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,
What communication practices are best during these times? My team tells me they are getting tired of conference calls and video-chats. I understand completely because we are also on the phone with clients, money managers and analysts all day long. I miss the ability to call a quick meeting and bring everyone into the conference room and talk about an issue, then have everyone go back to their day. Now it is scheduling, confirming, making sure we have an agenda, and doing the follow-ups. My team is weary.
What else should I be doing right to make it easier on them, but not cut off communication entirely? As an aside, one of my most outgoing advisors told me she believes she has become an introvert because she is enjoying being disconnected from everyone as much as possible.
A.B.
Dear A.B.,
These are ongoing and difficult questions to answer in a one-size-fits-all framework. I have some clients who are saying they might not bring their teams back into the office in 2020. They are figuring out the best way to engage in ongoing communication and make it meaningful and not exhausting. This is going to stay the critical issue for many.
I’m running a webinar for advisors next week on this very topic. I will give you and the rest of our readers a sneak peek into the things I will cover and the answer to your question:
- When people are tired and getting weary of communicating in one way all of the time, mix it up and provide different mediums of communication. It sounds like you had an effective way in the past of pulling people together, engaging well and then doing follow up. Now all of your communications are the same and probably not as effective. Start your day and consider what information you’d like to give, or get, from your team and then find ways to outreach differently. For example, could you:
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- Text a short insight or idea,
- Send a series of “yes/no” questions the team could answer via email,
- Reach out to one person at a time to talk about their day and their viewpoint,
- Record ideas you need the whole team to hear and then broadcast them,
- Write a blog and have each person contribute something so you can understand their view and insights – not only will you get good information from team members, but you will gain ideas about things they might want to talk about?
- Change up the length of time you have calls and the way you manage them. Consider doing the same sort of thing via Zoom you have done in the office. I know it takes a bit longer for people to come onto the call and get organized. But schedule calls for 20 minutes instead of an hour (if you are doing that now). Ask a different person to share an insight each time you join the call. Rotate coverage for the call so you aren’t always the one scheduling it and thinking about what needs to be covered.
- Consider whether this is your own need to have these discussions. You might be an extrovert and need to interact that is more personal (which is fine, we all have needs!), but see whether there is another outlet other than your team to get these needs met. Keep your team coalesced during this disjointed period, but make sure the coming together is necessary and productive.
Consider having a meeting over “cocktails”– one of my clients has been doing this – arranging a check-in late in the day, after market close, and everyone joins with their cocktail or glass of Coke or Pepsi and they engage in a more casual setting. It’s been working well for them, so try this too!
Dear Bev,
We currently have an interim CIO. Our long-time CIO is recovering from illness and has been on medical leave and will be for a few more weeks, if not months. The interim CIO has made some decisions many of us as advisors do not support.
We are concerned about the impact on our client portfolios.
Our CEO says the Interim CIO is the expert and we don’t have a place to question decisions. How do we talk with our clients about what’s happening if we can’t question what’s been done? I know I am being cryptic. But I don’t want to share more specifics lest someone from my firm reads this column.
R.S.
Dear R.S.,
This is a great example of what I commonly refer to as “communication ground rules” every firm must have in order to avoid confusion and communication dysfunction, especially when implementing change or when dealing with conflict or difficult situations.
Did your CEO explain what the rules of the road were for the interim CIO when he or she came on board? Are you aware of how investment decisions get made and why he or she might have made the changes? Were you given talking points to use with clients that all of the advisors are clear on and can utilize?
If you are able, approach the interim CIO – or if there isn’t a good relationship, the CEO – and suggest it might be useful, based on recent events, to take a step back and make sure there are clear communication ground rules in place so everyone knows who can do what, how changes will be communicated and most importantly what the messaging will be to the clients and prospects. Point out this isn’t a negative for the interim CIO; it is just a way to clear the air and clarify what to expect. Unfortunately, when there aren’t ground rules in place, differences of opinion become bigger issues than they need to be, distrust can break out and conflict begins. Be the person to facilitate an objective response and help the firm on a broader level by doing this.
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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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
