Time's Up!

4How Aretha Got It Right

I hope mentioning Aretha Franklin is not showing my age.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. is such a classic song (stunningly reprised by Jennifer Hudson in the 2021 film, Aretha).

Yet respect is not something that's common when we think of professional knowledge firms. Consider a large dinner function where people are mulling around before the doors to the dinner are opened.

You find yourself in a group of people you don't know. And someone acknowledges you with a welcome handshake and then asks, “And what do you do?”

“Oh, I'm an accountant,” you say.

And then they turn to the person next to you with the same question.

“Oh I'm a corporate lawyer,” she says.

And then the final person responds, “I'm a heart surgeon.”

It's more than likely that the heart surgeon automatically gets the respect. And that's because we connect with the impact and meaning of what she does: saving lives.

So let's reset. Same conversation, different answers.

“And what do you do?”

“Well, I'm an accountant and, together with my team, I create better, wealthier, and more fulfilling lives for the 127 business owners we're privileged to work with right now.”

Even the heart surgeon might find it difficult to top that. (True, she could say, “I'm a heart surgeon and I saved three lives today.” But many of us would see that as bragging, not as earning greater respect.)

You'll instantly see here the connection to story—one of the major themes of this book.

We all have a story. Yet we mostly don't tell it ...