Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
Dear Bev,
We had a summer party with our entire RIA. Most everyone was able to attend and it was a beautiful day. Our firm has been having a great year this year — increases in new clients, AUM, and fees. Most of us expected our owners, three individuals, to acknowledge our accomplishments and even celebrate with us. The event was held at one of their homes, currently valued at $6.2 million, so we all know the owners are doing well. We haven’t had raises of any significance in many years, and often our bonuses are reduced because of “market conditions” (their words, not mine).
We all went with anticipation and expectations, which I guess was our first mistake. We left sorely disappointed. The only message we received were a reminders that the end of the year is the busiest and most demanding time (as if we don’t already know this), and we shouldn’t think about taking time off unless we coordinate to ensure there is coverage.
We don’t have an HR person or employee advocate, so there is no one to talk to about this. I don’t love this job, but I need it. I don’t want to rock the boat, but it seems important to let our leadership know how de-motivated this event made everyone.
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
I’m sorry to hear this happened. You have all likely been working very hard to achieve such success, and it wasn’t unreasonable to have some expectations of recognition and maybe even a celebration of that success. That said, I agree that philosophically it’s best to attend an event with no expectations and be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed! A general life lesson, for sure.
I’m going to assume your leaders thought they were celebrating you and your colleagues by holding the summer party. You did not mention if this is an annual event or solely a one-off this year, so I don’t know if this is your norm. But even a home-based event costs money. My daughter recently looked into having her wedding at her in-laws' house instead of a paid venue and found the cost of renting everything for use at one’s home was much more than having a venue take care of it all.
I say this because you might be underestimating how much planning, thought, and work went into the event for your team. It’s possible your leaders were trying to send a message of “thanks” to everyone, with everything they had to organize and arrange for this.
I don’t know your leaders’ style, but it isn’t uncommon for successful people in charge to have the mantras of “more” and “focus!” They might think they are motivating and encouraging you all to stay upbeat and focused during a busy time of the year. There might be no nefarious intent underlying this, either.
All of this said, I don’t know your leaders — you do. I can’t read minds from afar or presume someone’s motivations when I know nothing about them. However, I can offer a counter-perspective, which can sometimes be helpful when you are wrestling with difficult emotions and still have to show up, do your job, and interact with your leaders every day.
Consider some of what I’ve said and if it fits, use it. If it doesn’t, you have a choice to continue to be bothered and stew, to say something and run the risk of backlash, to say something and hope it lands positively, or to move on. Those are all of the things in your control.
There is one last point I want to make, and this comes from being in this business as long as I have. I’m sure your founders do very well and can enjoy the benefits of the success of the RIA they own and run. Looking up the cost of your owner’s home and equating that to anything about his/her wealth could be dangerous. I’ve seen plenty of million-dollar plus homes empty of furniture because the buyers put everything into the house and have themselves mortgaged beyond belief. I’m not saying this is your advisor. Rather, I’m saying you have to be careful about making assumptions about people — of any kind. It doesn’t do anyone any good.
Dear Bev,
We are planning an end-of-the-year goal-setting meeting in early October. Traditionally, it has been the five senior leaders (two lead advisors; the head of client service, “Sally”; the head of investments, “Frank”; and me, as head of operations).
Our team is only eight people, so this year one of our leaders wants to include everyone in the planning. I’m wary of this, because I know there are issues our team experiences that my advisors don’t even know about. My colleagues Sally and, more tangentially, Frank are well aware because many of the issues stem from poor decisions made by our advisors and implemented before being fully considered. The three of us do a very good job in our roles of keeping the two groups apart and running a fairly smooth firm, despite our founders’ idiosyncrasies.
Frank and Sally believe we should just say “no” to the suggestion. I’m concerned if we do this, our founders will wonder why the team wouldn’t want to have a voice. Is there a way to navigate this to keep the fragile peace we have worked hard to build over the last five years?
O.C.
Dear O.C.,
You, Frank, and Sally find yourselves in what I fondly refer to as “translator” roles. These roles are critically important because they are often the bridge between senior leadership — their wants, needs, and desires (and yes, sometimes their idiosyncratic approaches) — and the people who need to get the work done and what they need to know in order to stay motivated and engaged. It is a tough balance to strike, and you sound as if you are doing it quite well.
Rather than take either the yes or the no approach, I suggest you offer a middle ground. You can make the case that it would be hard for the three more junior people to jump into these conversations, having no context for these meetings in the past. You can also point out the difficulty in having an entire team of eight people away from the phones and email during this meeting.
Suggest that you send a note to the three junior people in advance of the meeting that asks the following questions. (You or Sally will collect the answers.)
- What is working well in the firm that you’d like to keep in place?
- What areas offer opportunities for improvement, and what specifically would you suggest to improve these areas?
- What are the top three obstacles you face in doing your job day-to-day?
- What’s the most important thing you’d like leadership to know about your experience working here?
If you or Sally collect these, you can modify any responses you think might be inflammatory and collate the rest. This could be an excellent exercise in general because while you believe you are hearing everything from team members, you don’t know for sure. This could give you a window into things you also need to understand for the betterment of the team’s experience.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry, in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. The firm has won the Wealthbriefing WealthTech award for Best Training Solution for 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching Executive MBA students Leadership and Managing Teams. She 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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Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.