It's no secret that during major societal disruptions — such as the current pandemic — sound leadership is essential to successfully working our way through uncharted territory.
As we're learning, this is true at the national level, for state governments and in businesses, both large and small, including independent advisory firms.
Most owners of advisory firms start at a disadvantage. Their professional training is largely focused on personal finance rather than the business leadership and administration schooling of executives at most large corporations.
Consequently, I spend a significant amount of time and effort helping owner-advisor clients become better leaders. This, in large part, involves finding a "leadership style" that's right for them and their businesses.
Where to Start?
Leaders, such as advisory-firm business owners, seem to base their leadership style around their strengths: a deep knowledge of the financial services industry, an entrepreneurial bent and strong people skills, which have helped them to attract and keep clients.
While these skills are essential to successfully launching a business, they're less helpful when you're trying to run that business.
For instance, as a business grows, each of these areas becomes important to continued growth. Unless business owners intends to work in their home or professional office 24/7, they're going to have to delegate some — or even all — of those responsibilities to their staff members.
Consequently, it's better for leaders to base their leadership style around their team's strengths and weaknesses — including their own — and give employees the support and resources they need to do their jobs more successfully.
