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,
I work for a very large organization, and recently we’ve had a few missteps in a number of areas. Nothing compliance-related, but we’ve lost some good people, changed the focus for our target market and sunset a few products our clients enjoyed investing in. My role has become “bearer of bad news” or on good days, “agent of change”. It’s hard to go into the market time after time and let clients know we are onto something new – again.
My clients trust me, my relationships are very solid, and I haven’t lost any assets with those changes. But I have a pain in my stomach every time I read a new internal missive saying something else is happening that is new and different.
Is there a graceful way to explain to clients I’m not the person making these decisions, and that I understand the impact, without betraying my firm and aligning fully with clients? I think there is risk in both sides. I don’t want to badmouth my firm, because if they are “bad” per se, then why am I still here? And if I don’t acknowledge what’s happening and the impact on clients, they might think I am out of touch and don’t recognize these things do have a ripple effect on their lives.
I’m sure this isn’t the first you’ve heard this sort of dilemma. I am interested in how you recommend dealing with it and how others in similar situations dealt with it. I am not inclined to leave my employer for several reasons that aren’t relevant here, so that isn’t a choice point for me.
A.T.
Dear A.T.,
Yes, I understand your dilemma completely. I harken back to my career selling alternative investments to pension plans and calling a plan sponsor one day to identify my firm (which will be unnamed). The person started screaming at me on the phone – after listening for a few minutes, totally shocked at the response, I gleaned his mother had been sold a retail product by a totally different area of my firm, and he felt they had taken full advantage of her. Fast forward to today and I see my own mother being disadvantaged by said firm. I recognize how you can learn to despise a “brand” because of a personal experience!
This doesn’t help your situation, but it does illustrate the significance of having every person within a large firm who touches clients and makes client-facing decisions understand that each touchpoint and each decision matters. Clients see it all, feel it all and notice impact on their lives and situations. We lose sight of this in large firms – every touch point matters.
In your case there are a few things I recommend. Whether they will work will depend on your firm’s culture, your own behavioral and communication style and your client’s willingness to work with you to get heard by the firm:
- Collect a few statements from your clients on why the changes are difficult for them. Is it just they don’t like change or are they experiencing significant impact in decisions they need to make or have made? Change is hard for everyone, but it is a pretty common thing in our profession. If it is resistance to change, you might have to be the one to talk to them about how the planning profession is changing, and it isn’t your firm alone making new decisions. But if it is impacting them in discernible ways, collect these and move on to my next recommendation.
- Facts and data matter to senior management. If you can collect enough evidence from your clients that the changes being made are detrimental to them in some meaningful way, put together a short presentation, complete with amount of AUM/fees, tenure of the client with the firm and any other data point that shows loyalty and significance and provide this to the senior management making these decisions. In far too many cases, I have seen people try and influence management by their own viewpoints or anecdotal information or stories about something someone said. If you sit in a senior management role, you care about facts, data, impact on the business – along with growth and client retention. Get your facts in order and paint of picture of the importance of these changes on your clients.
- Proactively communicate with your clients. It’s especially hard to manage client concerns if they hear or read about something first, and then reach out to ask you what’s going on and why. In this scenario, you are in a defensive position trying to explain something they may already have an opinion about. Make sure you reach out in advance of any communication to those clients whom you know to be wary of change and let them know what’s happening and why.
- Be a culture carrier. Ask questions internally about why the firm is doing what they are doing. Rather than be skeptical or worry about what’s coming next, be part of the changes being made. Volunteer to sit on committees making decisions, show up at every town hall or internal meeting where senior management sharesinsights and their vision. Be engaged and participative. The more you believe in what’s being done, the better able you will be to carry the positive cultural changes to your clients and show them why you are excited about what’s happening.
None of these things are easy. You may become frustrated as you try to implement them. If you are determined to stay where you are, and you want to maintain meaningful client relationships, take a more direct approach with what’s happening and be part of the change, not a defender of it.
Dear Bev,
I was recently promoted to a significant sales management role after 10-plus years of being the top salesperson in my financial firm. I’m getting a lot of pushback from my peers, some of whom I believe to be jealous of how well I performed or are not used to being managed. The person who preceded me was what I call a “loose leader” in that he didn’t lead or manage as much as buddy around with the sales team and try to be friends with everyone.
I am the only woman on the team and have worked with my male colleagues for many years. I’m about the same age as most of them, but they will call me “mom” from time to time when I intervene and give direction or support about something.
How do I step into my own confidence in this role with all that background and baggage? Are there specific tips that could be helpful for me?
R.C.
Dear R.C.,
Congratulations on achieving a management role and rising among peers to sit in the seat. It isn’t an easy feat, especially with a prior boss who was laissez-faire in his approach. Your question could take several pages for me to answer because there are many nuances – the prior form of management and how you are changing things, the impression your peers have of you as “mom,” the fact that you are the only woman on the team and the general difficulty anyone has in moving from an individual contributor role to leading the same peers you were working alongside. You have the perfect storm of conditions that will create an uphill challenge. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it. You will need to step into your confidence and take responsibility for leading, and you need to be proactive and thoughtful about your approach.
Pull the team together and acknowledge some of the dynamics. Respectfully point out that your style is going to be different from the last boss, and while you don’t want to be a micro-manager (assuming this is true), you do want to put measurements in place and hold people more accountable. You can share this was a secret to your own success, so you know the value of this.
While you are speaking with them, I would call out the “mom” nomenclature. I would say how you recognize this is likely an endearing term they have used for you, but ask them to remove it from their vocabulary. You are not their mom; you are their leader. Your job is definitely to support them, but it is also to hold them accountable. Let them know you aren’t comfortable having it appear as though there is a familial experience in their view of you.
Hold regular meetings where you can step in and be confident in your approach. Find things to share with them about what’s happening in the firm, ask for their input and ideas on obstacles they are facing, share your goals and objectives for the next one to three years. In addition, in the meetings ask about specific examples of deals they are working on – use specifics as “case studies” to examine together what’s working and what’s not and to brainstorm on how to move prospects forward.
Be active and engaged in proactively communicating with them and asking for their input and suggestions.
Lastly, sit with each team member 1:1 and ask them what they believe they are doing well and where they might need coaching and support. Then share your perspective on what you observe. You must have a perspective having worked alongside these team members for such a long time. You may think you know everyone, but it is important to establish individual relationship and create an open environment where they are comfortable sharing with you, and you are also comfortable coaching and sharing with them.
Keep focused on your end goals, don’t be distracted by the personal aspect of where you came from, set objectives for yourself and keep walking toward them. They will eventually see you are serious and will either respect you as their leader or leave if they decide they cannot.
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 and 2023. 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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