Dealing with multiple internal clients? Avoid the stress by focusing on the most significant one

I won't lie. It took me a few years to know about the Internal Clients. And many more to learn to deal with them.

When you work in a consulting firm, you have real clients. They pay for your services. But every person in your company who uses your outputs (products, services, information) is your internal client.

And it turns out that they are more than you think.

Multiple internal clients

No matter the size of your company, many people will depend on your services.

Each one will raise their requests on their way. But don't worry. They all have something in common. They are all certain their request is:

• Easy to do.
• The most relevant activity you have in your bucket.

Frederic, from the accounting department, wants you to fix the color in his report's header. It was supposed to be purple-blue, but not just blue.

While you are playing to be Michelangelo, Dinisia, the Procurement Manager, sent 5 instant messages in 4 minutes asking why her new sourcing module is not in production yet.

She already booked her vacation in the Caribbean and won't be able to relax until you implement it.

In this scenario, you get easily overwhelmed by the constant demands coming from everywhere.

Concurrency, stress, and frustration

I'm convinced that our stress has little to do with the number of hours we work. It's a direct result of the frustration we experience when we are incapable of performing our activities as we would like to do.

Some examples derived from the concurrent requests and high exigency:

• Not knowing what to attend first.
• Not being able to deliver in the time your clients want. You always feel you are in debt.
• Being incapable of attending to demands due to a lack of resources or because you depend on someone else.

Independent of the reason, the point is that you feel you move backward.

The only way to solve this puzzle is with proper prioritization.

Prioritize to serialize

The truth is that we have no idea about which demand is more critical for the company. And that's fine. The good news? We can rely on our Golden Client: our boss.

You have a single client from now on. And your job is to make that client happy.

I don't mean to be your boss's bootlicker or anything like that. But prioritize the tasks that will benefit them the most.

Every other activity should go to the queue. And you should not work on them until you have finished the main priority. We usually hop from task to task whenever a client's message pops up. That single action reduces our productivity, increments our stress levels, and creates false expectations in our client's minds:

• They think we are working on their request, so they can't understand why we haven't finished it
• We send them the message that they can make their requests to escalate the priority mountain by asking for it insistently.

You are not alone in this crusade. Dialog with your boss. Ask for their opinion and express your concerns. They will give you guidelines, and you'll reach a point when you can figure it out yourself.

In the worst-case scenario, they will be aware of your workload and will help you. In the best one, you will gain a tutor.

Your boss is the person with whom you need to work together to design your career. The better you express your desires, the longer you will go.

Takeaway

Multiple internal clients mean multiple requests on your desk.

They all think their demand is your highest priority.

You just need to satisfy one client: your boss.

If you don't know what is the most relevant activity, ask your boss.

Your well-being and future promotions depend on that.

Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful week.