What Experts wish clients knew

At TruthWorks, we bring together trusted Experts who have partnered with businesses on every kind of People and Culture challenge you can imagine. They have seen what happens when Experts like them are called in but then aren’t set up for success.  So we asked our 200-strong global community one simple question: What do you wish clients understood before you start working together?

Their answers were unfiltered, candid, and full of humanity, reminders that real progress comes from open and transparent partnership.

Inclusive leadership and culture transformation consultant Mary Lynn Parnell didn’t hold back,

“Brief me on the real situation, not the sanitised version. The messy stuff is exactly what I need.”

That line captures something most clients feel but rarely say. There is often a quiet fear that if they share the full picture, it will reflect badly on them as leaders. So they tidy the story, leave out the awkward history, soften the conflict, and present a neater version of events. But consultants do not need a perfect narrative. They need to know where things are tense, where people have switched off, and where you are unsure. The messy stuff is not a problem to hide; it is critical data that helps the work land where it matters.

Mary Lynn also named what often sits beneath the brief:

“The need is most likely not just a workshop need for example… something is always going on underneath it. Let's name it.”

Clients rarely come in asking to talk about trust, loss of confidence, or power. They ask for a workshop, an offsite, a reset. Those things can be useful, but they are rarely the whole story. Underneath the request there is usually something more human: people who feel unheard, leaders who feel alone, teams who are not sure the organization means what it says. When an Expert asks to “name it,” they are not complicating the work. They are making sure you are solving the right problem. A well designed workshop can only do so much if it is sitting on top of something no one is willing to speak about.

Mary Lynn also sees the pattern play out over time:

“Your middle managers, staff, teams have seen every initiative come and go. If leadership isn't visibly committed, nothing I do will stick.”

Middle managers and staff carry the memory of every change, every promise, every “new start.” They are often the ones who have to translate leadership messages into daily reality, while managing their own doubts at the same time. They notice when this year’s initiative contradicts last year’s. They feel it when leaders talk about empowerment but still hold all the decisions. They do not need another slogan. They need leadership that joins up the story and shows, in plain view, how this effort is different from the last.

Mary Lynn adds one more truth that many leaders underestimate:

“Fractional doesn't mean occasional. Loop me in early. Treat me like a thinking partner, not a vendor."

For Bernie Murtagh, who helps organizations drive internal community and culture, the same theme shows up in how clients see the relationship itself. “We’re not ‘extra hands’ – we’re strategic partners. Independent e

Experts aren’t there to simply execute tasks. We’re there to diagnose, design, and elevate. Use us for our brains, not just our bandwidth.”

As Bernie tells clients, “I’m here to make you shine.” When clients collaborate openly, trust the process, and communicate honestly, the work lands beautifully and leadership sees the impact.

Employee experience and talent attraction specialist Karen Wisdom puts it in terms of how you work together day-to-day. For her, the key success factors are simple but not always present:

"Working as a real partnership, not as an “at arm’s length” supplier; involving your independent Experts in regular updates and conversations; sharing the wider business context; and treating them as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert, someone you can run people and culture problems by and explore potential approaches with"

Inclusion and high‑performance team specialist Vivian Acquah CDE® wants clients to understand the breadth of what they are getting. “They will work with not just an inclusion generalist but also a strategic business partner skilled in leveraging marketing, branding, storytelling, and bringing out the best in people.”

For Vivian, it’s about seeing Experts as multi-dimensional.

When clients “activate my unicorn mode,” as she puts it, they tap into multiple facets of her skills. As a neurodivergent professional, she excels at simplifying complex challenges into actionable solutions.

Executive sparring partner and team coach Judith Raymakers, stresses the importance of honest access. She is also unapologetic about the discomfort that comes with real work.

“Discomfort is part of the job. If everything feels easy and agreeable, we’re probably not targeting the real problem. And if I can’t share the uncomfortable truth, you’re probably paying me too much. I am most valuable when I can say what insiders can’t.”

For her, one boundary is non‑negotiable: “Ownership cannot be outsourced. I can design, suggest, guide, challenge, but the real change needs to be modelled by you, the leader or leadership team.”

Team coach and facilitator, Yeshim Yahya wants clients to reframe what it means to bring in someone from the outside.

“Partnering with an external coach is an investment, not a sign of failure. It is precisely the ‘external’ aspect that provides value as it is a person currently outside of the system who can speak and challenge more freely.”

That distance is not disconnection. It is what allows a coach or consultant to see patterns you are too close to, and to say the things people on the inside cannot easily say without consequence.

AI transformation specialist Maria Kelly puts a sharp edge on some of the themes that run through all of this. “If you don't know what problem you're trying to solve, no external Excpert can solve it for you. Come with context, not just a budget.”

She is clear that leadership commitment is a prerequisite, not a nice‑to‑have. “If your leadership team isn't committed to the process, don't start it. An external Expert can open doors, but someone inside has to want to walk through them. Without that, you're wasting everyone's time and money.”

Maria also reminds clients that insight on its own is not the goal.

“Insights without action are just expensive reports. The work doesn't end when we (the consultants) leave the room. Someone inside the organization has to own what comes next.”

And she does not pretend that culture is something you can blitz through. “Culture doesn't change in a workshop. It changes over months and years of consistent behaviour from the top. If you're looking for a quick fix, this isn't it.”

Our Experts talked about how powerful it is when leaders are willing to say to their teams, “We know you have seen this kind of thing before. Here is why we are doing it now, and here is what we will do differently this time.” That kind of honesty does not lower confidence. It raises it. It shows respect for people’s intelligence and experience. It signals that leadership is prepared to connect the dots, not just introduce another initiative and hope for the best.

So what do our Experts wish clients knew? They wish you knew that the strongest starting point is the truest one. That bringing the full, unpolished story into the room helps them help you faster. That a request for a ‘workshop’ is often an invitation to explore something deeper, and naming that does not derail the work, it focuses it. That your leadership commitment and follow through will matter more than any single session. That your middle managers and teams are already reading the situation closely, and they will believe your actions far more than your announcements. That independent Experts do their best work when they are treated as partners, not vendors.

The best partnerships are not built on careful image management. They are built on shared courage and a willingness to look at what is really happening. When clients let the truth take the front seat, the conversation changes. People stop performing and start participating. The work moves from performance to progress.

That is the work our Experts are here for. And it is why we built TruthWorks in the first place, to connect the Clients who are ready for real conversations with the Experts who know how to guide them through.

Ready for a client–Expert partnership founded on honesty? Bring the real story, and our TruthWorks Experts will meet you where you are.