My partner and I have worked together for a long time. We are polar opposites, but it is like a marriage. We want to name a third partner, one of our existing financial advisors.

We aren’t crass or insulting, but we like to poke fun and give one another a hard time about things we do wrong.

My concern is that 90% of our clients who are very happy with our relationship are not referring. We want to implement an initiative to grab the attention of these clients and help them help us grow.

We are changing the name of our firm. We have recently acquired a couple of individual advisors who had run practices using their own names.

Once on Zoom, our new team member took a call from a friend. He didn’t mute fast enough, and we heard him say “Yuh, I’ll be there Saturday night.”

How do I manage my boss, who is not a nice person?

Now that people are going out and it is more normal, we’d like to do a client event.

What are some best practices for onboarding new team members in the advisory practices you see?

If clients are happy and my advisors are doing what they need to do, credentials are not necessary.

My problem is figuring out how best to share the details of my family’s issues with the other advisors in my firm.

We have had multiple conversations with our advisors about asking for more referrals. But our clients are older – in their 70s.

Do I let this go? Do I confront him? What if he makes it seem like I was the one who was guilty of the misunderstanding?

I am one of five partners at an advisory firm and the only female. I get paraded out whenever there are important prospects or firm-wide client events.

In the past few weeks, I have received numerous inquiries on how to improve empathy and listening skills for busy advisors.

How do we keep our teams motivated to keep looking and growing?

Is there a way to change an advisor’s mind who is pushing back so they can understand my view and see that it isn’t a negative but rather a positive?

We have found a number of candidates with great credentials on paper, but when we speak with them they don’t seem to be a good fit for what we’re building.

My advisors are pushing back on our fees. They are hearing from clients they believe they are paying too much for our services.

A woman to whom I was referred because she is facing a nasty divorce turns out to be a close acquaintance of mine.

How do we help our clients who are working parents (especially the working mothers) de-stress and manage their time better?

I lost one of my long-term clients over a political disagreement. He criticized the delayed openings in our state, yelled about the inflation that will be coming and then told me I didn’t even like Dr. Seuss!

What activities should we consider this year to replace the normal in-person dinners and client events we have always done?

How do you tell someone you work with they need to have better on-camera etiquette?

We are process crazy. Everything has a process – from small things like asking for vacation time to larger things like client onboarding.

I have had it with people putting their cute kids to their laps on Zoom and introducing their dogs and cats on camera so we can all ooh and aah about them.

How do you give difficult feedback to a junior advisor who is your son?

One of my senior advisors came yesterday unshaven and with his t-shirt that looked like he rolled out of bed on for the camera..

Everyone agrees that selling virtually is a whole different thing and most of us feel ill-equipped to do it well.

We have never had a situation where someone didn’t work out from a capability perspective or a cultural fit.

How do I make sure everyone is engaged and involved?

To organize your team and prepare for the year ahead, take your team through the steps.

The issue is that one of our advisors came to the event clearly drunk out of his mind, and another one became very rude, actually using slang terms that were insulting to people on the team and was a bit belligerent.

We have a lingering frustration that our senior partner was unwilling to take a stand and fire this consultant.

I want to formally plan and create enthusiasm for 2021. How can I manage this in a virtual setting?

What is the best way to redesign marketing materials to convey our message to a specific audience?

I get that we are all tired, but our clients don’t care.

I celebrated my birthday on November 3. Every year, I step back and take stock of what I have learned over the previous year. What insights or ideas can I bring to advisors for them to think about for the upcoming year?

It isn’t right for my firm’s partners to avoid dealing with each other and then make us the problem.

The advisor for whom I have worked is retiring, but nothing has been communicated about what’s going to happen to me.

Communication in our firm has come to a complete standstill.

How do I get my staff to realize they have the power to effect change and they don’t have to come to me with every single problem?

What do I do to raise my profile during this time of isolation?

People misconstrue things in public forums and I value my reputation. Do I simply ignore the social-media invites or respond to clients saying I don’t mix personal and business?

Stress has crept in to every corner of our profession and every job someone is trying to do.

How do we get our partners to see their behavior is hurtful to all of us? It achieves nothing and causes divisions.

There are many clients who might resist the fee increase but most of the ones I believe will do so would be fine if they left the firm.

How do I keep my team working together effectively in this remote environment?

We’re having virtual meetings. I insist everyone is on camera so we are seeing one another, but the ideas don’t flow.

How do I support the people working for me who are dealing with difficulty at home?

Should I be abandoning the idea of allowing everyone to work virtually if it is so disruptive to two of my best advisors?