Guidance for the Trusted Advisor

One of Endeavor’s clients is a finance executive who built a successful career in orchestrating big deals. He led a VC firm and started his own advisory practice. Recently, a high net worth individual asked him to run a family office private equity firm. He earned that opportunity based on trust. He is a trusted advisor.

Everything sounded great. The main challenge rested on how he was going to be paid. Several months passed. Numerous conversations occurred between he and the wealthy individual. In fact, the finance executive started working for the family office and provided guidance before they agreed on any concrete terms of employment.

“I think I need your help,” he said. “For some reason, I am struggling with getting to the point and asking for what I need in the deal.”

“I see,” I replied. “How can I help.”

“I need help in getting out of my own way and overcoming my inner fears to just put it on the table,” he disclosed in a moment of honesty. “I’ve closed billion dollar deals in my career and have never experienced this. This is foreign territory for me.”

“It’s actually quite common,” I assured him. “When you are negotiating deals that are not about you personally, you have enough separation to look at things more objectively. When it’s about you the emotions and fears creep in. You don’t approach things the same way.”

We work on the details of what the client needs. Then, we help them script it out. They can either communicate it via email so there is no face to face pressure, or they can role play with us to make the words come easier for the real meeting.

The outcomes improve greatly when the emotions for a trusted advisor aren’t causing unwanted problems.