Selling Your Expertise

CHAPTER 5Confidently Humble

Chapter 5: Confidently Humble

While going through a few old boxes that had been tucked away in the garage, I found some of my books from when I was in junior high. Among them were a handful of Greek myths and tragedies. As I thumbed through the pages, I was reminded of how surprised I was as a kid at how so many of these stories were about hubris being a fatal flaw. Whether Oedipus, Icarus, or Tantalus, excessive pride always came before their fall (for Icarus, it was a literal fall). Like many adolescents, I filed this lesson into my good-to-know-but-it'll-never-happen-to-me folder. I didn't see myself as a proud person, and I couldn't fathom how anyone could let their sense of pride ever get so far away from them that it would harm them or, worse yet, cause their downfall. Well, like any other kid, I had a lot to learn.

Early in my tenure at Exec|Comm, I found out the hard way that hubris can sometimes just sneak up on us. I had been working with a client whose executives had given me some excellent reviews, and I had built up a strong rapport with their head of talent development. I thought I was “in.” One day, I had a call with the client and a new team member. My buyer had just agreed to the approach we'd laid out, when he introduced me to his new hire. After some quick pleasantries, the newbie asked me, “Could you send me an updated proposal detailing how you might address functional and regional differences, language capabilities, inconsistent ...