
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 Bev,
We are rolling out a new investment approach. Our advisors have agreed to outsource investing and we are migrating our accounts. It’s been a very, very long decision-making process to determine how best to shift investment management and communicate internally. Now, the hard part comes – communicating this change to our clients.
We argue daily about the best way to present this new approach. We don’t want to be perceived to be abdicating our responsibility to our clients or that we don’t know what we are doing. While we believe it is the right thing to do for our firm and for our clients, conveying this in a non-defensive way is difficult. Have you seen advisory firms make this transition and convey a positive spin for their clients?
A.E.
Dear A.E.,
Your note does not say why, exactly, you made this change. Was it because your investment approach was underperforming? Was it because you want to spend more time working directly with clients and helping them with other areas, such as life planning? You say your advisors “finally agreed” which would imply this has been considered and discussed for some time, but only recently agreed to by all. What triggered the decision to finally make this move?
I would explore the underlying motivators and decision-points that led you to make this change. Be sure there are benefits to the clients and that, for example, it wasn’t purely because it is a less expensive, less labor-intensive way for you all to run the business. Be objective about your motives and identify the triggers that ultimately led you to this decision.
When planning client communication you have to be truthful. While you can “spin” anything, and everything can be reframed positively (or negatively), you want to articulate the underlying rationale of why this is a good and beneficial decision for your clients. Think about the value to them – what do the clients get as a result of your making this transition?
This said, is it completely necessary to share all of the reasoning behind this decision? Do you have to let clients know exactly what is happening behind the scenes of your investment approach? In some cases clients want the sausage but they don’t necessarily need to (or want to) know how it was made!
It all depends on how you have messaged this in the past. If historically you have focused a lot of your story on your investment approach, such as how you pick funds and how you create portfolios and clients are very attuned to this, then you need to explain the new approach and the reasons for it. However, if you don’t share all of how you create the portfolios and clients are not tuned in to every move you make, you only need to share that you are shifting your approach and they may see changes to their portfolios as a result.
Establish the meaning behind this move, why and what prompted you to make it. Then uncover the aspects of this that are truly beneficial to your clients and find ways to show them this benefit. Examine exactly what the clients will see as a result of this. Any questions they may have, or experiences as a result of this change, need to be communicated in advance. You are right to think about how to put a positive spin on this so you are not fielding questions or concerns after the fact.
Be proactive in change-management communication instead of being reactive and seeming to defend a decision that could be construed by clients as unpopular. Controlling the message is very important.
Dear Bev,
Is it normal to be surrounded by difficult people? I took a new position in a portfolio management area for a large firm and every single person I encounter seems to be out for themselves. The culture seems to breed the “not my problem” response. I am used to working in a very collaborative environment and fear I made a mistake joining a team that is all about finger pointing. Is this common and was I sheltered in my past roles? My spouse says I need to learn to suck it up but I would rather be part of changing the culture to something more positive.
T.Y.
Dear T.Y.,
There are number of questions your note raises for me. First of all, “Is it normal”? Sure – anywhere there are human beings, you will find difficult ones. Not only are people difficult, but the way we interpret their behavior and respond to it will also dictate how many of them we encounter. Am I saying you might be part of the problem? It’s possible. I don’t know enough about how you are defining their difficult natures.
I have seen cultures where the fear and dislike is so rampant that people behave in defensive and difficult ways in order to survive. It’s possible you have entered a situation like this where people have their guard up and, as a result, the entire culture breeds mistrust and “out for me” type of behaviors.
It’s also possible for you to respond differently to their difficult natures and perhaps be the bridge that connects people who cannot get along. If you aren’t looking for anything from them, but just take them as they are, you might find you can reframe their difficult nature into something more neutral – not necessarily positive, just neutral. If you can be more neutral (or objective) in how you approach and assess them, you might see their behavior in a different way.
It’s always hard to know whether the culture is filled with difficult people, or whether your view on the behaviors and the way you view them is what actually makes it more difficult.
I like to apply the impact question. “What impact does their behavior have on you?”
For example, are you less likely to make the best investment decisions in your role? Are you distracted and unable to get things done some days because of the irritating behaviors? Or, is it just annoying and you dislike their approach, but they aren’t making your actual job more difficult. Difficult people are everywhere so you need to assess exactly how their difficult nature impacts you and the work you are being paid to do.
If it’s not severely impacting your work, take an honest assessment of your own behavior and see if you are acting towards them in a way that engenders these negative responses. Not that you control others, but you may be a conduit for their negativity by your own behaviors. You may not, but I always think it’s best to start with a self-assessment. When many people around us are ‘difficult” it’s prudent to ask whether it can be all of them, or whether it’s our view on what we are observing that’s the problem.
If it truly is a negative culture (and they certainly do exist) then you will be left with a choice of either trying to stay positive and proactive in spite of it (this is where the saying “don’t let the turkeys get you down” comes from!) or whether it is such a toxic culture you really can’t separate from it and don’t want to learn to live with it.
Be objective about what you are observing and experiencing first – take inventory and consider alternatives and then see what you can, and cannot, do to deal with it. There are obstacles you can control, those you can influence and those out of your control. Focus on what’s in your control and see if you can make some shifts happen. Good luck!
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. She is currently an adjunct professor 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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