Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Readers,
As the year comes to a close, I thought it would be helpful to incorporate information from the thousands of people I have worked with. Here are some of the questions and issues that came up related to the interpersonal aspect of the financial advisory business. Hopefully these thoughts about how to work differently with your employees will be useful to you as you celebrate your Christmas, Hanukah or other holidays!
1. Recognize that people are your greatest asset. You might know this intuitively, but what does it mean on a day-to-day basis? Review your methods of communication. Individuals are different and not everyone takes in information, new ideas, or plans in the same way. Are you using a variety of communication approaches to be sure your employees (and your clients) are getting the right messages?
2. Put an emphasis on teambuilding. The research is clear that out-of-office time together with a focus on building relationships benefits a business. Teambuilding can either be fun and geared toward getting to know one another or it can be a practical session where you plan together and create alignment in the business. Most importantly, if you do an offsite retreat or work on teambuilding, make it real. Don’t just have fun and then go back to doing everything you’ve always done. Create specific outcomes. Have a step-by-step plan or set of agreements. Assign someone to be the overseer or communicator to ensure things keep moving. Show employees that teambuilding is important to you and that you value their time and want to show associated results.
3. Be aware that stress and anxiety are real. Serving clients’ financial needs is a difficult business and it’s not made easier by recent political events and changes that are coming. You might have employees who are depressed or worried about their jobs. You likely have people who are unsure about whether they are doing a good job and whether the boss is happy with their performance. Consider offering a mindfulness session in 2017 or even incorporating fitness benefits or memberships to a yoga studio as part of your employee perks. Employees aren’t robots so acknowledge their humanness.
4. Commit to useful and productive meetings. Make this the year you stop wasting time in meetings that no one cares about. Think of the freedom! Be sure you only invite those people who are needed, communicate in advance so everyone knows their role and have follow ups. One of my favorite things is to hold meetings standing up. People don’t linger this way.
5. Institute an email and voice mail policy. Have everyone include what exactly they need, want or are communicating in the subject line. Only allow emails that can fit on the screen – no lengthy novels! Get used to bullets and follow ups so people can read, digest and respond. Talk about these different practices so everyone will know you are taking it seriously.
Helping your team create and enjoy a better working environment will be good for you, too. These are just a few ideas for changes you could make to end 2016 on a positive note and leave your staff looking forward to 2017!
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. In 2008, she co-founded Advisors Trusted Advisor to offer dedicated practice management resources to advisors, planners and wealth managers. In 2016 her firm relaunched the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently a Lecturer at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Leadership & Social Responsibility. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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