I have a question about the importance of gossip. Some of the people I work with learn things they should not know, and because they weren’t told them directly, they don’t consider them to be secrets. However, many of the things that get passed around could be misconstrued and hurtful to others.
A recent conversation with a highly successful advisor prompted me to write on the importance of understanding “behavioral style.”
Is it possible to deal effectively with senior people who are irrational and don’t care about the truth?
Our founder wants to put a halt to any new hires who he doesn’t personally approve. I don’t see how this is manageable – we are at 32 people.
How can I identify advisors looking to retire and position myself as a worthy candidate for their succession needs?
As you think about ensuring your team is performing as effectively as possible in 2019, here are five key areas.
How can I find a successor to work with my clients and take my business over as I move out? I have a team of 11, but there is no one who is prepared to be my successor.
Here are a few ideas about how to redefine the stage where a client moves from full-time work to another stage of their life.
Our long-time head of operations quit unexpectedly last month. The absence gives us a chance to consider what this role should be for our firm.
It has been my life’s work to study human behavior. In this week’s column I’ll share some important elements I include whenever I work with advisors to help them be better life coaches.
In honor of my own new beginnings starting today, this column is dedicated to sharing three ideas to help you start anew and become an even better financial advisor.
How do we find good talent? Our biggest challenge is identifying those who can take the mantle from our existing partners and bring us to the next level.
I am exerting a lot of effort but don’t move things in important ways. Is there a way to think about this differently or some technique to get myself more focused on important, over-arching initiatives?
What steps are firms taking to bring about diversity? I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years and I don’t see much changing despite all of the talk.
I’m a wholesaler who wants to sell. But our firm is constantly putting new ideas, projects and priorities on our plates. We have sales-related goals we have to meet each week, but these other requests are not counted in how we are measured.
Our partners think it is important to communicate with everyone about what’s happening. I’m all for open communication, but this has turned into meeting after meeting to talk about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and then the results of what we’re doing.
Our firm is moving to a more planning-based approach. I am not opposed to doing this but our clients seem to be. In many cases they hired us for our investment expertise, not to talk to us about their future goals and desires.
My team shuts their doors all day long. I’m a very social person and as leader of the firm I want to engage and have discussions about what’s working and what’s not.
Our advisors (seven of them) are perfectly content to work with existing clients and not worry about what’s coming next. I’m one of the younger partners in the firm and am motivated to put a true sales system in place. I need advisors who will sell within that system. How do I get them motivated and on board?
How can I pull a team together most effectively? We have spent a lot of time in the hiring process identifying great people and each one – on their own – is very good. But when they come together they all jockey for the top-dog position.
We are managing money well for our clients; I’m not worried about our performance, but I am worried about my own retirement and holdings.
We hired an HR person who turned out to be an irascible gossip. Team members are coming to me to complain. What should I do?
You can minimize stress by becoming more mindful in your day-to-day advisory work.
It is frustrating to have great relationships with clients and centers-of-influence (COIs) but virtually no one refers, especially considering how many people we know. Too few of our happy clients refer to us. Is this normal?
We have had a lot of turnover at our firm. While we are a large organization, it sends a bad message when we lose so many talented people at once. And, of course, many of them are going to our competitors.
I have been very successful establishing high-value relationships and keeping clients happy. But lately our management has been focused on new sales. How can we strike an appropriate balance between driving new revenue and maintaining our existing relationships?
I frequently receive questions about dealing with aging clients. In addition to saving for retirement and developing an estate plan, learning how to deal with mental and physical incapacity in clients is important for advisors.
Why is it so hard to find good talent in this industry – young people who are motivated, know what they need to do and do it?
I can’t get my supervisor to acknowledge I can add value, even though I’ve been at my new job for three weeks.
I typically read about successors who came in and they didn’t know as much as or were less capable than the original founder. In our case we prefer the son to his dad.
When I ask an audience of advisors who wants to be a better salesperson, the room goes silent. I often say “sales” is not a four-letter word (it is five!).
When our less-experienced team members present their ideas, the long-time staff dismisses them as “been there-done that” almost before the idea is fully vetted.
What do you do when one of your best clients is spending their way into oblivion?
Time management is a fallacy – you can’t manage time; everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day. You can manage your choices – by focusing on personal management you will start to see a positive shift when you try one or more of these things.
We are finding it harder and harder to attract good talent. We are in a large metropolitan area and the economy is strong so candidates are waiting it out when it comes to job offers.
The last couple of weeks I was reminded that often times, words do matter and we have to consider how what we say is interpreted and relayed to others.
I need to motivate my team to take more action. I often tell them to bring me solutions, not just problems. But all I hear are complaints about what we need to do differently.
There are things coming at me from all corners – my own clients, my boss’ needs and other projects he wants me to be involved with in our firm – and he is asking me to obtain a certification, which I haven’t even been able to investigate yet.
What do the best leaders do to gain the trust and respect of their followers? They master these seven key skills.
My advisors need to do a better job of presenting their ideas to clients.
The founders of our firm don’t get along. They are accusing each other of stealing from the firm, abusing the clients and taking advantage of the employees.
A number of our clients are watching the markets and becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the ups and downs. We have many retirees and soon-to-retire clients and 2008 is still fresh in their minds. They fear another disastrous downswing in their portfolios.
We are grooming three young people to be successors to our founder. What should we expect of them?
I know you’ve written a few times on difficult clients, but I hope you will indulge one more inquiry. What if the difficulty stems from possible dementia?
Our partners take marketing very seriously. They are focused on growing and want to create a sustainable business. We’re all very involved. The problem is, it is too much.
Do you have any tips on the best way to coach and mentor someone who is the heir apparent in my firm? I have a young man who is sharp, highly credentialed and very good with clients. The problem is he rubs people in the firm the wrong way.
I want to hire someone with a few years of experience because I don’t have the time or inclination to train a new graduate. I’ve been posting ads to LinkedIn and networking through friends, family and even clients but cannot find a single candidate.
Unfortunately the old-fashioned networking that worked for you no longer succeeds. Consider these four tips to make networking work for your team.
Our sales manager is starting to implement more stringent requirements around how many calls we have to make each day and how many meetings we have to have in order to plan a trip. He wants to weave results into our bonus program.
This week I learned a valuable lesson on delegation and communicating in a polarized political environment, and on being respectful of how people might interpret something.
