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 hate to sound like an old advisor (I’m not even 50 yet), but I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the casual nature of the younger people we are hiring at the firm.
For example, answering phones – how is it professional to say “Lisa” and nothing more when you answer the phone? What happened to “Name of our firm, Lisa speaking, how can I help you?” And emails. They are short and far too casual. And if one more of these younger men calls me “Dude” (I am a woman), I am going to scream.
I realize that each generation has its own style and terminology and each has their way they think things are right or not, but we are serving largely an older population. Like many advisory firms, a great deal of our client base is retired and over 65 years old. Some of them don’t even hear that well. I will often hear “Lisa” on the phone saying “hello? Hello?” a couple of times. My suspicion is that the caller is stunned they are not hearing more of a welcome when someone answers.
I did have a client forward an email to me by one of our younger male advisors. The client is a retired CEO and has many millions with us. In the email he forwarded he wrote, “Who gave him permission to use my first name and to treat me like I am a teenage friend of his?”
I have talked with our owner about this and he tells me that I’m out of touch with this younger generation and to ignore it. Without his support I am aware I will come off as the complaining older lady. I realize some of this is how younger people are, but I also believe it is incumbent on us to mentor them and help them understand how this impacts our clients. Is there an approach I could take that would help them to understand without painting me as the out-of-touch older advisor?
M.U.
Dear M.U.,
How frustrating to have clients complaining and not to be able to get action from your leader. The generational divide is misunderstood in many ways. Yes, there are differences between the generations that stem largely from life experiences growing up – your generation would have had much less of a reliance on technology, or might have had a different political experience, or might relate to jokes or sayings from certain television shows. The people you are dealing with will relate to other things. Generally differences are ascribed to technology, but these days most folks use technology (including a 70-year old woman who told me to follow her on Instagram yesterday, and an 87-year old one who told me only to text because she hates talking on the phone if she can avoid it!). Newer generations have grown up with technology. But differences stem more from our lack of shared experiences, how language changes over time, and how we interact with one another.
You work in a professional setting and you are allowed to have standards in how everyone answers the phone or engages clients over email. The “know your audience” rule applies here. Get your newer team members to understand whenever they are communicating that they need to consider who is on the receiving end of the communication. We all need to do this in our communications. I teach undergraduate students every semester and I can assure you I don’t engage 18- and 19-year olds, whose attention I need to capture and keep, the same way I engage a 50-something advisor client of mine – and I would shift my style for anyone in the middle. While we will each have our own individual background and experiences (this is not limited to age; it can be lifestyle, geography, education and so on), take the time to focus on the audience we are trying to reach and modify as much as possible to show them we understand them.
Ask your younger team members to describe an older, retired client of theirs. What do they think about? Care about? Know about? Help your younger team members get into the proverbial shoes of the client and consider what they know and don’t know about them. Then ask your team members how you think these folks would like to be engaged. Point out that it changes even with people the same age. Some older people like communicating in writing, some do not. Some like lengthy explanations via email, some like bullet points. Get your team members to talk and think about what it feels like or how clients think when they interact with your firm. It will help them see there is another way to deal with clients and they can learn adaptability.
Tell the person who calls you “dude” that while you are pretty sure he means no disrespect (I’m sure he does not) and that you would prefer he call you by your given name. Show the client email to the team member too, so you can help them understand this isn’t just you and your opinion.
It’s a learning experience – remember these team members are still new in their career and have a lot to learn. You likely made mistakes in your 20s too and needed someone to show you the way to be more successful. Instead of becoming frustrated, see it as an opportunity to mentor and support them. They will learn, and the firm will very likely benefit overall as a result.
Dear Bev,
I have been running a successful practice for about two years. I’m not quite 35 and already find myself getting bored. I know I should have a target market and focus on growing the business in a defined way. But I like change. I like trying new things and seeing what works. Am I destined to fail because I can’t stay focused? BTW, I have been diagnosed with adult-onset ADD and that could be some of the problem.
A.R.
Dear A.R.
If there is one thing I have learned in doing this work for as long as I have, it’s that there is no one right way to run an advisory practice. I do a lot of work with behavioral styles and you are describing what I refer to as a “low-S” style. These are people who crave change, enjoy juggling a lot of balls at one time, can move quickly from activity to activity, and get bored very easily. Have I seen a lot of very successful advisors in my career who are wired this way? You bet I have!
You can succeed with this style. Over time you might find that you have developed a client base that is a mish mash of different types and you’ll have different approaches to managing them. Sometimes leaders will wake up and realize if they want to scale, this isn’t the best formula for managing a book of business. You might want to hire someone as your “right arm” who is more COO-oriented and likes process, procedures and finding ways to scale. This is often the path the entrepreneurial person takes – use your talent for moving quickly to grow quickly, but eventually put structure and predictability in place to continue to grow the firm in a consistent and manageable fashion.
Of course, you might decide you don’t want to scale and grow, and you just want to run the firm the way you enjoy and continue to be active and change-oriented for many years. This could work out just fine too.
It’s all about your long-term goals and your vision for your future. I’d start by identifying that, and then make decisions and changes in order to move toward your ultimate goals. The more you think about where you want to be in three, five, or ten years, the better able you will be to answer these questions for yourself.
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. 