The Wise Advisor

Salacuse presents a seven-point, comprehensive system to guide all professionals, from lawyers and consulting engineers to management consultants and financial planners, in the process of wisely and effectively advising their clients.

Giving advice is an essential task in all professions. Doctors, lawyers, management consultants, financial planners, consulting engineers, and accountants are called on every day to give wise advise to their clients on what they should do. Some professionals carry out this task well; others do it poorly. The ability of a doctor, lawyer, management consultant, or financial planner to help another person with a problem depends as much on a command of the process of giving advice as on an understanding of medicine, law, business, or finance.

Salacuse presents a clear and workable method for understanding and carrying out the advising process. His system is based on basic principles that govern all advising, regardless of the profession or area of life in which the advisor works: Know the persons who will use the advice; help, or at least do no harm; recognize how advice matters and can have serious consequences; negotiate your role with the client; develop a partnership between advisor and client; tailor advice to the life, needs, and objectives of the client, and make that advice clear and constructive; keep advice pure of self-interest, prejudices, and personal shortcomings; and know when to stop. Drawing on examples and cases from virtually every profession, Salacuse shows how to apply these seven principles in a wide variety of advising situations. The Wise Advisor is an indispensable tool for any person who gives professional advice.