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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
Dear Readers,
As the spring session for my graduate class, Leadership Lab, comes to a close I am in Chicago working with middle management leaders in the financial advisory space on leading teams. It seems appropriate at this time to offer some reminders about simple things you can do to be a better leader for your team.
Remember that leaders come in all shapes and sizes. They do not have to be the person at the top of the pyramid. Leading from the side — and even from behind — can be just as effective as being the senior person in charge. Leadership is both a mindset and a series of actions to take to show your team you care and you are working on their behalf.
Below are five tips on how to be a strong leader, no matter your role:
- Know the end goal and articulate it. As many times as I have said this in my career is as many times as I’ve seen leaders neglect to do this. Stating your intention to “increase assets,” “identify more client referrals,” or “implement new technology” doesn’t cut it. None of these is a rallying cry to get teams excited and working together effectively. When you think about goals, and the outcomes you are all striving toward, think both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Paint a picture for your team of what success really looks like. Imagine yourselves celebrating outcomes and enjoying the wins that come from reaching goals together. What would be involved? What evidence will there be when you reach the outcomes? What will excite and motivate the team? Clearly knowing where you are headed, defining it, and communicating it are key to getting your team to work together. - Understand the needs of each person on your team. This is the case whether you have a team of one or two people, or you have a team of hundreds (in which case, you should have team leads and other leaders overseeing smaller subsets of people). Every person wants to be known and understood. It’s a human need in both personal and professional relationships.
As a leader, you can’t motivate people and engage them if you don’t know what matters to them. Money is important, and paying at or above market rates to find, develop, and keep good people is key. However, that’s often not enough. Knowing what’s happening in someone’s life, providing support and accolades for a job well done, inquiring about what else is needed to be successful — all of these things matter to every person on your team. Feeling undervalued and unrecognized will almost always mean your top performers and solid team members start looking elsewhere. Take the time to get to know the people you’re leading. You might find you enjoy working with them even more, too. - Identify obstacles to success. I talk about this often when we share my SHIFT Model with clients. Even if you don’t walk through the entire process, continuing to ask your team about obstacles helps you know where the problems might lie. From there, you can plan around them.
Your team is connected at the source and sees things to which you likely don’t have access. Many leaders don’t want to hear about the problems or issues, but that’s not what you should ask about anyway. Ask about obstacles. Obstacles are removable, and if you don’t know where they are, they will interrupt your plans every time. - Be consistently self-reflective. In their final reflections on what they’ve learned about leadership, my students consistently reference the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) and self-awareness. They come to class assuming leaders are forthright, direct, and great public orators. They leave realizing great leaders are introspective; know their strengths and where they can improve; and know where and how to lean on others.
Looking in the mirror and asking yourself what you could do better sends a message to your team that they should do the same. Model this behavior for your team. The point is not to beat yourself up, but to find the areas you are strongest and strengthen them further. From there, you can work on the areas where your skills are not serving you as well as they could.
- Commit to continuous learning. In class, we talk about the top ten traits of great leaders. Some are obvious, like setting vision, implementing strategy, and communicating well. But one always stands out because it isn’t talked about as much — dedication to continuous learning. Leaders don’t get to the top and stop.
In fact, the higher you go in an organization and the more leadership responsibilities you take on, the more you should care about continually pushing yourself to learn. Learn about the dynamics on your team, within your company, in your industry, and in the economy and the world in general. What trends are there? What risks and opportunities exist? Great leaders also learn from their team members. Ask good questions and listen with an open mind to what you hear. Be a lifelong student.
These are all areas a good leader could commit to exploring and implementing right away. Consider what you are already doing well and keep doing it. But you should also strive to find that one area that might give you a leadership edge, so you can continue to grow as a leader and inspire your team toward important outcomes.
Read more from Beverly Flaxington:
Give Your Colleagues the Chance to Show You Who They Are
Avoid Pressuring Clients to Help Grow Your Practice
How to Understand What Really Matters to Your Clients
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, and 2025. Beverly is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University, teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading 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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