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Put Your Hand Up, Not Out

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Thanks to everyone who had comments on my March 6 post Free Advice From a Mentor, I have had some stimulating conversations.

One person who knows me well was surprised that I didn’t include one of my other oft-repeated golden rules: “Put your hand up, not out.”

I often advise others that they should seek more responsibility, not more pay.

Putting your hand out– asking for more pay because you want it, because you need it, because you’re worth it and doggone it, people like you– doesn’t create a value exchange for your boss or your company.

At least not a sustainable one. You might whine your way to one raise, but that’s rarely a repeatable strategy.

Putting your hand up– to volunteer for more responsibility, to help a colleague swamped with a huge project, to ask your boss if you can take a few things off of her plate– makes you immediately more valuable.

And it makes you the kind of person people want to help be successful.

Have faith that your generosity and increased value will be rewarded (or “monetized” in today’s e-parlance) in due course.

You may have to be a little patient about that. Don’t expect an immediate quid pro quo.

If you are convinced that your efforts will go unrewarded, you are in the wrong job, working for the wrong boss or at the wrong company. Maybe all three.

If that’s the case, a raise isn’t going to make it any better. Trust me.

Otherwise, take a chance.

Put your hand up.

ABA Wealth Management Conference

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Here are the sessions I am looking forward to over the next three days at the ABA Wealth Management Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. I’ll be back here next week with observations and potential implications on the intersection of leadership, advice an technology. Let me know if you’re going!

1) Financial Services in a Mobile World
Jon Bluth, Senior Vice President of Product Management, SunGard
Eileen VanScoy, Executive Vice President of Product Management, SunGard
The mobile landscape is rapidly evolving, and the financial services industry is striving to keep pace. Similar to the Internet’s early days, fragmentation, security concerns, legacy infrastructure, monetizing solutions and ROI considerations present challenges and opportunities that must be analyzed and addressed to fully capitalize on the sweeping changes brought about by an increasingly mobile world. This presentation looks at financial firms’ emerging and actual opportunities and risks in deploying mobile technology, and discusses various approaches they can take to cost-effectively and responsibly leverage its many benefits to their business and their clients.

2) Leveraging Operational Benchmarks To Achieve Sustainable, Profitable Growth
Michael Kostoff, Partner, WISE Gateway LLC
In these difficult economic times, it is clear that wealth management executives must “do more with less”–they must drive increased revenue growth while simultaneously reducing costs. This presentation will outline how managers can leverage operational performance benchmarking to accomplish this goal, and deliver profitable growth that is sustainable in any kind of economy.   Strategies for improving staff productivity, ensuring support structure cost efficiencies and enhancing sales performance will be discussed.

3) Family Wealth Management
Pat Armstrong, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Family Dynamics, Wells Fargo
Arne Boudewyn, Senior Vice President and Senior Director, Family Dynamics, Wells Fargo
This breakout is designed to explore strategies for engaging high net worth families in conversations about the qualitative, non-financial dimensions of wealth, sometimes referred to as the human, intellectual or social capital.  Drawing on research and best practices in the area of family dynamics, the presenters will focus their discussion on challenges and opportunities facing wealth advisors as they work with various family profiles on a range of business and estate planning concerns.   The presenters will illustrate how to surface and leverage family motivators through an interactive discussion with participants, highlighting conversation starters that can enhance the planning process.

4) Luncheon with Speaker

The Art of Vision
Erik Wahl

Your best sustainable edge in business is your ability to visibly differentiate yourself from your competition. The Art of Vision is an entertaining and highly practical program that uncovers new ways to make your organization more creative and ultimately more profitable. It is no longer enough to have good customer service and a good product. The truly great companies have altered the landscape to create a unique experience for the customer. Whether its sales, service or leadership principles; professionals at all levels can achieve superior performance by creatively differentiating themselves from the competition.

5) Expert Teams Produce Extraordinary Results

Stephen Doty, Investment Executive, Northeast Division, U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management

David R. McCune, Region Director, Wells Fargo Wealth Management Group 

HNW client demands are clear – they want to be served by a team of professionals. Clients seek a team of advisors with specific roles and complementary skills and talents, aligned and committed to a common purpose of putting the client first, and who consistently exhibit levels of creativity and collaboration that produce extraordinary results.  But how do we get teams to perform at this level? How do we integrate uniquely qualified individuals to think and act as a team? This interactive session will explore the philosophies that make the team approach successful and share actual experiences of a winning team.

6) General Session
Making it Personal – Relationships and Wealth Management

Joseph Michelli, PhD,
Author and Organizational Consultant

Delivering financial performance for your clients is not enough.  Learn the tools that will engage, retain, build loyalty, and grow referrals.

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7) Client Acquisition in a Wired World
Kathleen Pritchard,  Director, Head of Program Marketing and Customer Insights, Legg Mason
In today’s competitive business landscape, financial professionals who fail to leverage the power of the Internet to acquire new clients are doing themselves a serious disservice. By cultivating an online presence that showcases your specific expertise and service offering, you not only create opportunities to meet qualified prospects, but also build credibility and rapport that increases your chance of winning their business. Key topics include best practices for websites and email campaigns; building a network of contacts to facilitate referrals, both as an individual and a professional; using online search tools to identify potential clients, understand their individual needs/interests and use that information in initial meetings to open more new relationships; managing your online reputation; delivering a consistent message that reflects your value proposition; recognizing compliance concerns; and more. Also featured is a discussion on how financial professionals can enhance their client acquisition efforts by using popular online “social networking” services like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.



Free Advice From a Mentor

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(Note: When I wrote this early in my blog’s history, when I was a senior executive for a Fortune 150 financial services firm. Now with the added perspective of an entrepreneur and consultant, I find the words truer than ever.)

I have mentored dozens of young professionals over the years, and even though each situation is unique, I always end up giving these three pieces of advice. It’s not like I planned it all out, or even wrote it out before now, but here they are:

  1. There is no secret handshake
  2. Focus on getting better, not getting credentials
  3. It all starts with you

There is no secret handshake

The CEO of a venture-backed technology company whom I know well once asked me: “Do you ever get the feeling that when someone comes to you for career advice, what they’re really looking for is the secret handshake?” 

Yes, I have gotten that feeling.

My best mentoring relationships have involved mentees who truly want to improve their performance, learn new skills, take on more responsibility or just learn more about what a potential career path might look like for them.

The best way to ensure that a mentoring relationship with me is short (and not particularly rewarding for either of us) is to mistake it as an opportunity to simply learn the secret handshake.

Do you really think I’ll hire you or connect you with someone merely because you want more money or a better title?

Put some clothes on that naked ambition, you’ll catch a cold.

Focus on getting better, not getting credentials

I often get questions like “Should I get an MBA (or any one of the alphabet soup of certifications in the financial industry: CFA, CFP®, CIMA, CTFA, etc.)?”

My consistent answer to all who ask is that if you want to learn more about that particular area and want to study it deeper, go for it. I’m a big believer of continuous learning, and earlier in my career I worked to get an MBA and put a few initials after my own name.

On the other hand, if you think that simply tacking those initials after your name will open a whole new world for you, you will probably be disappointed.

I still remember a soon-to-be-freshly-minted MBA who wanted to ‘remind’ me that he would have this very important graduate degree by the time of his next performance review, and that he hoped that would qualify him for a promotion.

I ‘reminded’ him that he was still the same person with the same level of performance, so probably not.

It all starts with you

This is kind of a two-for-one. First, I mean that before you start on any exploration of future paths, you need to understand your strengths, your passions, what gives you energy and what saps you dry.

I also mean that the whole process of working with a mentor isn’t a passive activity of absorbing second-hand knowledge through osmosis.

I was very proud and excited when my company asked me a few years ago to participate in the pilot of a program called MentorConnect, kind of an internal match.com to put mentors and mentees together based on specific skills and experiences.

I learned to start by asking mentees to share any relevant standardized test results they may have taken recently (Meyers-Briggs, PDI, StrengthsFinder, DiSC, etc.), and if they didn’t have any, I had them start with StrengthsFinder 2.0. Not only did this help give the mentee and me a logical starting place, it helped to quickly identify those who were only looking for the secret handshake. Those types often would not do the work.

I also recall the bright young assistant who was referred to me by her boss for some career advice a few years ago. She wasn’t sure what she wanted, but she was sure she should be higher in the organization by now. I took her to lunch, and we talked for an hour and a half. I gave her a couple of books to read for our subsequent meetings. I must have followed up three of four times when I ran into her, but she hadn’t quite found the time to even buy the books, let alone read them.

I guess I wasn’t completely surprised when she dropped by a couple of months later to let me know she was quitting the firm.

She was going to work on her MBA.

And no doubt continue her quest for that elusive secret handshake.

…and They Don’t Hire Advisors Very Well Either

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In my February 25th post They Can Always Spend More… I referenced several massive financial failures of the rich and famous. Forbes continued the hit parade yesterday in Robert Laura’s article What Broke Athletes And Celebrities Can Teach Retirees:

The statistics are startling:  Sports Illustrated estimates that 78% of former National Football League players are bankrupt or under financial stress within two years of retirement.  An estimated 60% percent of former National Basketball Association players are broke within five years of retirement, and recently a host of MLB players fell victim to an alleged ponzi scheme at the hands of Robert Allen Stanford.

Laura offers this advice for retirees:

If they’re not meeting expectations or able to illustrate the value they add to your relationship, then start shopping for a free agent.

How many of your clients are shopping for a free agent right now?

In countless surveys, “I don’t hear from my advisor often enough” is typically the top reason clients leave or consider leaving their advisor.

In my February 14th post How Sticky Are Your Relationships? I noted that Valentine’s day was a great day to reach out to your clients (just like any other day).

Today is Leap Day, truly a quadrennial opportunity to reach out and keep yourself off of the free agent list.

They Can Always Spend More…

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Whitney Houston may have been broke before she died, and now her estate may have problems.

NBA star Allen Iverson may be broke, too.

And as this story in today’s Huffington Post relates, he has lots of familiar company in Mike Tyson, Lenny Dykstra, Dorothy Hamill, Terrell Owens and many, many others.

In 2009, Sports Illustrated ran a story called How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke, which tells the tales of woe of several athletes, and details some of the common causes of high profile bankruptcies.

My personal favorite is the story of MC Hammer’s bankruptcy. One of many causes was the construction of a $30 million mansion. I remember reading at the time that Mrs. Hammer had the architect tear down and rebuild their marble and gold-fixtured master bath, not once, but twice, because it simply wasn’t fabulous enough. The architect knew something was wrong when she got an unexpected call from Mrs. Hammer asking how much money they could save by cutting back to ceramic tile and stainless steel fixtures…

What’s the lesson here for financial advisors?

No matter how much your clients make–

and you can add as many zeroes as you like–

they can always spend more.

I learned that lesson first hand as a young private banker. Wealthy clients never have a shortage of hangers-on and would-be beneficiaries, and they multiply exponentially if your client is famous.

I remember several years ago, sitting at the kitchen table with a 17 year old high school student and her mom because the student’s boyfriend, my 23 year old major league baseball player client,  wanted to buy a new house. It’s probably more accurate to say that the girl’s mother wanted him to buy a new house. “Joint tenants with rights of survivorship” she instructed me to title the property.

I was disgusted with the entitled way the girl’s mother treated the player. They had ordered pizza before I arrived, and when the doorbell rang she slapped the player on the chest with the back of her hand and held out her open palm. He dutifully reached into his wallet and gave her money to pay for everyone’s pizza.

I was not surprised when the player called me the next day and said “put the house in my name as sole owner”.

I was also not surprised that he left the girl and her mother behind when he was traded to a new team later in the season.

Famous or not, your clients are likely to have a lot of open palms held in front of their faces. While they may need a good financial plan, a comprehensive estate plan and appropriate asset allocation to help make sure money lasts, the one thing they may need most is a rational voice in their ear.

That should be you.

No matter how much they make, they can always spend more…

See also: …and They Don’t Hire Advisors Very Well, Either.