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,
I’m a wholesaler who wants to sell. But our firm is constantly putting new ideas, projects and priorities on our plates. We have sales-related goals we have to meet each week, but these other requests are not counted in how we are measured.
If I do those other projects well it means that I will make 35 calls instead of 50 for the week, but I will have have “failed.” I have brought this up to my supervisor a couple of times but her view is “do what the company asks you to do.” I don’t mind participating in company initiatives and I recognize we are the front line to test things.
But my problem is that I don’t believe I am as successful as I could be. There is a monetary reward for sure, but as importantly I feel like I go home at night and am consistently underwater. It’s a nagging feeling of failure and I don’t know what to do to reverse it.
W.A.
Dear W.A.,
You might be suffering from the Zeigarnik effect! In the 1920s there was a Lithuanian psychologist named Bluma Zeigarnik who studied what brings most stress to people. Imagine the 1920s – there was no internet, global competition or immediate communication. Heck, there weren’t even phones. Yet she found that people focused more on unfinished tasks than finished ones. The more unfinished tasks, the more stress we encounter. She also found that taking a break during a task helped with effectiveness. Putting one’s head down and trying to plow through things to get to the end is not the best way to relieve the stress.
I share this because one of the reasons you are likely feeling unsuccessful is that you end each day thinking about the litany of things you “should have” done or need to do and disregard the progress you are making. You might also be trying to tackle too much at once, without any breather to assess and consider what you need to do next.
While I don’t know how much you can shift the initiatives coming at you, especially if you are not getting support from your boss and she doesn’t see a problem, you can shift how you manage your day. I work with clients to help them focus on what they can control and what they can influence in order to be more effective. You can control and influence some things around your productivity and you can minimize the Zeigarnik effect so try some of the following:
- Start each day by writing out your desired outcome for the day. What would be a successful day for you? Write down three (and only three) priorities to move you closer to that success goal. What three things could you do, or make progress on, that would allow you to get closer to your ideal of success. If you focus on only three, and identify them, you will likely do them.
- Be rigorous about time blocking and calendar management. If there is one life-changing thing I have learned around productivity, it’s this: The more you map out what you need to do, the time required to do it, how you need to prep or follow-up and what steps you need to take, the better able you are to plan for what you need. Now I understand that in larger organizations you could get pulled into an unexpected meeting at any point in time, but if you are managing all of the time you can control, it won’t matter as much. Those calls you need to make? Figure out how long it takes you to make 45 calls. What do you spend as prep time before you start to call? What do the follow-ups typically entail? Each week, find space on your calendar for what you need to do and block the time to do it.
- Learn the art of delegation. Again, I understand the politics in a large organization when you are asked to participate in something. I spent many years of my career in that environment and I get it. However, you don’t have to be the one to do everything when it comes to these initiatives. If you can break down what’s being asked of you, can you compartmentalize it so that others can take a small piece? Can you agree to do less? Can you break things down into more manageable pieces (and then put them on the calendar) so what you are doing isn’t so time consuming? When these things are put upon us, how we manage them is often left up to us.
- Be sure to report what you are accomplishing. I call this “internal PR,” and it involves making sure your boss knows what you are doing, how effective you are being and the results you are garnering. These initiatives can be time consuming and they don’t always lead to an objective end goal. Protect yourself and make sure you are communicating what you are doing and what’s working well.
Dear Bev,
Tips on getting staff to do more of what’s asked of them? I am tired of hearing we need to hire. The answer isn’t always a new person; it’s often making the staff you have do more and be more effective.
B.Y.
Dear B.Y.,
Are the processes in place as effective and streamlined as they can be? Are people’s roles clearly defined? Does everyone know how they interact with each other and how their roles work together for success? Are goals clear and priorities stated? Does staff understand their personal obstacles and those in the firm?
I agree that rarely is the answer “just hire someone” but there are cases where a new team member is needed. It’s just that without answering all of the questions I’ve listed here, you might not even be sure what you need that team member to do.
Too many organizations – even very small ones – will put someone in place just to get the work done. The more people you add without clarity of role, process, etc., the more confusion that arises over time. Respect their resistance as telling you something is amiss and work with your team to figure out what to do to be more efficient and effective. Then decide whether you need a hire or not.
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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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
