Do I Really Need a Social Media Presence?

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,

Our advisory firm is thriving. We are continuing to break our own records each quarter for investment performance, new assets and client satisfaction. Our environment is mostly collegial although people are working so hard that many days it is like crickets in our office because everyone is just head down doing what needs to be done. Most people know their roles well and do their jobs at high levels of performance.

I say “most people” because we have one team member who is in a supporting role but deals directly with clients. She has a laissez-faire attitude. She will respond, but in her own timing. She makes mistakes and never, ever apologizes for them. Clients have complained about her but our owner takes an attitude where he prefers not to have conflict so he will ask her nicely to change but if she doesn’t change, there is no penalty.

I have read many of the things you write. I understand there are different ways to deal with people. But I am continually frustrated because I have tried taking her to coffee to chat (she cancelled on me three times), asking her if anything is wrong, reminding her of her accountabilities and generally trying to send follow-ups to everyone in the firm to make sure we are on top of everything. My role is to be in charge of all support functions so although, technically, she does not report to me we are a flat organization and she is under my umbrella in that her actions affect everything the rest of us do.

Is there anything I am missing and that I could do that would help get her back on track?

T.T.

Dear T.T.,

Are you sure you have the right person in the right role? In many cases when you have a person who repeatedly makes mistakes, doesn’t take ownership of them, but is aware of the responsibilities they have and avoids addressing the problem, it isn’t so much that the person doesn’t want to do things differently. It is that they can’t.

This goes back to something I write and teach about often – behavioral style. Much as we might be loath to admit it, we are all wired a certain way and there are things that come naturally easy to us and things that we struggle to do well. The more aligned a person can be with a role that suits their natural style, the more successful and effective they will be. Asking someone to do tasks they are ill-equipped to do, either because of natural style or lack of knowledge or training, is frustrating all around!