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,
A consultant worked with us on a strategic initiative. His style was very divisive. He would talk with one of us, then share a different viewpoint behind that person’s back. He would brainstorm and get ideas and then share them as if they were his own. Our firm is 31 people and his style created such a disruption that by the time he left, about 20 of us were mad or not speaking to one another.
There is a lingering frustration that our senior partner was unwilling to take a stand and fire this consultant. He kept making excuses for him. He kept telling us that we were overreacting.
Finally the consultant made the mistake of involving the senior partner in his shenanigans and then our leader finally made the move and fired the guy.
How do we deal with our annoyance that, until our leader was impacted, nothing was done? I know many people are still stinging from the damage and I fear our firm will suffer with our inability to move forward into 2021 and work together collaboratively.
R.A.
Dear R.A.,
Was the culture a collaborative one before this consultant joined you for this work? Does your senior leader know how people reacted to the lack of action on his part? Did the consultant do any good work on the strategic assignment that can be leveraged?
The right approach hinges on many of these answers. For example, if your culture was already one where people did not trust one another, or accused one another or talked behind one another’s backs, then the consultant merely opened the schism and highlighted it. Use this as an opportunity to look at the culture and consider what you want the firm to be and how you want to work together. Sometimes these difficult situations show the path forward to what you should work on and give you an opportunity to confirm anew your values and operating policies together.
If you’ve not addressed the perceived breach of trust with your senior partner, do so. Do it in a non-accusatory, inquisitive way. Ask him to debrief on the experience with the consultant. Talk about what the original mandate was in hiring this person, how the consultant performed, the disruption he caused and why others in the firm were able to see things unfolding before the senior partner took action. Reflect on your observations and ask questions about the senior partner’s perspective, and you could come to a common ground on why you viewed the right approach so differently. In doing this, everyone has their own behavioral style. Your senior partner might be someone who has to collect a lot of facts and have an experience of his own before he is comfortable acting. This isn’t a reflection on his disregard for the rest of the team; it is just his approach.
Lastly, if the consultant did add value – along with the disruption –acknowledge this to your senior partner. Sometimes giving only the downside or the negative feedback is hard for people. They want some validation that a portion of what they did was worthwhile. I’m going to guess your firm paid this consultant well, so mitigate the defensiveness by pointing out what also worked well for this engagement.
Assume positive intent on the part of your senior partner going into any exploratory discussion. No one likes to be accused, so err on the side of questioning and investigating.
Dear Bev,
What are the best gifts to send to clients during the holidays? I want to do something a bit different this year, but I am not much of a creative person.
J.D.
Dear J.D.,
I’m not sure what you have done in the past, but this week I had a conversation about different gifting ideas with an advisor client. He talked about the struggle because he has a few clients who are not drinkers or smokers and some that are struggling with weight issues. He didn’t want to insult them by just sending a wine basket or cigars or cookies and wanted to be thoughtful about what to do.
In his case his clients were local. I suggested doing a search for local small firms such as unique boutiques. We did a Google search together and uncovered about a dozen options in their area. No matter where an advisor is located, there will be at least a few to choose from. Or if you aren’t in the same locale, search for something in the person’s area. During these difficult times, smaller shops are struggling, so it is a nice way to give a local store some business. It also forges a connection between your firm and the community. It shows you cared enough to offer something specific to them instead of some general gifting.
There are also experience gifts – Cloud9living.com is a great site offering a number of creative ideas. Find something that is specific to your client.
Another option is to donate money to organizations struggling during these times in your client’s name and send along a card or notice to the effect – or better yet, have the organization send it on your behalf.
This is a nice opportunity to think about something meaningful for your clients.
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 and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. 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. 