The Biggest Threat to Your Advisory Business

False assumptions

The authors challenged assumptions that underlie the traditional way of doing business. These include:

1. Being present in an office equates with efficiency. The data indicates productivity of those working at home is higher than those who work in an office.

2. Having an office in a large city provides access to more skilled employees. This one is easily debunked. You can recruit the best people from all over the world when you embrace remote work.

3. The loss of a collaborative environment. This was perhaps the most stunning revelation in the book. The authors wrote that the benefits of traditional collaboration are largely overhyped. They discussed an alternative structure for communication (described below) that is more impactful.

4. The benefit of leadership with a “cult of personality.” The authors wrote that this is the primary negative of the office environment. While it feeds the ego of those in charge, it mostly impacts the organization negatively.

The “async” mindset

I admit to having to look up the meaning of “asynchronous” while reading this book. It’s used to refer to communication, like e-mail, that isn’t instantaneous for both parties (like a telephone call).

The authors asserted that entities that embrace both remote work and an asynchronous mindset will thrive and those that don’t won’t be able to compete.

Achieving this mindset means eliminating synchronous communication as much as possible.

To implement this change, the most critical step is creating detailed written processes describing how every person in your organization performs their duties. These processes are amended as job requirements change.

Each person is given a metric, based on these processes, which they are required to meet. Everyone in the organization can see how every other employee is doing by simply looking at the actual performance of that employee against the benchmark metric.

A metric for someone in your firm might be writing a certain number of blogs a week, having a certain number of client meetings or meeting with prospects.

A flat organization

Organizations with the “async mindset” are totally transparent. All financial information about the firm, including the compensation of the principals, is disseminated to everyone.

No one has asymmetric information. Everything is written down and can be accessed by employees and new hires alike.

Onboarding new employees is a breeze. They just read the process for their job, ask clarifying questions (asynchronously, of course) and start working.

My favorite part is that this structure celebrates the contributions of introverts. No longer is the loudest voice or the most charismatic employee rewarded, while the contribution of those who prefer quiet reflection is minimized.

When you implement the async model, group Zoom meetings will be the exception. Expect every employee to feel like they are part of your firm and invested in your success. Instead of coming to you and asking how they should resolve an issue, they will tell you what they did and how it worked out.

You’ll know you’ve succeeded when you’re basically redundant.

The authors claimed the “old office” is “slated for extinction.” Those who work asynchronously operate “cheaper, faster, clearer and smarter.”

Do you want to compete against them?

Dan trains executives and employees in the lessons based on the research in his latest book, Ask: How to Relate to Anyone. His online course, Ask: Increase Your Sales. Deepen Your Relationships, is currently available.

Read more articles by Dan Solin