Building a Dream Team for Long-Term Success – Episode 26
Advisors today understand the importance of having a great team in place to support them and grow their practice. Unfortunately, many of those advisors don’t know how to build such a team.
That’s because they’re essentially “accidental CEOs.” They didn’t become advisors to hire and motivate employees, but they find themselves needing to do exactly those things in order to achieve the success they seek.
And as we’ve seen, being an accidental CEO can lead to challenges and problems that hold advisory practices back.
The good news: There are steps you can take to transform your team all the way to pinnacle of success—the dream team.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- There are four evolutionary levels to advisor teams—the pinnacle being the dream team.
- Your key mission: motivate, engage and execute.
- Implement nine accelerators to move your people to the dream team level.
FACE THE FACTS
Step one is to understand the four evolutionary stages of team development
Exhibit 1: The Hierarchy of World-Class Team Performance
- Dysfunctional team. Teams at stage 1 are characterized by chaos, confusion and lack of clarity in roles and goals. If you find yourself here, focus on providing clear direction and training in team management.(The good news: Just 14.3% of advisors surveyed by CEG Insights categorized their teams as dysfunctional.)
- High-performance individuals. Stage 2 involves top-tier talent who work effectively but in silos. To progress, foster a unified team ethos and encourage collaboration. (These are the 42.9% of teams, advisors report.)
- High-performance team. In stage 3, the team makes collaborative efforts toward common goals but is still potentially hindered by complacency. Push past the “good enough” barrier to avoid stagnation.(A sizable 31.8% of advisors call their teams high-performance.)
- Dream team. Stage 4 is the pinnacle of success, where team members actively support each other and client success intertwines with team success. Strive for this level of co-elevation to join the 8.1% of advisors with self-reported dream teams.
A FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESS
To evolve your team all the way to dream team status, you need to focus your efforts on three key areas or “levers:”
- Motivate. Inspire team members to look beyond their individual goals and embrace a collective mission. Encourage and instill a culture of enlightened self-interest, where each team member recognizes that their success is intertwined with the success of their colleagues.
- Engage. Place the right people in the right roles and empower them to excel with minimal oversight. Cultivate a team of self-responsible individuals who understand how to leverage their unique skills to achieve the practice’s objectives. This helps foster an environment of high enthusiasm and commitment.
- Execute. Clear communication and disciplined workflows are crucial for seamless execution. Eliminate ambiguity about the team’s direction and methods. Build quiet confidence within your team, ensuring that every member is clear about their roles and confident in their ability to contribute effectively.
A NINE ACCELERATORS FOR EMPOWERING ADVISOR-LED DREAM TEAMS
Specific accelerators reside in the three levers of success in the dream team framework. The following nine key accelerators activate the levers noted above, driving your team rapidly toward world-class performance.
- Lead: Promote a culture of co-elevation and shared success.
- Leadership is vital in setting clear expectations, promoting open communication and facilitating collaboration among team members.
- In dream teams, members understand that their success is intertwined with every other team member’s success. Foster a culture where team members lift up not just themselves but also every teammate, enabling the team to achieve truly exceptional results.
- Promise: Be true advocates for clients, and deliver exceptional value.
- Dream teams go beyond simply delivering the minimum or delighting clients; they defend their clients and are true advocates, helping clients build amazing lives of significance. This commitment to providing exceptional value is at the core of the dream team’s promise.
- Develop: Facilitate continuous learning and growth for all team members.
- In dream teams, every ambitious team member is motivated to learn and increase their competence in crucial skills that will help them—and their teammates—become winners.
- Ensure team members are systematically developed through mentoring, coaching and performance management.
- Recruit: Strategically attract and place the right talent.
- It is crucial to ensure you can articulate a clear vision for your practice to attract the best candidates.
- Develop structured interview protocols and assessment tools that evaluate a candidate’s alignment with the practice’s vision and values as well as their professional references and background.
- Resource: Establish a strong foundation of shared values and objectives.
- Establish a team culture that values collaboration, open communication and a commitment to client success.
- Dream teams are clear on their shared values and what the team is trying to create and achieve. Support your team in establishing this clarity of purpose and building the foundation to support the team’s vision.
- With this strong foundation, you can hire talent that syncs with the team’s vision, strategy, structure and systems.
- Recognize: Acknowledge and celebrate individual and team contributions.
- In dream teams, every member wants to be recognized for their contributions to the organization and their significance as individuals.
- Implement systems that recognize and reward team contributions, fostering more substantial commitment and performance from everyone in the business.
- Confidence: Equip teams with the knowledge and strategies to serve clients confidently.
- Leveraging diverse skills and expertise, you can provide comprehensive solutions, faster response times and tailored approaches to meet each client’s unique needs.
- To serve wealthy clients exceptionally well, dream teams need genuine confidence in their knowledge about the affluent market and what affluent clients genuinely want.
- Ensure your team combines information from empirical research with insights from direct experience to design your client experience, resulting in quiet confidence rooted in facts and successful experience.
- Cadence: Implement performance structures to maintain team effectiveness.
- Dream teams need performance advantage structures—systems and processes that will help them remain on track and continue to reach their highest potential.
- Develop performance metrics and structures to maintain and enhance team effectiveness over time.
- Communication: Foster transparent, effective communication in and across your team.
- To navigate client preferences effectively, you should develop clear communication strategies that balance personalized attention and the benefits of a team-based approach.
- For dream teams to reach their highest potential, they need to amplify the influence of each team member.
By focusing on these nine accelerators, you can build and lead a high-performing dream team that drives exceptional results and client experiences. This comprehensive approach ensures that you are well equipped, motivated and aligned with the firm’s strategic goals, setting the stage for sustained success and organic growth.
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