Journal of Financial Planning: December 2020
Sarah E. Dale is the founder and president of Know No Bounds and a partner with Performance Insights. She works with clients to identify performance obstacles and drive their return on decisions to elevate success and maximize performance. She graduated from the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond and the Securities Industry Institute at the Wharton School of Business.
Krista S. Sheets is the founder of Performance Insights and president of Paragon Resources. She consults with teams on partnership viability, identifying team member roles and responsibilities that capitalize on each person’s talents, optimizing the team structure for efficient service, and minimizing practice management issues through proven processes.
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During business planning season, we always recommend spending time reflecting on the previous year as one element of preparing for the upcoming year. 2020 has clearly been an extraordinary and inconceivable year that, unless you are psychic, was not part of any plan we had for our business or personal life.
Recently, we heard an adviser suggest that planning was a waste of time as 2020 is a great example of how much is out of our control. “Why bother?” he asked. “The plan will just go out the window with the next crisis.” We would take the opposite viewpoint. 2020 should not deter us from investing time in planning; it may remind us to expect the unexpected but it also reminds us of how important it is to have long-term vision and short-term agility. Planning and readiness have become more important than ever.
The pandemic has affected almost every aspect of life—family, team, clients, business, the economy, mindset, wellness, and so much more. It sure has been a year filled with many teachable moments if we want to learn and not ignore. Out of the most challenging difficulties in life, there is always great opportunity. In this column, we’d like to challenge you by providing questions to help facilitate some strategic thinking, planning, and subsequent action as you prepare for the year ahead.
Do a Personal Check-Up
Let’s begin by looking at six key areas of wellness.
Physical wellness. How well did you take care of your physical well-being? When all the gyms closed, did you use creativity to stay physically active or does your scale reflect the COVID-19 pandemic weight gain?
Emotional wellness. Stress levels soared in 2020; how well did you take care of your mental well-being? What are your stress relievers that you will continue to maintain?
Relational wellness. Isolation proved grueling for many; an increase in family togetherness was a blessing for some and challenging for others. Whether family, friends, or colleagues, relationships were tested this year. How well did you maintain, support, and deepen the significance of your relationships?
Spiritual wellness. How did 2020 impact your beliefs, your values, and your faith? When churches and spiritual centers closed, did you find ways to fulfill your inner self or do you feel a spiritual void?
Work wellness. How well did you handle the changes that came in your career? How quickly did you adapt to working remotely? Did you make the best of working from home? Define your ideal productivity model now that you experienced this new workstyle—what will remain and what will you need to change to execute your responsibilities, knowing what you now know?
Financial wellness. How did the pandemic and 2020 impact your short- and long-term financial life planning? Did you and your family make any required adaptations and what may need to be made in the future?
As you reflect on these six wellness areas, consider these baseline questions:
- Assess. How did you do?
- Ascertain. What did you learn?
- Act. What will you differently? What are you committed to going forward?
Do a Team Check-Up
Let’s transition to assessing the elements that effect team dynamics. How well did everyone collaborate and commit to one another during the crisis? How well did you listen to each other, empathize, and consider everyone’s perspective and personal needs? How did the team structure hold up in a remote environment, compared to your in-office environment? How would you rate the decision-making and leadership during the crisis?
As you execute a team check-up, consider elements such as communication, workflow, efficiency, productivity, capacity, etc. Consider how well the team stayed unified versus divided or siloed. Consider how well team members stayed accountable to roles and responsibilities and how well tasks and projects were assigned and completed. Who stepped up and fueled productivity and who perpetuated stress? Consider how well the team initially responded to the crisis and then adjusted, when necessary, throughout 2020. Consider what you want to continue and those things you want to change. What did you and the team learn from this experience? How can the team better address future crises? Do you need to adjust your team’s rules of engagement for in-office and remote work? What commitments can you make as a team; what actions will you take?
Do a Business Check-Up
Next, begin to consider what you learned about your results and outcomes and any new insight into your clients and firm this year.
Consider outcomes. How would you rate your personal productivity during the pandemic? What value did you bring to the practice? Then consider business results. How would you rate overall team and business productivity? Consider how much new business was created, new assets uncovered, financial plans executed, and revenue growth achieved.
Consider client reactions and interactions during the pandemic. What did you learn about your clientele? Do you need to evolve your standards of care or your client experience? What changes, improvements, or personalized approaches do you need to make? How would you rate your ability to create client loyalty?
Consider your firm’s reaction during the pandemic. What lessons did you learn? How would you rate internal communication? Agility? Resources? Technology? Processes/systems? Readiness and responsiveness? Did the firm deliver on the ultimate associate experience? What feedback can you give to your leadership to help them improve in the future?
Assess-Ascertain-Act: Getting Started
We recommend you assess this year from three different perspectives to gain complete insight: individual, group, and leadership. We often need reminding that we are united yet unique—meaning, the team should be united by leadership through a vision and a plan, but each team member should be recognized as a unique individual. We are all different in so many ways (in terms of culture, generation, skillset, life experiences, etc.) and, subsequently, bring different perspectives. Understanding each team member and valuing each perspective is vital for the evolution and long-term existence of your business. You need to understand how each associate assesses oneself, each other, leadership, and the group’s results.
We recommend scheduling a meeting with your associates; set the stage for reflection and a strategic planning session. To optimize your time together, be sure to provide pre-work. You can review the questions we have provided in this article (and in the sidebar) to customize a list that makes sense for your practice. All associates should be empowered to participate and feel comfortable giving their input.
Top advisory and planning groups consistently execute a 360-degree team and business review as a best practice every year. You need candid and direct feedback, regardless of role, longevity, or hierarchy. All team members have a voice and each voice matters. Remind your associates that all criticisms should be constructive, delivered with respect and, subsequently, received in the spirit in which they are intended—personal, team, and/or business growth.
In an effort to ensure that you are always working on growing and improving efficiency, effectiveness, and the team dynamics, take time to reflect back over the year and identify successes and challenges; then look forward and brainstorm ideas for improvement. You want to consider what you learned about yourself, your team, your clients, and your firm—and adjust accordingly.
Remember, all teams have challenges. To optimize the people dynamic as well as business outcomes, we must put difficulties on the table and be willing to talk through them. Avoidance does not lead to personal or business growth. It’s time to assess how you did, ascertain what you learned and most importantly, take action to grow in 2021.
Additional Questions:
Additional Team Reflection Questions: As you reflect on each team member, how would you rate individual performance in their role during the pandemic? What is your perception of what they did well and what ideas do you have for improvement? What one thing could they do differently to make a difference to you and/or the team, and/or the client experience going forward?
Additional Self-Reflection Questions: As you reflect on 2020, what have you learned about yourself and your role? What are your big takeaways and how will you apply them to a future crisis? What will you change going forward? What specific goals have you set for yourself for the next 30, 60, and 90 days?