Page 41 - Investment Advisor March 2021
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THE FAST TRACK
By Angie Herbers
5 Questions to Help You Define Success
After 20 years of working with advisors, I’ve learned how the best advisors
guide their businesses. Here are some of their secrets.
’m celebrating 20 years as a consul- change their firm culture to continue
tant to financial advisors this year, to align with their definition of success.
Iand I’ve learned a lot about how to With that said, these are the five
run a successful advisory firm in those questions to ask when you need to
two decades. define what success means to you.
My own success has taught me some Hopefully, these questions will help you
things, but much of what I’ve learned celebrate and recalibrate your efforts
comes from observing how some of the going forward.
industry’s best advisors grew their com-
panies. These businesses understood 1. WHAT KIND OF SERVICE DO YOU
how to define success, and they did so WANT TO PROVIDE CLIENTS?
by answering five key questions. Why do advisors decide to leave
In fact, when we talk about success the comfort and safety of regular
with our clients, we often come back to employment to start their own busi-
the same five questions. No matter how nesses? Largely because they have a
When we talk about long we’ve worked together, those five desire to work with their clients in a
questions help guide our clients to the
specific way.
success with our decisions on how to direct their advi- Their old employer, for whatever
clients, we often come sory business. reason, didn’t give them the flexibility
to provide client support in the way
It’s important to come back to the
back to the same five same questions, because consistency they thought was best, so they started
a business to give themselves that con-
helps advisory firm owners assess if
questions. … [which] they’ve altered their own definition of trol. Even though many advisors offer
help guide our clients success. If the benchmarking process is similar services, each advisor gets to
decide on the unique way they deliver
the same but the answers are different,
to the decisions for we know change needs to happen in the these services.
Understanding the kind of client ser-
how to direct their leadership of the business. vice you want to provide is the first step
advisory business. CHANGING CULTURE to knowing what direction works best
When an owner’s definition of success for your unique talents.
changes, their culture often chang-
es along with it. And keep in mind 2. WHAT KIND OF WORKING
that the wealth management industry ENVIRONMENT DO YOU WANT?
is changing rapidly — moving away A working environment can also
from what it’s been for decades. When be described as a firm’s culture.
you find yourself in a rapidly chang- Everything about how a company
ing environment, culture can make or operates can impact its culture, from
break a firm. how much vacation time employees get
Unfortunately, many leaders don’t to the expectations for working hours
realize they’ve changed — and as a each day.
result, they don’t realize they have to As a business leader, you need to
MARCH 2021 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 39
