Succeeding in your Business: You and your client: Avoid politics and religion altogether

“I have a consulting business with over 50 clients, but I’m afraid that won’t last much longer unless I get some tough love from you.

“In working with my clients, it’s inevitable that we will discuss things other than the project at hand. Although I try to avoid discussing politics with my clients, several have recently asked me point-blank where I stand politically on the recent presidential election, the riot at the U.S. Capitol and other current issues.

“In one case, my client told me he needed to know where I stood because he ‘just couldn’t work with’ someone whose political opinions differed from his own.

“Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I’m one of those people who believes that someone’s political views are none of anyone else’s business, and I’ve said that to these people in as professional a way as I can. I’m afraid, though, that I’m going to be ‘canceled’ by some of my clients, and I need every one of them to stay financially solvent. What, if anything, can I do to avoid that happening?”

When I was a boy growing up in the turbulent 1960s (the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the military draft, political assassinations), it was inevitable that my dad and I ended up on opposite sides of some issues. But neither of us ever let it get to the yelling and screaming point or interfere with the very close relationship he and I had until he died in 2000.

My dad’s philosophy was “you are free to believe anything you like, Cliff, just don’t make a religion out of it.”

Wise words, which too many of our fellow Americans have forgotten (or never learned in the first place).

Whenever we had a political discussion, I always felt that Dad was listening to me, and I always made it a point to give him a good listen before I offered a rebuttal. Of course, it helped that Dad was an independent thinker who always had good reasons for believing what he did. And I always tried to do the same when forming my opinions.

When I went to an Ivy League college (on scholarship) and came into contact with the sons and daughters of highly privileged people whose lives and opinions were far different from mine, there was no shortage of late-night, alcohol-fueled dorm-room debates on just about everything. Some of these got pretty heated, and we agreed to disagree more often than not. It seldom interfered with our friendship or our mutual respect for one another.

At the end of World War II, when the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust were coming to light, many people wanted to “cancel” the German nation and people altogether. In response, the British novelist E.M. Forster wrote an essay, “Tolerance” (included in his 1962 collection “Two Cheers for Democracy”), making the point that while it’s impossible to love or even like some people, treating them with respect (sometimes grudgingly) or merely tolerating them is essential to the functioning of civil society.

As American society becomes more multiethnic and multicultural, it is inevitable that more and more people will encounter people whose views and lifestyles are different from their own. To love everyone in such an environment is impossible. We should strive for respect. But sometimes, the best we can do is tolerance.

Sadly, a growing number of otherwise highly intelligent people are turning their opinions into religions and taking the intolerant if not self-righteous view that “if you disagree with me, I don’t care what you think, because I don’t care about you.” So-called “cancel culture” (removing a person from your life because of a differing worldview) is becoming all too common on university campuses, in the workplace and elsewhere. It’s a cancer that is eating at the fabric of our body politic, and I feel your pain when dealing with clients who are willing to deprive themselves of your (no doubt) excellent service because they see you as a heretic who should be burned at the stake.

The best thing to do, of course, is to avoid discussing politics, religion and other sensitive topics altogether because they are irrelevant to your professional relationship with the client. As former first lady Michelle Obama says, “when they go low, we go high.” Never get into an argument with a client; you always lose when you do. If possible, craft your response in such a way that the client is led to believe you may agree with them without actually saying you do.

Or you can point out the irrelevance of the subject by saying something like “Look, I don’t think you want to pay me $XXX an hour to discuss politics. Let’s get back on track here.”

But, people being what they are, your doing this will send a signal to some clients that you do in fact disagree with them and are too cowardly to say so. If they’re going to cancel you, they will, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Just don’t beat yourself up too much if it happens. They are the losers, not you. In the long run you are better off without clients like these; build your practice to the point where you no longer need them.

Cliff Ennico (crennico@gmail.com) is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS television series “Money Hunt.”

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