A year or so before leaving my old agency, I conducted an intake assessment with a new client. They were in their early twenties and presented as a young man. They were soon assigned to my caseload, and after a few appointments together, they arrived unannounced to the office and asked for me.
When I got the call from the receptionist, I didn’t recognize the client’s name, and after combing through my electronic records, I couldn’t find them in our electronic charts.
The client somehow knew my name and insisted with the receptionist that I was her social worker. After speaking with my supervisor, we both walked to the waiting area.
As we got closer to the waiting area, I saw a young woman standing at the reception desk. She turned to looked at me and waived.
And I realized who she was.
After we sat down at my desk, I said, “Well…you look differently from the last time I saw you.”
She laughed, saying, “I wanted to get to know you first before I felt comfortable showing you who I really am.”
The client was a young transgender woman, and at this meeting she presented as such and shared her transition story with me.
This was one example of many I experienced, where the key takeaway was understanding that important information may not be revealed at the onset.
When we look at our familial, social, work, and romantic relationships, some people know certain information compared to others.
But at the start of my social work career, this frustrated me, as it felt I had to do a lot of digging in order to provide appropriate care.
But you can’t rush trust building.
How I engage with client organizations today is pretty similar to how I engaged with individual clients.
And as a consultant, you won’t know how the relationship with the client organization will go until you’re on the project. And like the takeaway above, important information may not be revealed initially.
Establishing trust is like pealing the layers of an onion. You think you’ve discovered one thing, but some things are only discovered after you start working together.
As the client, you see how the consultant operates, how much they know about the subject matter, and how inquisitive they are.
As the consultant, you see the internal dynamics that can impact how the project runs.
All of these aspects come together to give you a clear sense of how you’re working together.
Regardless of the length of the project, trust building is important and it starts at the discovery phase.
Understand that sometimes, we’ll only receive the need-to-know information at the onset, but as we prove ourselves to each other, more will be revealed in time. And when that information is revealed, it’s up to all of us to work together to hold that trust.
Raise Your Voice: How do you establish trust when working in a client-consultant relationship? Share below in the comments section.
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