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 three partners in our firm who are as different as people can be. It works well because they share responsibilities for clients and managing employees but divvy up the running of the firm. We know who has expertise in which area and who to go to when we need something.
The problem is when they disagree on staffing issues. Recently we had a conversation about whether we should start returning to the office three to five people at a time. Most of us were comfortable doing this with restrictions and a process. One partner was adamantly against the idea, and the other two were supportive. In the team meeting, the decision got made to return – with these rules in place.
The dissenting partner has been telling everyone “the real facts” and the costs associated with us returning, and that one of the partners is having trouble at home and the reason he is behind a return is that he wants to get away from his spouse and kids! The disagreeing partner claims he shared this information with the other partners (the costs, not the personal stuff) and that no one listened.
Now he is acting as if we all did something wrong because we supported the idea. I don’t think any of us care much – we can work virtually if need be. Or if they think it is important for us to be in the office and get some normalcy in place, we are willing to do this too. The team feels like we were set up. The partners weren’t truthful with each other, so they bring something to us as if we are the decision-makers. But we’re not because they already had their agendas before the meeting even started.
I don’t think it is right for them to avoid dealing with each other and then make us the problem. Could we have handled this differently?
G.A.
Dear G.A.,
Forgive me for saying this, but you are the victims of a bad marriage. Rather than the people in charge taking responsibility, you are asking what you could have done differently? Without the information or the insight about the facts and data, I’m not sure you could have done anything else!
This is a classic example of avoidance of discussing an issue among partners, and the conflict that can arise when they aren’t honest with one another. This avoidance ends up causing even more trouble because the proverbial elephant in the room is there, but you can’t acknowledge it or do anything to move it out of the room. It sounds like you and your colleagues are true team players and don’t have a strong view. But you’ll do whatever is necessary for the team to thrive and work well together. You were truly set up in this case with only a portion of the decision-making criteria you needed.
It would be fair and right to call what happened to the attention of the dissenting partner. If anyone in the firm has a good relationship with him, pull him aside and say how badly you all feel that you didn’t have all of the facts you needed. Ask him if there is a way to raise this issue again, and have him be truthful about his viewpoint rather than addressing it after the fact.
You might have three partners who are very different, as you say, and one of them could possibly be a bully type or much pushier about their agenda. When this happens, the less-direct one(s) can step back and let the pushier partner solve it for them. Unfortunately it doesn’t mean the others don’t have their point of view. They may not be happy with how it turns out and often will make others aware of this.
If there is one dynamic I have observed over and over, it is when people avoid saying what they think because they don’t want to cause or be involved in conflict. It doesn’t work. The avoidance leads to more trouble and many more pieces to sort out in the long run.
Dear Bev,
Why do advisors resist selling so much? We need to grow!! I’m tired of knocking my head against the wall saying they have to be focused on this. As the newly appointed COO, my job is to manage the budget. Costs are rising but revenue isn’t. What do I do to light a fire under them?
Y.L.
Dear Y.L.,
Do your advisors know how to sell? Do they have the aptitude and knowledge to do so well? Do they have goals and are they measured to those goals? Do you have a system that makes it easy for them to sell? Do they manage their time well and prioritize selling along with client management, investment management and other responsibilities? Do you have a sales culture that supports them and makes talking about sales and sales activity normal and comfortable?
There are many reasons why advisors don’t sell. One of the biggest is that few advisors go into this profession because they want to be in sales! They love the financial aspect, the markets, and planning and solving things for clients. But they don’t like being pushy or forceful. They want to be the client’s advocate and partner, not their salesperson.
It takes a lot of effort to help an advisor see they do have the capability to sell, but they have to learn how to do it in their own voice and within a style that suits them. This often means giving them the tools to learn how to create and execute a plan, while staying fairly close within their personal comfort zone. Of course they will have to learn new things. But teach them how to do it in a way that fits their personality and their client focus.
If you haven’t read my book, The Pocket Guide to Sales for Financial Advisors, please do so. I lay out a number of ways every advisor can become more comfortable with selling.
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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