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,
We have a clear focus on hiring young people. I am proud to say of the 19 people, 12 of them are under 30-years old. The problem is that our older advisors (four of them in their 60s) are not comfortable bringing the younger team members into their client meetings. It isn’t they don’t think they are smart and educated; it is their “style.” This means the way they dress, the tattoos on their wrists and necks and the way they use a lot of “ums and ahs” when they speak.
This is entirely a generational thing (I am 39). Times are changing and things have shifted. Our older team members say the clients are in their age group (or older) and will have the same hesitation or concerns they have.
I am expected to share their feedback and/or coach these younger people to help them get to the next level of professionalism (that’s how it is characterized). But I don’t see it as my place to do this. What should I say, “Get your tattoos removed and stop saying ‘uh’ so much?”
Is this a common concern in advisory firms? How are others dealing with this?
I.P.
Dear I.P.,
There are often generational differences in the teams and firms I work with. Some older advisors are energized and excited by younger people who bring fresh ideas; some are put off by the approach the younger generation takes (your advisors fall in this category), and some are just trying to figure out how to leverage all ages, backgrounds and insights to create a cohesive team. This neither hard nor easy. It’s about the culture and the support for integration.
In your case, there are a few areas to consider before you offer to coach or push back and say you don’t want to be involved:
- Is the career path clear for these younger team members? This is important; if they believe they need to be in these meetings to move ahead, and the older advisors are pushing back for reasons the younger team members don’t understand, this is detrimental to their career and will be enormously upsetting. For example, if this is part of what they should do but they can’t because they are prevented from doing so, then what else should they be focused on? Outlining the career path, the steps, and getting buy-in from your older advisors is a first step in the process.
- Consider segmentation. Your older advisors may have clients with children or grandchildren, or hopefully you also have some younger clients at your firm. Is it possible to take a graduated approach to this process and have the younger team members work with the clients who could connect with them? Get some traction and positive responses, and then move on to the next segment.
- Your younger advisors could benefit from presentation and communication skill training. Using filler words – if done too often – can be perceived as a lack of confidence. There could be two issues at work here – they may lack confidence and be uncomfortable when, for example, asked a question they don’t know the answer to, or they may not be very good at communication! If you could get an expert in this area to help them, you could figure out which it is and improve their skills.
- Share with your older advisors some statistics such as, “Young people are much more likely to have tattoos than the older generations. Almost 40% of 18-25-year-olds, 36% of 34-56, and only 16% of people over 55 have at least one tattoo.” And while you don’t mention specifics about the way they dress, know that 53% of business professionals say work dress has become much more lax post-pandemic. Share this as information and education, and the older advisors might understand there are some trends here; other young employees they bring in could have the exact same situation.
These are differences that won’t change overnight. But there are objective steps you can take to look at the strategic piece (career pathing, how to segment) and then the personal/tactical piece (work directly with the younger and the older advisors).
Dear Bev,
We are trying to implement a succession plan in our team. I know a great deal is written about this, but I rarely see it addressed where the lead advisor is the one pulling in resources (in the form of a consultant). But he is missing every meeting or discussion that is held. He has a family emergency, he has to travel to see a client, he is on the board of multiple charities and there are meetings. It is a clear case of denial and an unwillingness to confront the issue.
The consultant spends time working with us on “the plan” for the departure. But how do you plan when the person who is most significant is always missing? I’m not exaggerating; we have had over a dozen situations where he should have been involved but chose not to show up. How do we push this consultant to take a stronger position that this can’t work? The consultant is making a small fortune (I see the invoices) so it burns the other four team members and I that this goes on.
K.D.
Dear K.D.,
This is a very difficult situation because you have two people with objectives and rewards that are not aligned with yours and those of your teammates. If the consultant is getting paid irrespective of whether the lead advisor shows up, and he or she can still get the team to create something that looks like a plan, what’s their incentive to do anything differently? I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do. If the engagement was for succession planning and your lead advisor is not engaged, then the consultant isn’t going to be able to do the job. But there isn’t much to achieve a different outcome.
Then you have your lead advisor. Clearly there is denial and avoidance. This is likely a very emotional time and he resists confronting what needs to be done. Having a good excuse to not be there is working because you and the consultant appear to move forward even though nothing can happen!
You, your team and certainly the two other people involved will disagree, but I suggest you and your team members simply refuse to attend the next meeting or you walk out when the lead advisor doesn’t show or has an excuse not to be there. Do this politely but say something like, “It doesn’t seem like the best use of the team’s time to have these conversations when the most important person missing. This isn’t a good use of the company’s time and money. Let’s reschedule for when he can join us.” Just keep doing this until the message gets through.
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. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022 and 2023. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She 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. 