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 Readers,
In addition to the fulfilling work I do for my consulting firm, The Collaborative, working with advisors and financial professionals every day, I also teach college classes. This semester, in addition to a graduate class on leading teams and an undergraduate on business foundations, I am teaching a class in the MPA track on organizational change.
I was preparing lessons for my Saturday four-hour class, acknowledging how much about what I teach is the human factor. I often think of the ways in which I work with my clients, and how I came to have the moniker “The Human Behavior Coach.” My class finishes up this weekend, so I will share some insights for leaders within financial firms large and small to keep in mind as you work to make change happen, manage results and continue to grow your businesses:
1. The leader matters. A lot. I know most people know this. But it isn’t always recognized, especially in a change effort or when a firm is under pressure. Leaders need to have high emotional intelligence (EQ) and lead by example, especially during times of stress. How do they do this when they are also human and feeling pressure? Insert humility. While it is critical to be confident and take charge, humility is another critical aspect of a good leader. Our culture values the toughness and the “take no prisoners” mentality. But a good leader shows their vulnerability and is honest and open with team members.
2. Have a vision and communicate it. In my proprietary process called SHIFT, which I’ve written about in this column before, we always start with the end in mind. S is to specify the desired outcome. It’s stunning how many times people in a company are meeting to plan for change or to implement an initiative, but they aren’t sure over the long-term where the company is headed. Equally important is how their role and personal goals within the company fit into the longer-term desired outcome. This happens in firms large and small. And once the desired outcome and vision is developed, it cannot be communicated often enough. People need to feel connected to something and the best leaders paint a picture of what success will look like so everyone knows what they are driving towards and what they can celebrate once they reach the outcome.
3. The past matters, whether one learns from it or repeats it. One of the things I’ve intuitively known but never considered until I read research prepping for one of my classes is that the leader’s past matters – a lot. Familial and educational background and past experiences are carried forward and influence leadership capability. Leaders must be self-reflective and truthful about strengths and areas for improvement. Learn how to change your frame. Instead of knowing you have seen something before and it is always the same, consider how you can look at situations differently and bring an objective view. It requires self-awareness to do this, but changing the frame is powerful and effective. You can’t always change who you are, but you can change how you talk to yourself and your views on things. This simple act can avoid bringing the past into the future repeatedly.
4. Create high-performing teams. Bringing a group of people together and expecting them to get things done efficiently and effectively without guiding them on how to work together as a team is a risky proposition. Yes, it is possible. You get a group that consists of individual high performers and they all bring their best every single day. But often they don’t function as a team. It is a group of individual high performers! As a leader, you want to provide space for the team to coalesce and deepen their team effectiveness. You can help them to:
a. Create roles on the team based on their strengths and areas of interest;
b. Give direction on developing a team charter including ground rules for communication and working principles;
c. Set milestones and accountabilities to guide the team’s actions; and
d. Ensure regular updates, meetings and communication methods so the team is in contact and checking in with one another regularly.
5. Set clear expectations across the firm and provide updates about what’s working and what’s not. Importantly, don’t shy away from asking about obstacles. While you want to maintain a positive outlook and keep people focused on where you want to go, you also have to allow for input on what stumbling blocks they are facing. Many leaders will choose not to look at anything that might be perceived as “negative” talk. But this is where the information you need as a leader often lies. Be in touch, ask questions and stay connected.
6. Seek to understand. To quote one of the best leaders and teachers of all time, Stephen Covey, “seek to understand, not be understood.” What does this mean for leaders? Get into the shoes of your team members and understand what they are dealing with on a day-to-day basis. Often when I have guided clients through change projects, or to implement new growth plans, the team members doing the work have told me, “I wish management could see what we deal with on a daily basis.” For leaders to make good decisions, they need to understand what their employees are dealing with. I had the chance to work with a large client who had implemented a new technology that, on the face of it, seemed like it would make the work easier and more efficient. Unfortunately, the management team didn’t understand how disruptive the system would be to other systems throughout the firm. When I came in to help reorganize the workflow and help the front office be more effective, people were distressed and frustrated about what had been done. It wasn’t just figuring out how to implement a new process and approach, it was about building back bridges for management and team to trust one another and speak openly about how decisions should be made.
7. Celebrate the wins. I work with advisory teams every day and so often they reflect on how busy they are, how much work there is to do and how they never feel they get to a place where they can celebrate success. Busy professionals always have something on their plate. Things change constantly. Clients, markets, team members change and shift and make demands on an ongoing basis. You can’t wait for the end goal to celebrate. For you and your team to stay focused and engaged, you have to celebrate the small wins. Make it a practice every time your team comes together to acknowledge someone for good work or ask someone to share a highlight from the week or provide a forum for stories about collaboration and teamwork that illustrate the effectiveness. Bring positivity in the form of real wins into the discussion constantly.
These are just some of the many ideas for leaders to implement. Hopefully you can take one of these and reflect on how it could be useful in your team or firm. The only constant is change. Learning how to manage it effectively in the drive for results is an imperative for any leader.
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.
Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
