The email from an old client came out of the blue. She was so excited to reconnect again because she had an opportunity to bring us in to work with some people at her new company. She’d like to set up a phone call with me and her new boss, the head of leadership development.

However, to be transparent, she wrote, “the boss might want to go in a different direction because she has no knowledge of you or what your firm brings to the table and has worked with other people like you.” Reading between the lines, it sounded to me as if the boss probably didn’t really want to talk to me but was doing her employee a favor. That’s OK. I looked at it as an opportunity to get in the door if I could gain a better understanding of the boss’s needs and how we could help.

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