Page 36 - Investment Advisor - December 2023

tasks related to but not as critical as the
real challenge.
It’s easy to understand why. In human
psychology, the struggle to perceive and
comprehend issues accurately is known
as a self-awareness deficit. It can hinder
self-reflection and personal insight.
A similar dynamic applies to firm
leaders. Seeing what a firm really needs
to do to achieve its business goals can be
very difficult.

IdentIFYInG ProBleMs
But seeking quick fixes rather than
searching for and understanding the
greater challenges doesn’t help leaders or
their ability to better manage their busi-
nesses. What does help leaders achieve
practice management success is making
the decision and commitment to better As you focus on a new year, commit to
understand true business problems.
Financial advisors and firm leaders prioritizing how you can enhance, build
are used to being experts. Every day,
they recommend solutions that can and and develop leadership abilities. Don’t
do improve their clients’ financial lives.
Thus, it can be hard for them to pivot spend your time being the all-knowing
from being a solution giver to being a
problem identifier. solution giver.
A solution giver says things like: “We
need a better client experience. We need We spent just over a month develop- Instead, that time could have been
to acquire a firm. We need to build a new ing a new partnership compensation used addressing communication issues
compensation model for our talent.” plan. A month later, when it still was not among partners, strategic business plan-
A problem identifier might say: “We implemented, we started questioning ning to get aligned and focused on cohe-
have a low close ratio. We have conflicts why. Finally, nearly three months after sive firm goals, and helping each partner
with partners. We have high employee we started this process, the firm’s leader address conflict in a productive and
turnover. Our lead ratio has fallen.” admitted the real problem. open way.
Just like putting the horse before Think about this in terms of wasted Behind every great business is great
the cart, identifying the problem first time and resources. How much time leadership, the essential quality that
and then implementing the solution is could have been saved by the firm leader makes firms stand out and succeed.
the most effective way to solve practice if he’d chosen to be solution oriented, As you focus on a new year, commit to
management problems. rather than problem driven? prioritizing how you can enhance, build
The client I mentioned earlier had and develop leadership abilities. Don’t
put the cart before the horse. He wanted lessons leArned spend your time being the all-knowing
an executive compensation plan — a Unfortunately, when it comes to prac- solution giver.
solution he identified before zooming tice management issues, leadership If you work on skills tied to identify-
in on the firm’s most pressing problem. missteps are the greatest barrier to mov- ing the real problems at your firm — and
When the comp plan failed to launch, ing ahead toward workable solutions. what’s really holding your team back —
the firm leader was forced to recognize Had the leader decided to discuss the you should find that many of your practice
the firm’s real problem. Yet identifying firm’s deepest problem, rather than tak- management issues will disappear.
the problem, as uncomfortable as it was, ing a task-focused approach, would we
presented us with the opportunity to have spent an entire quarter focused on Angie Herbers is an independent consultant to
help the client’s firm and his partners to developing a new partnership compen- the advisory industry. She can be reached at Adobe Stock
address what they were avoiding. sation program? Likely not. [email protected].

34 Investment AdvIsor December 2023 | ThinkAdvisor.com