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A list of Dan Richards’ previous articles appears at the end of this article.
It’s often the little things that build deep bonds with clients.
For most students entering college and university, this fall will be an exciting and scary period ... and that’s equally true for their parents.
The New York Times recently published a series of nine short articles titled: “College advice from people who’ve been there awhile,” featuring advice from some of America’s best known and most respected educators. You’ll find links to those articles below.
If you have clients with children heading off to college or university this fall, consider emailing these tips, both for them to read and perhaps to pass on to their children. Chances are those tips will be particularly appreciated where kids are leaving home and living on their own.
Of course, it’s not just clients with kids entering university who might appreciate advice. Here’s an article about a conversation with teens going back to high school; this might be especially appropriate for parents of 13 to 15 year olds.
If you want, take this one step further. Recently, I talked to an advisor who makes note of cases where her clients have children going off to university. For particularly important clients, she has her assistant go online to that university’s bookstore and order sweatshirts for her clients with that university’s crest on them – when they arrive, she attaches a note of congratulations and sends them off.
This advisor has hosted top clients for dinners, theatre evenings and golf games, in some cases costing hundreds of dollars. In her experience, nothing she’s done has given her the same return on the dollars invested as those sweatshirts – she’s gotten delighted phone calls, notes of thanks, luncheon invitations and in one case an offer to introduce her to her client’s extended family and work colleagues.
Smart advisors look for every opportunity to let clients know they’re thinking of them and to tap into important moments in clients’ lives. Consider whether there are some cases where the start of university this fall provides that opportunity.
Op-Ed Contributor: The Hunt for a Good Teacher By STANLEY FISH
Do everything you can to take a writing course and to get a seat in the class with a professor known for his or her knowledge of the material.
Op-Ed Contributor: An Argument Worth Having By GERALD GRAFF
To be a successful college student, cut through the clutter of jargon, methods and ideological differences and locate the common practices of argument and analysis hidden behind it all.
Op-Ed Contributor: Get Lost. In Books. By HAROLD BLOOM
Read the authors who are difficult and demand rereading because that effort doubles their value.
Op-Ed Contributor: Don't Alienate Your Professor By CAROL BERKIN
For starters, make sure you are in the right class.
Op-Ed Contributor: Play Politics By GARRY WILLS
Have passion for what you are learning.
Op-Ed Contributor: Go the Wrong Way By MARTHA NUSSBAUM
Think about the whole of your life, not just your future career.
Op-Ed Contributor: Off-Campus Life By JAMES MacGREGOR BURNS
Read a good newspaper. It will be your path to the world at large.
Op-Ed Contributor: My Crush on DNA By NANCY HOPKINS
Don't settle for anything less than falling in love with your intellectual vision of the future.
Op-Ed Contributor: Change Course By STEVEN WEINBERG
College is never what one expects.
* Dan Richards conducts programs to help advisors gain and retain clients and is an award winning faculty member in the MBA program at the University of Toronto. To see more of his written and video commentaries and to reach him, go to www.strategicimperatives.ca.
