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,
I would have considered myself an introvert prior to the COVID-19 situation. I prefer to close my door at work and focus on the investment portfolios. I’m not big on chatting with clients outside of their portfolio results. I always brought one of my colleagues along who enjoys talking about trips and family. I would choose reading a journal or article over going out for drinks after work.
It sounds like a work from home situation would be ideal for me, doesn’t it?
But I am getting very stressed sitting alone at my computer all day long and dealing with my fellow advisors and our clients largely over WebEx. I am experiencing neck pain, headaches and even nausea after 8-10 hours at the computer in my home office every day. I can’t go back to the office.
Are there things I could do for my mental and physical health while home-bound? It’s funny to me how things we think we enjoy become not enjoyable when they are forced upon us.
R.K.
Dear R.K.,
I so appreciate the last part of your question. We are all re-thinking a number of things with what has been, “forced upon us.” I have a graduate class I teach (now via Zoom) and last night one of the students, who works for one of the largest mutual fund companies in our business, was commenting on how they would never have mixed work and home-life during a meeting or a discussion. Now it is natural to talk to a colleague who might be balancing a toddler on their lap, or homeschooling a young child off the side of the desk while they attempt to do their job! I found this to be such a poignant insight into the dramatic changes that have taken place in what is really only very few weeks.
I am also hearing from many people similar feedback to your experience. Even someone who is an introvert would have wind down time during a commute home, or in the office separated from home, or able to take a walk and get coffee in between meetings but now there is virtually nowhere to go and no break between activities. One of my favorite past clients, a very successful advisor, told me recently he now has one drink every day because it is the only way to physically separate his work day from his home and family time. The drink symbolizes turning off one part of his brain and turning to another. So there are a number of new coping approaches everyone is trying.
A few questions for you and then a couple of suggestions for working out the emotional and physical kinks of computer-bound life:
- Are you getting up several times during the day to roll your shoulders and work your wrists and fingers so that you are staying loose instead of being hunched over the computer for many hours at a time? If not, there are some simple exercises to do: Stand up, put your arms out straight and position your palms so they are held up at the wrist and your fingers are facing toward the ceiling. Pull back gently on your fingers to loosen the wrists. At the same time your fingers are up, splay your fingers out as far as you can. While standing, move your head gently from side to side looking back over each shoulder. Don’t push yourself, this should be a gentle movement. Before you sit down, roll your shoulders back and forth several times and shake out each leg (hold onto something for balance) to get blood flowing.
- Do you have a standing desk, or the ability to stand up while on WebEx or conference calls? If not, try and put a few sessions on your calendar and make a notation to stand while having the conversation or the meeting. If you can have a placeholder to remind you, you are more likely to remember to do this. I like to write in large letters – STAND UP THIS TIME – so I remember to be prepared to do so for the upcoming meeting and have my notes and everything ready to go. The more you schedule in advance, the more likely you will do it.
- Are there places you can walk a few times during the day? If not, schedule this in, even if for just 5-7 minutes between meetings. I recently read where someone ran a marathon on their tiny balcony during quarantine. One of my clients told me when she travels she is often afraid to go out alone and run so she does several miles in her hotel room every morning! Even in the smallest space, you can get steps in. Go up and down stairs, if possible. Ideally walk around outside and get some fresh air. To make this time extra refreshing and truly a “break” allow your mind to separate from everything – refuse to think about work, don’t take your phone and don’t talk to others. This should be a chance to get your blood flowing and allow a clean break from what you are working on.
- Do you stop every few minutes to take stock of how you are feeling and what you are thinking to stay awake to your mindset and focus? If not, put reminders on your calendar to pop up every 1.5-2 hours. Stop. Push away from the computer if possible. Focus on your body – how you are sitting, what you are experiencing and what thoughts are running through your mind. The more you can stay aware of what’s happening, the less negative impact you will wind up with by the end of the day.
This is a time of turmoil and being thoughtful about how you are managing yourself and your day is very important. Your team and your clients need you healthy!
Dear Bev,
Is there anything I can do to stop my clients from panicking right now? I can’t tell them to stop reading the news, but I think that is what we want them to do.
A.C.
Dear A.C.,
The most important thing to do is over-communicate. You can’t tell them what will happen. You can’t ask them not to read the news (although you can suggest that doing so too often is not helpful for their well-being in many ways!), and you can’t predict what will take place. But you can let them know how you are confronting this, remind them why they chose you as their advisor and keep them updated more regularly than you ever have on decisions you are making, responses to the news, and how what you are doing will impact them personally.
One of my advisor clients manages 70 accounts/households. He is taking time each day to make personal calls with the goal to call each one of them over the next several weeks, in addition to the broad-based news they are sending out via email. This takes time and focus, but the responses he has been getting from clients was so completely gratifying to him that he relayed to me the time has been well worth it.
Be more proactive and respectful of the worry and the fear your clients are experiencing and take additional steps to mitigate the bad news they are hearing and reading.
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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