Misplaced loyalty?

Under- or non-performing employees…I see it in nearly every engagement I have.  But as I’ve said before, financial advisors are sweethearts.  You are among the most loyal folks I have ever met which is why you are so good at what you do best which is care for your clientele.

However, sometimes this loyalty can be misplaced and lead to problems within your firm…some you might not even realize.

When you have under- or non-performing employees, you are requiring your above average employees to carry a greater burden. They’re not fools…they know why this is occurring.  It’s because you don’t have the guts to get rid of this person and you’re saying “hey, I care more about this one employee than I do about the good of my team”.  Talk about resentment!

Additionally, when you finally do pull the trigger on this person, you will more than likely see relief on their face.  Why, because you’ve done something for them they didn’t have the guts to do to themselves.  Usually the employee who is terminated reveals they were not happy and how could they be?  They know they’re not up to par…how stressful that must be!

Now is the time…survey your staff.  Do you  have all A players?  If not, do you have B’s that can become A’s?  Or do you have some C’s in there that you know are never going to be up to par and it’s time to send them on to the next chapter in their work life?  If so, do it now!  Don’t wait another day…you’ll be glad you did and they may just thank you as well.  I know your staff will.

Take action and take care, Ginny

Attracting Top Talent…Do’s and Don’ts

One of the best sessions at the recent NAPFA National conference was one presented by Janet Briaud, Sarah Buenger & Joe Gonzales.  Much of it is common sense but warrants reminder because it’s easy to get bogged down in other things and forget about your most important asset…your team.

One important point they drove home with which I wholeheartedly agree is the firm with the best talent wins the race!  At the end of the day, this is really what makes the difference to your clients, your revenue and your quality of life.

If you’re in the market for some new talent now, don’t be tempted to underpay because you’ve been told this is an “Employer’s market”.  It is but if you underpay now, they will leave you when the markets turn and someone makes them a better offer (it won’t take much to get there).

Some other items from their presentation:

* Your firm vision should drive your hiring decisions;

* Always develop a description for the position (what are the reponsibilities, what need is this position filling?) before you begin your search;

* Develop an interview guide.  Try and be consistent with the questions you ask each candidate so you can compare apples to apples;

* Check references!

And one courtesy reminder.  Respond to each and every candidate (even if it’s a “template email”) who sends a resume.  Remember, finding a job can be a tough, stressful and demeaning situation. 

They’re out there…now go get them.

Let me know if I can assist.  Ginny

Mid-year review

Despite the fact that I cannot figure how it is already Memorial Day, it is.  With mid-year quickly approaching, now is a good time to gather your team (or make some time for yourself if you’re solo) and review your strategic plan.  If you don’t have a formal strategic plan (seriously?), then at least sit down and review where you wanted to go this year and how close you are to reaching that point.

If you have made good progress in your goals, congratulations!  You are managing to keep yourself on track and away from most of the day to day distractions.  You have either outsourced well, hired a competent COO or you’re a great time manager.  Great job!

If however, you have not made much progress, now is the time to look at why you have not.

• What is distracting you from your goals?
• Do you have the right staff or outsource partners?
• Are your clients confident in your abilities and not calling all the time?
• Are you a bad time manager?  Do you work from a model day?
• Are you overwhelmed, under served by staff or outsource partners or just generally drowning?

If any of the above described you, I beg you, get a good business coach to help you sort it out and stay focused and on task.  Hire a competent COO to run your business or switch outsource partners if need be. 

I know it sounds painful but in the long run, you will be so glad you did.  Just ask the folks who are “trucking along…”. 

Let me have your thoughts and input on what is dragging you down.

Thanks@

Get it in writing…

I frequently work with clients who tell me they’re having difficulty with their staff.  No one knows who’s supposed to do what, there is frequent redundancy in work, their are clashes among staff over who is supposed to do what.  Does any of this sound familiar?

If it does, my next question would be, do you have Position Statements for each of your staff including you?  If not, this is more than likely the cause of the discourse.

Again, you’ve heard me say this…most of us did not get into business for ourselves to manage folks.  However, if you’re going to have staff, either you’re going to have to do it or you  must hire someone to do it (those of you who know me know I always advocate the latter…a good COO can solve many of these problems).  However, one step you can take without hiring someone is to make sure everyone in your organization has a Position Statement…a document that lays out very carefully what they are specifically responsible for within your organization.  You write it (or hire someone like me to assist you), knock it around with the staff member until its accurate (there are more than likely things they are doing you don’t even realize and others you assume they are doing and they are not) and then you both sign it.  This document then becomes the basis for reviews, bonuses, etc.

The other thing it does is it clarifies very carefully what everyone is doing.  There is no more bickering over it, no more redundancy and it helps your organization run more efficiently and smoothly.  It also empowers the staff members to make decisions in their area of responsibility and become experts in those areas.

You can also include a comp plan in this document if you’d like.  However, either way, you should share the pages of the document that outline responsibilities with every member of the staff (post them on an intranet, put them in the employee manual but make sure everyone knows what everyone else is doing). 

Let me know if I can assist you in this endeavor. Take care, Ginny

Don’t Forget About Your Staff

Okay, I know, one more thing to think of in this awful market but hey, you wanted to be an entrepreneur so this is what it really is…so glamorous, isn’t it?

Just kidding, I love being an entrepreneur but it does involve keeping a lot of balls in the air and one of those is the successful management of your greatest asset…your employees.

These are scary times for all of us and it can be even scarier for your employees because they are not privy to your thoughts most of the time.  They don’t know what you’re thinking…can you survive this market, will you be able to retain everyone, will pay cuts, benefit cuts, etc. be necessary.  Other than quitting and taking another job, they have very little control over their destiny as an employee!

So what can you do?  Here are some suggestions:

1.  Plain talk – tell the truth, the good, the bad and the ugly…be totally honest about where things stand and what you’re thinking;

2.  Encourage them and reassure them where you can but don’t make promises you might not be able to keep;

3.  Listen to them – give them the freedom to express their fears

4.  Hold periodic rally sessions – have lunch together, reiterate your vision for the firm, talk about why what you do for folks is so important ESPECIALLY in these times;

5.  Team building – some great exercises can be found at www.teambuildinginc.com

A few other Do’s and Don’ts

1.  Don’t lie under any circumstances or gloss over the truth;

2.  Don’t let poor performance slide

3.  Do keep a compassionate heart

4.  Do seek out peer or coaching support for yourself

5.  Don’t be a caretaker – be the employer

Again, we’re all in this together.  This a great time to create even more team cohesion – be transparent, be honest and be compassionate and you’ll build even more loyalty and further cement your employees as fellow visionaries.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.

I could play this excuse from a tape recorder…

As you know if you’ve read any of my recent blogs, I am in the midst of strategic planning for 2009 with all of my clients.

Inevitably, we get to the discussion of everyone’s responsibilities.  This leads to me asking the advisor’s staff, “so, do you feel like you’re getting the right amount of training from Bob (fill in advisor’s name here) and the answer is usually the same.  “Well, I’d really like to get more if I could so I can take on more responsibility”. 

So, I turn to the advisor and I say, what about it, do you think you should be doing more training? and they say “well, yes but I can do it so much faster myself sometimes” and there it is…the same excuse I hear all the time.  It’s not new, you’re not the first and you won’t be the last.

But when they say it out loud, the absurdity usually rings in their ears.  Seriously, do you hear what you’re saying?  You’re not offering continuing training to your staff because you can do it faster yourself  Okay, just in case I need to say it for some of you…one time, teach them one time and they can do it forever!  Doesn’t that make much more sense? 

Your staff, your fellow visionaries, are your MOST valuable resource for so many reasons.  One of the best reasons is they offer the leverage you so desparately need to grow your business and live the life you so desire.  Isn’t that one of the reasons you become an entrepreneur?

Please call me if I can help you manage your time more efficiently or help you become a better delegator!

Strategic Planning – keeping your eye on the long term view of your firm…

I just returned from a two day strategic planning session with one of my clients and man, what a rush.  The ideas from the staff members were flying fast and furious and most of them are home runs!

Now, let me first say, this advisor has deliberately and with great fore thought, hired a top-notch, A player team for his firm.  He then incentivized each of them based on the growth of the firm so they are fellow visionaries, not employees.  After we did this together, we gave it a couple of months to gel and then had this planning session.

When you take the time to do this, you get results, great results.  You get ideas, great ideas.  You get rejuvenated about what you do and how you’re going to do it.

Call me if this path to success is one you’re interested in.

Thanks!

No more Mr. Nice Guy

It’s true, financial advisors are sweethearts.  You got into this business because you sincerely want to help folks succeed financially, meet their goals and live their dreams.  This is a great quality in a financial advisor!

However, it’s not always such a great quality in a human resources manager.  Time after time, advisors call me because they have someone in a position they know is just not quite right, they can’t see a future for them with the firm or they just generally irritate the advisor.  We talk and talk about the employee and then, after listening to a litany of excuses as to why the employee is still there, I say “Sounds like it might be time for a change”.  The shock in their voice is palpable.  How could I suggest such a thing…what a mercenary I am.

Maybe I am a little bit of a mercenary when it comes to this but my clients pay me to look out for what is best for them.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  Those of you who have read any of my postings relating to hiring, training, etc. know I am a huge advocate for taking great care of the RIGHT employees.  However, if you have someone who you are just keeping because you’re either too nice or loyal to make a change or because you’re too big a wimp, you are not doing anyone any favors.

Hanging on to someone like this is actually very selfish.  If you know you have someone who you do not see in the long term picture of the firm, you have an obligation to let them know.  They need to be either searching for a new position or a new career.

If you find yourself in this position, have a plan for transitioning this person out and bringing in a new, better fit.  Don’t just throw them out…talk to them about it.  Be honest.  The majority of the time you will find that while their feelings are going to hurt (it’s only natural), they will appreciate your honest approach to helping them move on.

Call me if you’d like to discuss this further.

It’s not enough to have good employees…

We’ve all been told about the benefits of hiring the best employees and then paying them well, offering benefits, nurturing them, training them.  All of these things are EXTREMELY important.  But there is another factor that is just as important.

Once you have these great folks, LET THEM DO THEIR JOBS!  Relish in their high competency levels.  Do not micromanage them, do not deter them from coming up with better “mouse traps”. 

I have had clients who have faithfully worked with me to hire the best folks, sometimes even replacing current staff because they truly do understand and embrace the idea of hiring the cream of the crop and then paying them well including generous incentive plans.  But then the trouble arises.  They get these folks in there and they treat them in the “same old way”.  They micromanage them, they convince them that the current way of doing things “is fine, don’t worry about it”, concentrate on the tasks, not the concepts.

Folks, there are two things I know to be true…you will NEVER meet your goals without good staff or outsource partners and your staff will NEVER live up to your expectations if you don’t give them some breathing room and open your mind to a new way of doing things.

Call me or email me with any thoughts…

Sometimes growth requires a very hard decision…

I am working with a client who is having to make a very hard choice in order to grow her business…she must fire someone who has been with her for a while.  We have tried everything we know…training, re-training, position goal statements, helping her be better organized, be someone who prioritizes well.  However, nothing seemed to work.  On top of that, her attitude is getting really hard to predict.  You never know is going to come in the door.  The other side of the coin…most of the time she’s sweet and trying very hard.

The bottom line is her skill set does not fit the needs of the firm going forward.  If this firm is to grow in the manner we’ve planned for, we must upgrade at this point.  Part of my job is help you identify if there are any holes in your staff because hear me and believe me…unless you plan on outsourcing everything in your firm, you will NEVER reach your goals without top notch staff.  This means the best of the best who will not come cheaply.  You must be prepared to pay them well and put an incentive plan in place.  However, the right staff can take you places you never imagined!

Fortunately, I don’t run into this situation very often (having to replace someone).  What I usually see are advisors with great people on staff who are going to leave if we don’t incentivize them so we put an incentive plan in place.  You will be amazed at the difference this makes…you have now transformed your team from “employees” to “fellow visionaries”. Which would you rather work with?

If you haven’t taken an honest look at your staff recently, it’s time to.  But first, sit down and write out job descriptions for every position in your firm and the skill set needed to excel in that position.  Then with this in hand, take a look at your staff and see if they fit the skill set.  If they do, great, move on.  If they don’t but can be re-trained, etc., get them trained or re-trained.  If they don’t and you just don’t see how you can get them there (mistakes are multiplying, attitude is disintegrating, etc.), then make the hard decision for you and for them.  You are not doing them any favors keeping them a job where they cannot excel and feel great about themselves.

Give me a call if you’d like to dicuss this further.