John was a young professional assigned to work with a team at a client's office complex. Late one Friday afternoon he stopped by the office of Bill, the Vice President in the client organization to whom John and his team reported. He had a question that needed an answer if he was to keep his team working the following week.

Bill seemed busy, but the question was important enough that he took time to pick it apart with John until they found an answer. As John turned to leave, Bill said, "Have you got a minute more? I'd like to ask you a question. I have my monthly meeting with Tom Monday morning, [Tom was the EVP to whom Bill reported], and I'd like to go over something I plan to say to him." For the next hour, John helped his client work through how he would handle some tough issues with his boss the next day. This was, of course, outside the scope of his assignment.

The following Monday John ran into Bill in the hall and asked him how the meeting had gone. Bill, obviously happy, gave him a quick summary of what had happened.

This was the first time that John had ever provided career coaching to a client and he liked it. He realized that his stature had risen in Bill's eyes. He also learned things about what was going on within the client organization and about important people who worked there that he might never have known otherwise. Later in the month, he was able to use some of this information in the way he responded to a question that EVP Tom asked during a meeting. Without having to disclose that he knew something that was not generally known, the knowledge helped shape his work and the way he spoke with his client.

Bill had told him that he had a monthly meeting with Tom. Noting that the men had met on the first Monday of the month, John found an excuse to drop by Bill's office the Friday night before the first Monday of the following month. Sure enough, Bill asked for John's reaction to something he planned to say to Tom the next Monday.

The matter that John and his team were working on ended months ago, but they are all still there working on other assignments for the client. And on the Friday afternoon before the first Monday of every month, John stops by Bill's office to go over the meeting that Bill will have with Tom. This has never been formally arranged and it's outside the scope of any of John's work. But both men have come to expect it and both get a lot out of it.