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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 Bev,
We have grown our team by 50% in the last five years. We went from 15 people to 30, a big jump. I know all firms experience growing pains, but ours run deep and cut clearly along generational lines. The young people simply don’t want to work that hard, while those of us who have been doing this for 20+ years are here late at night and checking emails on weekends. Right now, it’s like we have two classes of people: the younger, new ones, who don’t want to put in the time and effort, and the more established older ones who have already put in the time and effort and need to keep doing so.
Have you seen teams operate with two distinct groups who really don’t work together or collaborate well? I’m beginning to think we need to bifurcate what we do. Some of us are on the train to success, and some are on the work/life balance train, which may or may not actually ever arrive somewhere.
L.L.
Dear L.L.,
There is a lot to unpack in your note. To answer the core question you are asking, the answer is that I absolutely do not recommend creating two distinct groups within your team. You have grown significantly, and as you point out, growth has pain associated with it. I’m wondering if you have added people without allowing the team the chance to step back, find ways to collaborate most effectively, and integrate so each team member understands what everyone else is doing and expectations for their own roles.
I’ve seen situations where even on a small team — say, four people — adding a new person causes disruption, because every new person means change to the existing dynamics. Responsibilities, the way people interact with one another, expectations and more all change. Your firm has doubled in size over a short period to 30 people, which is a big shift.
As a first step, it sounds like maybe an offsite is in order. If you read my column, you know I am a proponent of following the SHIFT format:
- Get the team together to identify who you want to be as a team and what success looks like to you. Make sure everyone is headed toward the same outcome and cares about the same goals.
- Ask about what’s getting in the way — the obstacles. You talk about the younger people wanting work/life balance, which may be true. But could it also be they aren’t sure about their roles? Alternatively, they may not have the same level of responsibility on their plates to need to work late nights and weekends. Talking about obstacles in an objective fashion often allows people to uncover what’s really happening without being accusatory or judgmental.
- Know the team dynamics — the human factor. You talk about generational divide, but that’s not always what’s at work. The existing, longer-time, team members likely have their own processes they are content with. The newer people might have a different lens through which to see what could be changed, and what’s working well and what’s not. Try to find the common ground among you, rather than seeing the differences caused by age. Work to understand each other’s perspectives and view the world from different vantage points.
- Talk about options for change. If a big obstacle is that some people are working longer hours than others, look at the distribution of workload or the way requests are handled. What options might the team have for implementing new approaches that could shift the way the work is allocated amongst team members?
- Put a clear plan in place with action steps, responsibilities, timelines, and accountabilities. Schedule check-ins so you are continuing the dialogue and keeping everyone working together on making the shift happen.
This process will allow you to create dialogue about what’s happening and hopefully get everyone on the same page to work together.
Before you do this, however, I encourage you to reframe the way you are viewing behavior along generational lines. It’s very possible — with that as your “frame” — you are creating a divide within the firm that might not need to exist. I’m not saying you personally are doing this by yourself. I’m assuming there is a general perception among the longer-term team members that the younger ones are not pulling their weight. In my personal experience, it’s not often this is true. More commonly, younger team members don’t know where they belong, don’t feel as much a part of the team, and perhaps haven’t been given clear directives about what is expected. You may say none of that is true, and perhaps you are right. However, having a divide as severe and wide as you characterize and connecting it all to an age gap doesn’t seem feasible to me.
Try working on collaboration before you give up and people go deeper into their silos. The silo approach would not be good for your team members, nor, ultimately, would it be good for your clients.
Dear Bev,
I heard you speak recently on EQ (emotional intelligence) and its importance in leadership. What if your leader has an ego the size of the universe and won’t take any feedback, because they always think they are right?
Anonymous
Dear Team Member,
Emotional intelligence starts with self-awareness. This is why most change-oriented programs insist a person first take ownership of the fact that they have a problem. If I don’t see I need to shift something, I’m not likely to do it, because I think everything is fine! You can’t force anyone — including your leadership — to take ownership of something they don’t want to see.
It’s also not your job to ensure your leadership is self-aware. It’s your job to do your best to support them, as compromised as they may be. You always have a choice. You can stay where you are and do your best to be an active, engaged team member, helping as much as you possibly can. Or you can find somewhere else to be. I’m not being harsh by saying this: It’s just reality. Stop trying to get your leader to “see” something. That’s only going to get you in trouble in the long-term!
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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