Years ago, when I was still an employed consultant, I was running a big Pan-European project for a client based in Paris.

They were a great client. We did great work.

But the travel was wearing me out.

Each Monday I was on the 6.40am flight to Paris. And I got home late Friday evening. Every week for 18 months.

Eventually, I decided enough was enough. I scheduled a meeting with my senior client and told him I was going to find someone else to run the project.

He told me that wasn't possible. They wanted me to run the project.

“But you know, Ian” he said. “We don't need you here every day of the week. Half your team is in different countries anyway and you mainly work with them over the phone”.

He was right. And I just hadn't figured it out.

I'd assumed that they wanted their project lead to be there 5 days a week.

Turns out they didn't. They just wanted a successful project.

I assumed my only option was to quit the project.

It wasn't.

I just needed to talk to them and we worked out that 2-3 days a week on site was enough for me to spend the right amount of time with their key people to ensure the project succeeded.

The same thing happens time and time again to most of us when we work with clients or when we're talking to them about working together.

We keep quiet about our needs and what we want. We make assumptions about what they want. We don't tell them what would be best for us and so we don't give them a chance to work something out.

Whether it's your marketing or your delivery work: talk to your clients openly. Tell them what you'd like. You'll be surprised at how often it's easy for them to give it to you and how happy they are to do so.

And, of course, encourage them to do the same and be open with you about what they want too.