
  6. 3 Leadership
    1. What Is Leadership?
    2. Leading in the 21st Century
    3. What Type of Leader Are You?
    4. Leadership, Purpose, and the Service-Profit Chain
    5. Look to the Three Keys
    6. What Can You Do?
    7. Notes
  7. 4 Hire Leaders
    1. The Hiring Process Has Changed
    2. Align Values and People
    3. Invest in Your Hiring Process
    4. Involve the CEO
    5. Interviewing with the Three Keys
    6. Link Hiring to Your Bottom Line
    7. Plan for Leadership Succession
    8. Compensation
    9. Leadership, Purpose, and Performance
    10. What Can You Do?
    11. Notes
  8. 5 The Purposefully Structured Business
    1. Design Your Organization
    2. Fewer Hands, Lower Risk
    3. Is It Time to Change?
    4. Infuse Values throughout Your Firm
    5. Organizational Design and the Three Keys
    6. What Can You Do?
    7. Notes
  9. 6 Messages Matter: Marketing and Communications
    1. Marketing Today
    2. How the Three Keys Affect Marketing
    3. How to Market: A Tactical Discussion
    4. Data: Opportunity or Overload?
    5. The Chief Marketing Officer Is Dead, Long Live the CMO
    6. What Can You Do?
    7. Notes
  10. 7 Clients Matter
    1. Purpose before Services
    2. Align with Purpose
    3. Align at a Higher Level
    4. Flip the Funnel
    5. How Clients Buy versus Why
    6. Learn What Your Clients Need and Solve Their Problem
    7. What Can You Do?
    8. Notes
  11. 8 Mergers and Acquisitions
    1. Spend Time to Align
    2. Connect on Beliefs
    3. Embrace the Future Together
    4. Be Ready to Compromise
    5. A Quick Thought on Earn-outs
    6. What Can You Do?
    7. Notes
  12. 9 Measure Your Purpose
    1. Who Owns the Key Purpose Indicators?
    2. What to Measure?
    3. How Do We Measure These Things?
    4. Measurement and Performance
    5. What Can You Do?
    6. Notes
  13. Conclusion: Use the Three Keys
  14. Appendix: The Three Keys to a Purposeful Brand Foundation
    1. Find Powerful Purpose
    2. Identify Values
    3. Tell Your Story
  15. Acknowledgments
  16. Fran's Acknowledgments
  17. Don's Acknowledgments
  18. Index
  19. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: How to Lead a Values-Based Professional Services Firm
  • Author(s): Don Scales, Fran Biderman-Gross
  • Release date: January 2020
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119621522