[Sigia-l] IAtiquette: how much do you challenge your client?

[Lada Gorlenko]

The Netiquette discussion of the last two days boils down for me to
the following questions:

1. How much do I allow others to challenge my professional opinion
before it becomes perceived as a personal attack?
2. How much of my-personality makeup can I apply to *my* professional
opinion before is becomes perceived as vulgar and inappropriate?
3. How much of assertiveness in expressing my POV is a blessing and
how much of it is a hindrance in getting the point across?

Okay, here we are all a) colleagues, b) people passionate about the IA
subject. We argue because we a) roughly consider each other peers, b)
know what we talk about.

What interests me is how much of challenge, personality and
assertiveness you put in your talks with clients. Hearing the list,
lots of IAs love doing high-level stakeholder-facing work, so I guess
my questions may still fit the "stick to IA matters" rule.

Do you allow client to challenge your professional opinion on IA
matters? To what extent?

Do you express you personality through your IA opinion when
communicating with clients? How much?

Do you balance your assertiveness? Do you fight for your opinion with
clients? Do you ignore them and do what you think is right anyway? Do
you go with the flow "if the client wants it, the client has it"?

If so many of us are so touchy-feely in a reasonably friendly
collegial environment, how do we behave with uninitiated
wallet-holders?

Insights? Inspirations? Confessions?

Lada