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,
Recently we hired a consultant to help us decide whether we needed to change our organizational structure. We have been hearing grumblings that some of our longer term people believe they are being overlooked. All of these staff members are in the operations side of our firm. They get generous bonuses at the end of each year when they reach the quantitative and qualitative goals that have been established. But as far as career pathing there aren’t many other places they can go.
The consultant devised a synthetic structure. There are artificial layers of “senior” and “associate” titles and these would be based on tenure. Is it important for us to institute something like this? I had asked him what happens when someone gets to “senior” and stays there for a few years – what next? Are we setting expectations that this continues? Am I being old school? I believe we could have people who excel at their roles and stay in those roles for many years being rewarded in many other ways.
The consultant proposed this but we have not socialized it with our team to determine if they believe it would resolve the issue.
Pete V.
Dear Pete,
You are facing what I find to be an increasingly difficult dilemma. The scenario: Dedicated team members who are giving it their all, and (in your case) being recognized for their contributions in a monetary fashion but seeming to be stuck professionally with nowhere else to move up in the organization. This can happen in even the largest of organizations but it is a real dilemma for smaller firms who can’t afford to create layers, and organizational hierarchy for the sake of doing so.
I wonder if the consultant explored other options to reward these folks and have them “move up” in ways other than job title and hierarchy. People are motivated for all sorts of things and could feel recognized if they were to achieve a level where they could (as an example) avail themselves, at the firm’s cost, of training opportunities such as achieving a degree or certification, or just to honing a skill. Is it possible to add layers of benefits – additional vacation time or earned personal days for achieving a certain level? In my corporate days in life insurance, people “earned” a better office, or a plant, or the ability to purchase pictures depending on their level. I’m not saying to go this far, but these were ways the company could acknowledge and reward seniority and level, without giving people a lot of extra money or even a bigger title!
I recommend you take the time to explore what your operations folks are actually asking about. It might be that they are offering significant levels of client service and interaction but they are the only ones left out of some bonus pool based on client AUM. Sometimes the back office is disgruntled because they perceive themselves to be keeping the clients happy and holding things together, but not monetarily recognized the way the advisors or business development people may be. Have you done an employee survey? Where are these comments coming from? Is it one person or many? What words do they use to describe their frustration?
If I were the consultant I would want to probe into these issues – I call it “solving the right problem” and staying focused on what matters and what’s going to result in a win for you and your team.
To directly answer your question, I agree with you that the proposal of these new levels seems fake and artificial and meant to provide a salve for their wounded egos. I’m just not sure it is a real enough solution to have your team believing you heard their concern and you are addressing it.
One last thing: I would talk with each individual personally to ascertain, for each of them, what’s really important to them. When you hear complaints like this, take it as a chance to learn more about what motivates each person and what they care about.
Dear Bev,
We have so much infighting in our company. It’s a large organization and not everyone’s interests are aligned. This result in an environment where people don’t trust one another and act in less than trustworthy ways. Even the nice people backstab and snipe at someone in meetings. It’s like the culture unleashes the worst in everyone.
I try and stay above the fray but it’s hard to do. I have colleagues who are continually trying to drag me into their dramas. I point out all of the time that we’re an investment firm – we’re not curing cancer or solving world hunger. We’re helping people who already have money to make more of it. It’s not exactly a noble profession and in my view it isn’t one worth hurting other people over.
It’s a circular problem too – one person might calm down, but then someone else backstabs them or criticizes their work and they have to get even. We are rolling out some enhancements to one of our funds and instead of talking about what we need to do with the fund, there are literally daggers being thrown verbally and with body language in every meeting. I called in sick a couple of days just to get away from it and then took heat from my boss that I was slacking off on my responsibilities!
Should I look for another job? Have you seen anyone successfully navigate such toxicity in other places?
B.Y.
Dear B.Y.,
I’ve seen people navigate far too much toxicity in this industry, not always successfully. You are illustrating a classic example of cultures where more than likely:
- The leaders are non-communicative
- Accountabilities are unclear or may not exist at all
- Roles are not clearly defined so there is redundancy or things being missed
- People are not rewarded relative to their contribution
- The plan and the processes are unclear or ill defined
If this sounds like your firm, you are not alone! I see these issues arising in far too many large and even some small firms. What often happens is that the employees turn on one another, and then they become the problem. Rather than senior management looking at what they need to fix or address, they blame the people on the team and this just exacerbates the whole cycle.
You can rise above the fray but you probably don’t have the power to change the culture. I recommend you practice using the old-fashioned telephone imagery with its Plexiglass surrounding. This is when you sit in the meetings and rather than be drawn in by the drama unfolding around you, you imagine the Plexiglass protection blocking out what’s happening. You can smile and nod, but you don’t get emotionally drawn in to what’s going on. Watch it, but don’t participate in it. I know they will pull you as best they can, but stand firm. If you find you simply cannot resist the temptation of getting engaged in this negativity, it might be prudent to start to look for another job. This type of thing can be very emotionally draining. I have had clients who seem to exhibit symptoms of PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome) once they leave these cultural morasses. It really is tough on the psyche and, more importantly, it detracts from doing the work everyone is hypothetically being paid to do!
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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