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The Best of the Greeks?

The subject of leadership comes up a lot in my business, and I suspect also in yours. I’m a high-end Financial Advisor, serving individuals and families, and have been mentoring extraordinary Financial Advisors for more than 20-years, which is my primary focus. Helping the next gen of Financial Advisors. But, there’s frequently a difference between what I want to talk about with them, versus what they want to talk about. I want to talk about leadership.

What Financial Advisors usually want to discuss, at the beginning, are all the things they’re currently doing for their clients, and they want to explore what more they can be doing. That’s actually a great topic, but I feel a discussion of leadership comes first.

“Do you have people on your team who are helping serve your clients?” If the answer is yes, then lets start there. What are each of them good at? Most everyone does something extraordinarily well, so let’s find out what those things are for your team members.

I once was in need of an Administrative Support person at my firm and an Ideal Client of mine recommended I call someone she knew who’s looking for a job. So I asked, “who is she? what are her strengths?” My Ideal Client smiled, “she’s runs the reception desk at my hair-dresser’s salon but she literally runs the place. She keeps that place well-coordinated, and those hair-dressers are drama-queens.” (my client’s words not mine). She finished by explaining, She’s totally underutilized as receptionist since she keeps that salon running like a well-oiled machine.”

Music to my ears. So she’s a receptionist, hired to just answer the phone and the scheduling calendar, but she’s skilled, and when things aren’t well-coordinated she proactively jumps in and resolves it before any client realizes the place is a disaster, behind the scenes. Again, beautiful! So I interviewed her.

She had no formal management experience, no leadership training, no background in the financial services industry (my industry), but I interviewed her anyway.

So why am I telling you this? Because with that single referral from a client, followed-up by 2 interviews in our office, we identified a leader who could spot the strengths in people. She could motivate everyone to action, but in a way that kept the operation moving forward smoothly day-to-day. We immediately noted that she’s thorough, and were impressed that nothing important ever was allowed to “fall through the cracks.” Not only that, when she asked a team member to pitch-in and help with something, usually something other than their job, they did what she asked.

She was able to get people to rise above and beyond their duties, because she took the time to notice their strengths and she always seemed to ask people to do things that actually brought out the best parts of them. She was a leader, and everyone followed her. She was our best hire.

So pause and think, what do you feel you need to do to bring out the best in your people?

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About Mark McKenna Little

Mark Little is the ‘regular guy’ Financial Advisor whose unconventional approach to financial services acquired 1,242 clients.

Then in just 34 months he rebuilt his business from the ground up, shattering international records and boosting revenue by 412%

Read Mark’s Story here

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