Articles About Financial Advisor Personal/Career Development

Being a financial advisor is complex, whether in an employee role working with clients, or as an entrepreneur building an advisory firm. Success requires drawing on a wide range of strengths and talents, to the point that as an advisory firm grows, it’s eventually necessary to hire more people and build teams to round out the services provided and ensure that everything is getting done that needs to be done.

Unfortunately, though, for many advisors building a team is difficult, for the simple reason that as human beings we tend to like and build rapport with those who are very similar to us… yet in most cases, the best hires we can make (or partners we can work with) are those who have complementary skills that support us, not a skillset that merely duplicates what we already do. In other words, the people we tend to most want to hire are the people just like us who we should really not be hiring (unless you're really, truly trying to hire your replacement)!

Accordingly, an increasingly common “best practice” for hiring and building teams is to use various types of “personality profiles” – assessment tools that help us to better understand our strengths and weaknesses, and the strengths and weaknesses of others, to build teams where the whole can be worth more than the sum of the parts.

At the same time, though, personality profiles can also help us reflect upon our own strengths and abilities, understand if our own career track has gotten off track, or whether our businesses need to be reshaped to put in a different position where we can play a more productive role. The simple goal of it all in the end – by spending as much time as we can focusing on our strengths and doing what we do best, the happier we will likely be, and the more success we can find!

In point of fact, I am often asked how I’m able to be so productive in everything that I do amongst my various businesses… and the answer is that I’ve spent a great deal of time and energy over the past several years trying to continually reshape my roles to play to my strengths, and to manage my weaknesses by hiring staff to delegate to, or partners to work with. In today’s article, I highlight some of the personality/work-style profiling tools – from Myers Briggs (MBTI), to Kolbe, to StrengthsFinder – that have helped me to find the path that I have… and I hope they’re helpful to guide you to find your highest and best use, too!

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The past century in the US (and much of the western world) has witnessed the rise of the "Culture of Personality" where Americans increasingly focus on how others perceive them; the extroverted ideals of charisma, salesmanship, and an outgoing nature as celebrated as key traits of leadership, and introverts are... well, encouraged to be more like extroverts.

Yet a growing base of research suggests that the extroverted ideal may not be all it's cracked up to be. While extroverted leaders tend to have bigger salaries than introverts, they don't necessarily produce better business results, and in fact some suggest today's increasing focus on extroverted leadership may be leading to an increased amount of risk-taking and reward-seeking behavior (behaviors correlated to extroversion) amongst the highly extroverted executives of some of the biggest companies in the world. In turn, a recent new book entitled "Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking" makes the point that perhaps we should get better at recognizing the value of introverts as well.

Notwithstanding the rise of the introverts, within the context of financial planning in particular, it seems that the extrovert ideal still reigns supreme, given the focus of financial planning as a "relationship business" that necessitates extensive interaction and deep bonds between advisors and clients. Yet even here, the reality is that despite misconceptions, introverts are not necessarily shy, and introversion is not necessarily about being antisocial but simply about interacting differently in social environments; in fact, the preference of introversions for more intimate one-on-one settings suggests that introverts might even be especially well suited to form the deep personal connections that support some of the best financial planning relationships!

As a strong introvert myself (yes, it's true!) I find the growing research around introverts to be quite fascinating, and the more I look around the more I find that financial planning may be populated with far more introverts than anyone might have first suspected. But in the end, whether you're an introvert yourself, or simply trying to figure out how to better work with, manage, or relate to one, Susan Cain's "Quiet: The Power of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking" is a fascinating read with a fresh perspective on what introverts can bring to the table, and how introverts can try to function better in what - at least for now - is still a very extrovert-centric environment.

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Once again, the school season is wrapping up around the country, and it's time for a slowdown in the advisory business, summer vacations, and a lot (or at least a little!) more time for relaxing and reading books.

As an avid reader myself, I know I'm always eager to hear suggestions of good books to read, and I suspect many of you are often looking for ideas as well. Accordingly, I maintain a list of my top recommended books for financial advisors, and last year I launched my first "Summer Book Reading List" that was very well received, so I'm updated it again this year (at least, for those of you who are up for reading non-fiction books for fun!). The 2014 edition includes a wide range, from a few books about marketing and practice management, to a couple in the realm of psychology and behavioral finance, and a few other non-fiction reads as well.

I hope that you find this suggested reading list to be helpful... and that you share your own suggestions of what you're reading in the comments at the end of this blog post!

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For all those financial advisors who feel like they are struggling with their time management and productivity in the face of an increasingly complex advisory business, there's good (or at least affirming) news: you are not alone. As the results of the latest FPA Time Management and Productivity Study show, only a mere 13% of advisors report that they feel in complete control of their time, while 3-in-4 advisors are working more than 40 hours a week, and more than 1/3rd are working 50+ hours every week!

So how can advisors regain some control of their time and productivity? The FPA's research finds that strategies for success are focused around three broad categories: strategic focus, structural efficiency, and personal productivity. The first category is about having a clear plan for where the business is going (and what you want to get out of it personally); the second category is all about process, workflow, and team support; and the key to the last is creating structure to your daily and weekly life to regain control of your schedule. And notably, while many advisors seem to focus on the last two categories, it's the first that may actually be the most important; in other words, just as with our own clients, it's hard to implement effective steps to improve our (business or financial) lives if we don't have a good (business or financial) plan to help guide us where we're going in the first place!

Ultimately, the FPA research finds that the key to time management is not merely about spending less time in the business, but instead is about spending more time on the right tasks in the business; in fact, advisors "in control" of their time actually schedule significantly more meetings throughout the year - to the tune of another 50 client meetings, 10 prospect meetings, and 5 center-of-influence meetings - and do so by effectively focusing their business, their infrastructure and support, and their personal time, in the direction of those "highest and best use" tasks; the rest are either eliminating with business focus, delegated with team support, or managed with some structure to the day to avoid letting those necessary tasks become overwhelming. For those still struggling to figure out how to make these improvements, the FPA study provides a healthy list of tips and strategies to try to improve your situation. Overall, though, the clear theme of the research is to recognize the simple fact that for advisors, it's "control your business, or your business will control you."

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As the ranks of CFP certificants are on the rise, the CFP certification is increasingly transitioning from a "nice to have" designation to the minimum standard for financial planners. Yet as the popularity and adoption of CFP certification grows, simply having one is no longer the differentiator that it once was. Instead, advisors are increasingly faced with pressure to move beyond "just" the CFP marks, and explore "post-CFP" education to truly demonstrate expertise and differentiate.

Fortunately, the reality is that just as there are a growing number of CFP educational programs, there is also a growing range of post-CFP educational programs available, too. Ironically, though, trying to navigate the 'alphabet soup' of available programs can be as difficult for advisors choosing a credible program as it is for consumers choosing a credible advisor! Nonetheless, from designations designed to deepen subject matter expertise, to those built outright to support a standalone niche unto itself, there are a large number of choices available to those who have completed CFP certification and are now asking"what's next?"

In today's blog post, we look through the list of the more credible programs that are available, from advanced designations in financial planning, wealth management, investments, and retirement, to niche educational programs for working with doctors, divorcees, or the LGBT community, and more. Have you considered what your next step will be in your post-CFP studies?

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Making decisions is a fundamental part of life; in fact, it's almost daunting to consider how many decisions we actually make just to navigate our day-to-day lives, not to mention the weightier decisions that have to be made from time to time. Yet despite the crucial nature of making good decisions, most people have little if any framework or process around how decisions are made, except perhaps for creating basic lists of "pros" and "cons" that in practice often do little more than confirm the decision we already intended to make.

In the book "Decisive" noted authors Chip and Dan Heath take a deep dive into the research around decision-making, including both the shortcuts our brains typically take to make decisions (so that we are not rendered paralyzed by the volume of decisions to be made on a day-to-day basis) to the best practices in how to actually craft and effective decision-making process and when necessary avoid the shortcuts that may be helpful for routine decisions but can be destructive when misapplied in more important situations.

From the ideas of multitracking potential solutions to adopting a devil's advocate (or at least a culture that encourages them), what results is an excellent and inspirational book about how to change your own approach to making decisions, along with some ideas about how you might apply the concepts in your business and with your clients. As the authors clearly illustrate, even for those of us who pride ourselves on the depth of our analytical skills, the reality is that good process trumps good analysis - and notably, good process may lead to better analysis as well!

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Helping professions like financial planning often attract "Givers" - people who are naturally inclined to put others before themselves and help those people to succeed. Yet the challenging reality for many helping professions is that often the practitioners go so far out of their way to help others that they undermine their own careers and success in the process. When comparing Givers who tend to focus on others, and Takers who put themselves first, it's no surprise that those at the bottom of the success ladder are often a group of burned out and worn out Givers.

Yet recent research from Wharton Professor Adam Grant made a startling discovery; while the bottom of the success ladder is populated by Givers, the top of the ladder is also dominated by Givers! In other words, the traits that lead some people to be Givers who are taken advantage of lead others who are also Givers to propel themselves to success. Accordingly, in his research Grant digs further to identify what the key traits are that separate the successful Givers from the unsuccessful ones, and how anyone can set themselves on a more successful path.

Although the book is written as a guide for success in any business context, the lessons of Grant's research are certainly relevant for financial planners in particular, from how to help those experiencing burnout, to making slight changes in your Giver behavior to keep from "being a doormat," to how to shift the Takers in your business to act more like Givers for the benefit of the team. Ultimately, changing one's style of interacting with others is difficult - the implications of Grant's research are profound, but certainly not a cure-all. Nonetheless, what emerges is some interesting clarity about why some financial planners seem to build growing, successful businesses, while others stay mired in a practice that can't seem to get ahead.

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Many readers of this blog contact me directly with questions and comments. While often the responses are very specific to a particular circumstance, occasionally the subject matter is general enough that it might be of interest to others as well. Accordingly, I will occasionally post a new "MailBag" article, presenting the question or comment (on a strictly anonymous basis!) and my response, in the hopes that the discussion may be useful food for thought.

In this week's MailBag, we look at a question about how best to transition as a career changer into financial planning, the issues to consider, and some best first steps to take.

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As the school season wraps up around the country, it's time for summer vacations to get underway, and along with them a lot of time for relaxing and reading books.

As an avid reader myself, I know I'm always eager to hear suggestions of good books to read, and I suspect many of you are often looking for ideas as well. Accordingly, I'm sharing my own list of 10 "summer reading books for financial planners" (at least, for those of you who are up for reading non-fiction books for fun!), from business and professional self-improvement books to the latest in behavioral finance and investment theory.

I hope you find this book list to be helpful... and that you share your own suggestions of what you're reading in the comments at the end of this blog post!

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