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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.
Dear Bev,
We recently went on a volunteer outing with our team. While everyone was excited to join, a couple of team members complained they did not have a chance to pick the charity we were volunteering for. I chose one that one of our clients had founded. He has since passed away, and I thought it would be a nice tribute to him as his wife and five children all remain clients of ours.
The team members who complained started somewhat of a revolution where everyone determined we should have voted on the charity and had a discussion about where to focus our energies. This came after the volunteer day, where everyone enjoyed themselves and the current client (wife) was there to personally thank us. The team went out afterwards for a nice evening (I did not go, but I paid for everything).
As founder and sole owner of the firm I believe it is my prerogative to choose where we focus company-paid time to volunteer. I didn’t force anyone to go – if someone did not want to participate they were allowed to stay in the office instead. All eight team members chose to go and we had a temporary assistant to answer our phones.
Was I out of line to pick where we went and not ask others to contribute ideas? I have asked a couple of my colleagues who also run firms for their opinions. One said I should have consulted with the team, and the other said it was entirely up to me what we spent the time focusing on. The colleague who suggested I needed to consult with my staff suggested I ask another third party since I am upset by how this has spiraled into an issue. It was simply supposed to be a volunteer day to honor a former client.
H.E.
Dear H.E.,
I admire your efforts to engage your team in an outside volunteer activity, and I think honoring a former client whose family still works with you is quite nice. I’m wondering if the problem here wasn’t so much the fact you didn’t “consult” or query team members on the charities or organizations they would have preferred to support. Instead, maybe you didn’t communicate as effectively about what you were doing, and why.
Sometimes we can be so close to a situation and have inside knowledge that we assume everyone who works with us also has the same information. For example, your team members might likely have known this client well, and they probably know his wife and children now as clients.
However, do they know the back story of the organization? Why he founded it, what it took to create the organization, how his wife and children are still involved (assuming they are) and what the organization does for the community it serves? Your note did not include the name of the organization so I don’t know for sure. That said, many times, there will be stories of where the founder came from, what communities or causes are served and how they benefit from the efforts.
I’m thinking perhaps you missed the opportunity to rally your team in advance to get them excited and energized about what you all were doing, and why you were focused on it. There was probably a missed opportunity to have everyone go knowing the background and feeling a sense of connection with what you all worked together to accomplish.
Without this, it’s likely they went out to dinner afterwards and talked about the efforts of the day and perhaps started to share their own affinities for different charitable groups. It’s not so much they debated if the path you chose was important. Rather, they probably didn’t feel a sense of inclusion around the focus.
I’m guessing here, of course, but I ask you to reflect on this and see whether there was a chance – and still could be a chance – to enlighten them about what this client did and why it was meaningful. Then, for next year’s volunteer efforts (or whenever you decide to do this again), poll your team. Perhaps ask people to submit ideas and then vote on them.
If you proceed like this, know that someone is always going to be disappointed when their charity doesn’t get chosen, but you can’t change that. Maybe you could make the dedication for your former client’s group an annual event and find a second opportunity to give back. There is always need out there, and having a team that wants to serve is a very positive thing!
Dear Bev,
What are you seeing advisors do this year for holiday parties? We have historically rented out a mansion in a neighboring town to our office. We have a wine tasting and hors d’oeuvres and typically get close to 100 people in attendance. We always ask clients to bring a friend or family member and the last couple of years we have been able to extend familial relationships this way by engaging with the children and, in four cases, the parents of our clients after the event. We provide everyone a gift as they are leaving. Last year we did nice crystal coasters which my ops manager found at an amazing discount.
We are now talking about whether we do something in the new year for a change. We think we could get even more clients to attend if the party were held after January 1. We’re open to ideas for change, but we are stymied about what to do.
K.C.
Dear K.C.,
I think this could go in the “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” category! It sounds like you are holding a very nice event, it’s working well in terms of both celebrating your clients and bringing in new opportunities and you are finding ways to do things less expensively but still remain classy.
I don’t see why you couldn’t repeat what you’ve done but do it in a new year’s style. Maybe, if it is a mansion, you hold a “Roaring ‘20s” party in the new year. You could do an entire theme around this, including finding a gift that typifies this era of prosperity and excitement. This way you are continuing the tradition that clients seem to like but changing it up a bit.
Other themes I am seeing advisors doing recently around events are as follows:
- Travel seminars. One advisor invited in a travel agent and had two clients who travel extensively share ideas for unique places to go, and ways to go. They talked about everything from biking trips, to mountain climbing, to Parisien wine tasting. The session included dinner, and if clients wanted to book trips they were able to do it with the agent at the event.
- Wellness events. One advisor is combining physical health and financial health by having a Pilates teacher, a yoga instructor and an insurance sponsor talk about the importance of focusing dually on both physical and financial considerations. The advisor rented a hall complete with fancy yoga mats and did a Saturday morning session with clients able to take the mats with them after the event.
- Fun and fashion. While it may not appeal to the male clients in your midst, several of my female advisors have held events centered around fashion recently. Two held them at the boutiques run by clients, one had a true fashion show put on in a local VFW event hall. In all cases, female clients were asked to bring a friend, and this worked out well.
These are some ideas and there are dozens more, of course. I encourage our readers to write in about their best idea or one they’ve heard from another advisor to share.
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. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022, 2023 and 2024. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. She 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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Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.