Our Leadership is Failing

We have plans and priorities but we don’t have vision. Saying we’re going to serve the needs of families with a breadth of services across the country isn’t a vision. It’s what everyone in our business does. We’re based in the Midwest, and we have deep family relationships – some span five generations. That is unique in this space. It isn’t that anyone disagrees with this philosophy; it’s just that it isn’t a strong rallying cry.

What could I do to get some energy behind the changes, help with implementation and get things on track before we lose people’s engagement and involvement?

J.W.

Dear J.W.,

Your story is a common one and you are right. Many large and small firms in our profession are struggling to figure out how to re-invent themselves. “Change management” is happening at almost every single company I work with.

There are positive change-management initiatives where people are on board and excited. Then, such as you are experiencing, there are those that feel chaotic and disconnected. The way the process is handled is going to dictate the enthusiasm and engagement of the team.

I’ve run many change processes in my client firms, and when I was in my corporate seat too. I will share some tips, and in your middle-management role, you may be able to implement them.

I’ll outline my proprietary, trademarked process, which can serve as a useful guideline. I’ve found teams are less resistant to this outline because it makes sense and isn’t forcing them into anything.

First, let me share a few best practices:

1. Involve your leadership in the process in the right way. Leaders should not be directing people what to do and changing up the priorities. They should be setting the vision and allowing the team members to work together to figure out how best to achieve it. If the leaders of your firm don’t trust your team members to do this, that’s another story. The leader must set the vision. If the best you are getting is about managing multi-generational wealth across the nation, that isn’t much. Encourage your leaders to think about a true vision: Who do we want to be? How do we want to be known in the marketplace? What value set do we hold and want our clients and employees to know about? You have to go deep on this part. It isn’t a tag line or a one sentence event, it’s about creating a rallying cry that is meaningful to everyone.
2. Have the right people engaged at the outset. If this is a “mandate from on high,” you won’t get engagement and cooperation you will if you solicit input from team members. Even if the final recommendation isn’t what they wanted, they at least have a voice.

Implement the SHIFT process. This process can be for a small or large transition. You need to modify accordingly, but each step of the process is important to increase chances for a good outcome:

S – Specify the desired outcome. Be clear not just want a plan looks like, but where you want everything to end up. This includes both quantitative and qualitative pieces. For example, if in your firm’s case it is a growth initiative, set the outcome. How many new clients? What percentage of new assets? The quantitative is usually the easy part, but qualitatively, how will things be – a certain niche market? A type of servicing approach? What will be happening in the environment to allow for reaching these quantitative goals? If you look only to what needs to be done, and not where you are wanting to end up, people can’t organize around it. All they see is change, for change’s sake.

H – Highlight the obstacles and categorize them. Yes, ask your team members what is standing in the way of reaching this desired outcome easily and effectively. Most managers don’t like obstacles. I recently had a client say, in a derogatory manner, “Don’t be the obstacles person, be the get-it-done person!” This is unfortunately missing a key component of change initiatives. Allow people who are working in the day-to-day to raise what prevents success today, and what could prevent success on the road to the desired outcome you have identified. I’ve seen many cases where a firm might hire a high-powered consulting firm to give them the plan, but the plan is missing all of the “intel” from people who are doing the job.

Allowing people to share their insights about obstacles is a key step. Once they are Identified, you don’t sit with them, you organize them into three categories:

1. What you can control
2. What you can influence
3. What’s out of your control.

Orienting your team to focus this way frees up creativity and a “we can do it” attitude. It gets them focused on what is moveable and changeable most quickly.

I – Identify the human factor. Find out who is resisting and why. Not to put blame on them, but to uncover what they know that you need to know. Then make sure resources are aligned appropriately.

We executed a very large change-management initiative for a financial technology client of ours. This was extremely complicated with many pieces. We found the best approach was to organize people by different areas in smaller groups and allow them to work together to come up with ideas. We were able to completely transform the company in 18 months. The overall initiative had a name, and the teams working on different areas had names too. They had to come together once per month to share their progress and their obstacles and then brainstorm with the larger group. It was a very effective process despite the size because of the cross-groups and the associated communication.

Also identify stakeholders. Who else is in the universe that could help you? In the advisory space this could be your custodian, asset management firms, strategic partners and even other friends and colleagues in firms who have executed similar changes. Reach out, find resources and leverage them effectively.

F – Find alternatives. It’s always so interesting to me when firms have a one-way mindset. We “have to” do it this way, no matter what the data, information and culture might tell us. Set criteria first – what matters most? Is it your revenue, timeliness of implementation, least impact on clients, least impact on employees, biggest way to shake things up, least costs, most expensive or so on? You set the criteria for decision-making. Set it so you are able to view the alternatives through an objective lens to decide which are best for you.

Allow your team to brainstorm. Let them come up with new and different ideas, even if you don’t agree with all of them. You may know what needs to be done, but if your group surfaces the way to the outcome, they will be much more engaged at the outset.

T – Take disciplined action. Perhaps my favorite step, because it is where you finally get to move forward with confidence and a plan. Determine what you need to do, who will do it, when they will do it and associated budgetary concerns. It is important to do this for all work streams connected to the final implementation. Sometimes when you map things out, you realize you can’t do it all or that some initiatives within the greater initiative are in conflict. This process has been helpful to our clients hundreds of times because it lets them see the whole picture at once. Often there are limited resources (time, money, people) to go around. Seeing how each piece connects to another is critically important.

While your management may not want to step back and take an organized and thoughtful approach, you could push forward and organize your team members in doing some of this. See if it doesn’t help just to gather everyone together in a room and agree on language for the desired outcome. Getting agreement about what success looks like and what it means for us can infuse energy and enthusiasm quickly into an otherwise lackluster change effort.

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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