The Trust That Was Almost Lost

The program manager had been there before—a large program, an even larger customer, and stakes so high they could make or break their career.

All was right. Reports went out in on time. Risks were flagged and mitigated. Weekly calls checked all the boxes. On paper, the program was going great.

There was just this unspoken tension.

The customer, once usually composed and professional, became curt on calls. Her emails shortened, and their tone chilled. And one day, it reached that point.

“I need a word,” the customer said after one particularly heated meeting.

In private, this is how their frustration would spill over:
“Do you know what this feels like? As though I’m standing on a bridge that’s collapsing underneath. I can’t believe anything you’re putting into those updates, and each time something goes amiss, I feel totally blind-sided. Is that the way you treat your clients in general?”,

Program Manager froze. This person wanted to push back; to defend their effort. However, deep in, the customer was absolutely right.

They had become so focused on ticking boxes, meeting deadlines, that in the process, they missed the most important thing for which they were paid—one thing: making the customer feel valued.

That evening, unable to sleep, the program manager kept thinking about the conversation and began replaying it over again. What could be done to fix this? Or was it even fixable?

The next morning was a bold move.

Instead of sending the regular update, they called the customer directly. “I want to apologize,” they started. “I have been so focused on the program that I haven’t been focusing on you. Can we start fresh?”
The customer was stunned. But over the course of the next few weeks, things changed:
Calls started with, “What’s keeping you up at night?”
Updates began to focus on the customer’s priorities, not just the metrics of the project.
Issues were shared early, with solutions instead of excuses.
It wasn’t easy, but slowly, trust was rebuilt. By the end of the project, the customer said something the program manager would never forget:
“You didn’t just deliver a program,—you delivered a partnership.”
But here’s the lingering question:
Why did everything change with that single conversation? And how often do we forget what truly matters in the race to deliver results?

Have you ever faced a moment like this? What would you have done differently?

Stay tuned for last episode, where I’ll uncover the hidden force behind this story—and how you can use it to transform your own relationships.

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