The Trusted Advisor- Management Book Review

Last week, I was at a scooter service centre to get a quick service of the brakes done. It was a service centre attached to a posh showroom. The technician inspected the brakes and recommended replacing the back wheel brake shoes because they were worn out. His estimate was a little less than 1000 bucks. I wasn't too convinced. I drove straight to the neighbourhood single-owner garage. That mechanic was more a friend than a technician because he was my saviour when the vehicle needed an emergency service or a breakdown fix during the lockdown. He diagnosed the problem and identified that the back wheel brake shoes were worn out, but the front wheel brake shoes were immaculate. He asked me my preference since he knew my riding frequency and understood that I make only short trips on the vehicle. I asked him if the brake shoes could be swapped between the front and back wheels so I could replace both in the next full service. He appreciated the idea, quickly finished it within an hour and charged me a few hundred bucks for the service. The experience I had on that day with the neighbourhood mechanic was that of a trusted advisor.

When I read this book- "The Trusted Advisor", I couldn't resist relating it to the service centre experience. This book calls out four critical components of trustworthiness, namely, the credibility of the advisor (conveyed through words), the reliability of the advisor (expressed through actions), intimacy (shared via emotions), and no self-orientation (demonstrated through motives).

When the mechanic spoke about the riding frequency, he established his credibility and knew the client well enough. He made himself reliable through his past track record of helping in times of need. Through his friendly smiles when I ran into him in the neighbourhood, he scored on the intimacy. Despite the mechanic's hand-to-mouth existence, he didn't rip me off. Instead, he did what was right, thereby standing testimony to his no self-orientation.

The book- The Trusted Advisor by David et. al. summarises the concept of Trustworthiness in an equation format. In toto, an increase in credibility, reliability and intimacy coupled with a decrease in self-orientation would increase the trustworthiness of the consultant.

If this equation makes it so simple, should we still read this book. Answer is a resounding YES, because of the nuances this book talks about to nurture these four qualities.

For example, the mechanic placed the facts on the table and allowed me to take a decision, thereby making the client participate in the decision-making process and own the decision. This is one of the many nuances explained in the book while building credibility as a consultant.

While this book was originally written with full-time management consultants as target audience, with the changing workplace scenario, this book is now equally relevant for new breed of workers such as freelancers, gig workers and intrapreneurs.

In summary, this book is a nice read for anyone who wishes to become a trusted advisor in their fields of specialisation.

I sincerely thank my coach Siva for gifting me this wonderful book and encouraged me to read this book. Thank you, Siva!

A recorded version of this book review is available here in Youtube and slides in Canva.