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 32-year old advisor and recently joined a very successful firm. They’ve been in business for 23 years and have $750 million under management. The founder is still involved in the daily business and is very energetic – during the workday. Recently I had lunch with him and asked him if I could implement a process to find new business. I believe, with our processes and the solutions we offer, we could be at twice the number in AUM. He was very hesitant and told me that someday I would understand that it isn’t all about “the next dollar in assets” and that sometimes it is about having a nice life, investing time in things you care about and giving enough attention to the business to allow you to do that.
I was stunned – here I am offering to help grow and he is essentially telling me some esoteric, deep life reflection in return. Did I go about this the wrong way? Should I put programs in place and show him what we can do because he might be hesitant to trust me? I can’t sit here and do nothing!
A.V.
Dear A.V.,
You have joined what I commonly describe as a “lifestyle practice,” meaning that the lead advisor, or advisors, care as much about their personal lives and/or other interests as they do about running the firm. In a lifestyle practice, typically the founder or leader is earning enough money with the AUM and fees that he or she can live a very nice life without doing a lot more to grow the firm. The “esoteric” response you describe leads me to believe this is the focus of your leader – as well as your comment that he works hard during business hours, meaning that he isn’t coming in on nights and weekends to figure out how to change and grow.
Is it okay to run a lifestyle practice? The answer, as it often is in cases like this, is that it depends. For example, it is curious to me that the founder has brought you in at this time. He is still involved, and still obviously wants to maintain the status quo. Why were you hired? Are you to be the successor someday? Does he want to spend even more time on personal things and so you are there to do client servicing and free him up? You don’t mention your role or focus, so it makes me wonder what role you were hired to play.
Were you told of the culture during the interview process or shortly after you were hired? I have a client firm, about 17 people, and every one of the employees (and the leaders) will tell you their philosophy is “family first.” This means, to them, if an employee has a sick child or parent, or they are needed by their family, or they need time off to move an elderly parent, or care for a child being bullied at school, or help a sibling who has been diagnosed with cancer with her children (real world examples from this firm), then the firm supports this by giving the employee time off. It’s not that they don’t work hard, or that the firm isn’t well run. It’s that their philosophy and guiding principles say that the outside life is paramount to the inside the firm life.
Is this okay? Sure, because they are clear on their cultural mores and they talk about it in the interview process. Each person there will tell you this is one of the reasons they love the firm.
It’s all about definition and expectations. If you don’t know what your role is, and you don’t know why the firm hired you and where you should be focusing and you weren’t clear on the values the firm espouses, then something went wrong in the interview process.
Try exploring these questions with your firm founder: Ask him where he sees your role in one, five and 10 years. Ask him what his priorities are for you. And then talk about culture – probe whether there are any circumstances in which he would be amenable to growth. I wouldn’t go behind his back or spend the firm’s money and explore something without discussing it with him first. If it works, he will be unhappy you ignored his request; if it doesn’t work, he will be even unhappier you wasted time and resources to prove him right.
Dear Bev,
I recently came from a large firm where I was one of many on a portfolio management team and now have joined an IBD and am working with just a couple of other advisors. The reason I made this move is long and involved and not relevant to the reason I am writing.
My problem is that I am used to having resources. I had a great admin assistant and technology resources. Now when we have a problem, it can take hours just to find the right person to help me. It’s not that my former firm wasn’t bureaucratic; I knew everyone after being there for 13 years and now I waste so much time chasing down the right person to help me. My teammates and I all work well together. But I am struggling with whether a large firm and environment are better for me. I imagine you see people making this transition all of the time.
Is there a better way for me to onboard and get acclimated to a new environment?
K.R.
Dear K.R,
You have two questions in your note – whether some people do better in large organizations (the easy answer is “yes”). The opposite is true also; some people are much more effective in a smaller, team environment than in navigating through a large bureaucracy.
But I don’t think that is your question; your question is whether you are cut out to do this and how long it is going to take you to be confident and comfortable with this new team. I’ll remind you that you invested 13 years at your prior firm. I’m going to venture a guess that when you first started at that firm, you were out of your element and struggled to find the right people and resources to support you. Maybe they had a better onboarding program being a large firm, and maybe you had colleagues to provide direction and support, but it is likely you had a learning curve.
That’s what you have here – a learning curve. You need to establish some goals for yourself – what, when, how etc. You need to learn. Then create a plan. Instead of responding and spinning wheels be proactive thinking about what you need to know and how you can go find the information.
Engage your colleagues and see if they are having similar experiences and whether there is any way for you to divvy up the learning needs and share with one another. Anytime a person goes from a large environment with deep pockets and resources to a smaller team or firm, there is a temporary give-up. Explore the resources at the IBD as well – perhaps they have someone who could coach or mentor you to find what you need. Don’t overlook those potential resources. And don’t be too hard on yourself. You didn’t mention how long you have been in the new situation, but I’m guessing it isn’t too long; give yourself a break and just take it day by day.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Entrepreneurship. 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. 
