During the seven years I spent working with a fast-growing eLearning company, I never heard any talk about company values, principles or best practices. What I did hear the CEO say over and over was this: “We want people to know we’re easy to work with.”
That short statement said much more than any list of abstract corporate values could have expressed. In just a few words, it expressed a practical code of conduct that everyone in the company was expected to follow.
At first, though, I didn’t get it. As a recovering people pleaser, it sounded to me like my boss’s idea of client service was to let people walk all over us.
Our clients were multinational firms based mainly in the US, and they had high expectations, aggressive deadlines, and a tendency to make 180-degree turns without warning. Initially, I mistakenly thought that being “easy to work with” meant caving to every client demand and working weekends to accommodate last-minute client requests.
As I watched my boss interact with our clients, however, my perspective began to shift, and I saw that he wasn’t advocating people pleasing at all. Being easy to work with didn’t mean kowtowing to senior leaders or tolerating unfair working conditions. It just meant communicating clearly, consistently, and constructively.
Showing how easy we were to work with, I discovered, was largely a matter of demonstrating how much we cared about both the project’s success and our client’s personal success. To my great relief, this turned out to be easy to do—so easy that I’m persistently baffled as to why so few people take the time to do it.
You can’t tell people how collaborative or trustworthy you are; you have to prove it. But this doesn’t call for grand gestures. Simply adopting a handful of regular communication practices makes you stand out as someone who’s organized, reliable, and good-natured.
When you follow these practices, you quickly become known as the person who makes projects flow smoothly. When you perform the practices well, you earn a reputation for being a delight to work with and a leader worth following.
Here are the five communication practices I recommend to anyone who wants to advance both their projects and their career:
1. Be the framer.Every project needs someone who will put the upcoming tasks in perspective and connect them to bigger projects and goals. Be that person. If you’re in charge of a project, start with a strong kick-off meeting. While working for the eLearning company, I developed a template (agenda and slide deck) for leading a project kick-off session, and that structure made initial meetings more welcoming and productive.
If you’re a project contributor, you might play a framing role by helping to fill in background information so everyone starts the project from the same solid foundation. Or you might pose thought-provoking questions about how the project objectives align with other projects and high-level strategy.
2. Help with sense-making. While I use AI every day, I don’t use it to take meeting notes. Many of my clients use some kind of AI-notetaker, so I’ve seen various apps in use, and they’ve all delivered disappointing outputs. Following a meeting, the participants don’t need a transcript or a list of points that were mentioned most frequently. They need a concise interpretationof what went down during the discussion, with those takeaways linked to action steps.
Be the person who steps up to provide that interpretation. If you’re using an AI notetaker, then you might want to use the text it provides as a starting point. But remember that the meaning of conversation is emotional as well as intellectual, and rely on your human listening abilities to reflect the deeper meaning of what was said and unsaid.
3. Share frequent updates. Every time a client or colleague puts a task in our hands, they’re taking a leap of faith. Share frequent reminders that their faith is well-placed.
This may mean reporting more often than you’re expected to check in. For example, let’s say the work plan for a 12-week project indicates you should send stakeholders a progress report at the 6-week mark. Rather than waiting till then, you might send a three-line email report at weeks 2 and 4. Confirm that you’re making progress, and be sure to flag any issues that you see coming over the horizon. Surprises are wonderful at birthday parties but not in the workplace.
4. Check for alignment.Many people who are new to leadership think that taking charge means acting like a four-star general giving the troops clear, forceful marching orders. More seasoned leaders recognize that this approach results in short-term compliance but not the long-term trust it takes to do impactful work.
Rather than trying to force everyone into a straight line, continually check for alignment. For example, instead of sending a fixed meeting agenda, share a draft and ask for input.
I also recommend frequently using what I call The Magic Question: “Does that make sense?” The question is magic because it checks two things at once: (1) that people have understood you, and (2) that they agree with your line of thinking. In so doing, it creates space for people to disagree in a nonconfrontational way. (They’re not shooting down your ideas—they’re just sharing why they don’t make sense from where they sit.)
5. Apologize when you mess up.Yup, it’s bound to happen. When it does, own up to your mistake right away. For example, about a week into working with the eLearning company, I accidentally shared with a client a draft business plan for my own business. Goofs don’t get more egregious than that. With my heart thumping, I quickly let my boss know and cc’d him on an email to the client. Thanks to my quick reaction, my error resulted in no negative repercussions, just a “been there, done that” response all around.
Mistakes are actually great opportunities to show how much you care about the work and the people you’re working with. Show how honest, respectful, and proactive you are. What more could someone want in a colleague?
Remember, you’re not trying to be “perfect to work with”. No one enjoys spending time with a nit-picking perfectionist. You’re just trying to be “easy to work with,” and a prompt apology makes life easier for everyone involved.
These five practices have served me well when collaborating with many different clients, including partners in a Big Four firm, government officials, stakeholders of an African Development Bank project, consulting engineers, and healthcare leaders.
I know these practices are doing their job when a client says, “Thank you for that helpful update,” or “I appreciate the check-in,” or (my favorite) “You make it so easy to work with you.”
My former boss passed away several years ago, but I think of him and his mentorship every time I get a comment like that. And I remind myself how valuable it is to pay attention to small daily practices, like sending a follow-up email. In the moment, those routine actions may seem trivial, but in the long run, they are the tiny building blocks of which great projects and careers are made.
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