Getting Naked: A Business Fable about Shedding the Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty

by Patrick Lencioni

We fail to realize that, even though clients require us to be competent enough to meet their needs, it is ultimately our honesty, humility, and selflessness that will endear us to them and allow them to trust and depend on us.

It's just that they're so focused on saying and doing whatever is in the best interests of those clients that they stop worrying about the repercussions. They make themselves completely vulnerable, or naked, and don't try to protect themselves.”

“You admit it was a bad idea as soon as you realize it. You laugh at yourself. You take their ribbing. And most important, you don't stop making suggestions. Most of your ideas won't be horrible. Even the ones that aren't so good won't hurt you as long as you're humble enough to acknowledge that you're not an expert. And if you've built trust with the client, they don't think about it for a second.”

“There is something so powerful about a person who in one moment can be confident enough to confront a client about a sensitive personal issue, and then in the next moment humble themselves and take a position of servitude. It's the paradoxical nature of it all that makes it work.”

At its core, naked service boils down to the ability of a service provider to be vulnerable—to embrace uncommon levels of humility, selflessness, and transparency for the good of a client.

Naked service providers are so concerned about helping a client that they are willing to ask questions and make suggestions even if those questions and suggestions could turn out to be laughably wrong. They readily admit what they don't know and are quick to point out—even to celebrate—their errors because protecting their intellectual ego is not important to them. Clients

Fear of feeling inferior is not about our intellectual pride, but rather about preserving our sense of importance and social standing relative to a client.

sometimes we forget that the word “service” shares the same root meaning as “servant” and even “subservience.”

In improv, it is natural for novices to avoid playing off of a bizarre comment or behavior of a fellow actor, worried that they won't know how to build on it. Great improv actors take the opposite approach by seeking out and engaging in the most wacky situations (entering the danger), knowing that this is where an opportunity for genius lies. When it comes to consulting and service, entering the danger has to do with having the courage to fearlessly deal with an issue that everyone else is afraid to address. Perhaps more than any other service a consultant provides, this one provokes the most appreciation from clients, many of whom have grown weary of avoiding the “elephant in the room”—one that, over time, has become smellier and messier and therefore more untouchable.

Naked service providers are the ones who ask the questions that others in the room are afraid to ask out of fear that they would embarrass themselves. They realize that if they ask five questions and three of them could be considered “dumb,” the potential benefit that comes from the other two makes it worthwhile.

Naked service providers don't enjoy being wrong; they just realize that it is an inevitability. And rather than attempting to hide or downplay their errors, they readily call them out and take responsibility for them. Though this may seem counterintuitive, it actually increases the client's level of trust and loyalty.