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 hired a team member a couple of years ago who was very seasoned with an excellent background and a track record of success. He arrived, and all of a sudden he wasn’t motivated, didn’t return client calls in a timely fashion and had no fire in the belly. He wants ownership, but I need to see motivation to give it.
M.R.
Dear M.R.,
I can sense the frustration in your note to me, but I can’t find the question. Are you asking whether you should give ownership to this individual or not? If so, this is a key question facing many advisors. The industry is aging, and determining how to expand ownership and create a succession process is a problem many face. It’s really important to have a clear plan for taking someone from employee status to ownership. A clear path to partnership – from the outset – is critical.
This includes everything from defining the roles, the time and process of moving from one role to another, the specific activities expected in each role and the measurements for success. You say this person is “not so motivated” and “doesn’t return client calls.” I’d ask what criteria you are using to determine motivated versus not-so-motivated and whether this person knows the calls are his responsibility and that there is an expected timeframe for returning them.
We see far too many cases where the lead advisor or owner of the firm is too vague in outlining expectations. Offering your advisors or other employees ownership is a big step. You might know in your own mind what needs to happen for these people to deserve the ownership, but if you haven’t very clearly outlined that for each person, they may believe they are doing what’s necessary and become frustrated that they aren’t earning the ownership in return.
If you haven’t done so, develop a list of roles, required actions and accountabilities for each role, timeframes and measurements. Sit down with this person and review where they are and what they need to do to move along the path to ownership with you. Set regular check-ins – either every other week or monthly – to review progress. My guess is that there is a disconnect in communication and understanding. If you can become clearer with this person, you’ll both understand where he/she stands.
Dear Bev,
I hate performance review time. Everyone thinks they deserve more than they do. What can I do to manage expectations?
Keith M.
Dear Keith,
My inbox has been filled lately with difficult employee questions. Must be the summertime, and everyone is getting too laid back! Giving effective feedback, which is really what your question is about, is very important and few managers or firm leaders do it well.
First I’d ask you, why do your employee think they deserve more than you think they do? What’s the basis for the disconnect? Is it unclear goals and accountabilities? Is it that you’re not giving feedback except during the scheduled performance reviews? Is it that they have one set of measurements and you have another?
Similar to my advice to the other writer in this week’s column, I’d ask you to review what you have outlined to date for performance expectations in detail. Asking someone to “show enthusiasm” for example is very vague. How do you measure this? What if the definition of enthusiasm differs? You’d want to give examples: “You need to proactively identify 7 clients and reach out to them in the next month to talk about the changes in our investment process” would be clearer and more measurable. Think about what you need from the person and how you define success.
Next, find opportunities to can give real-time feedback so that it isn’t all saved for the formal performance review process. It is important both to catch people doing things right and to catch tme needing correction. Be sure to balance this though. Find something right alongside something that needs to be fixed. And be clear and direct in your comments. Illustrate the behavior you don’t want, but then be clear about what you do want. Both of you need to be able to “see” clearly what’s needed.
Giving effective feedback takes practice but if you find opportunities to do it on a more frequent basis, I believe you won’t dread these scheduled performance reviews. You’ll likely eliminate the surprises and therefore the frustrations you probably both experience.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. In 2008, she co-founded Advisors Trusted Advisor to offer dedicated practice management resources to advisors, planners and wealth managers. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate students Leadership & Social Responsibility. Beverly 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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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
