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– Happy Wednesday, everybody.
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I am gonna be talking today
about managing team turnover,
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and I’m speaking specifically to advisors
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who have either lost
somebody on their team,
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maybe someone left unexpectedly
and you’re really surprised
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by it, suddenly you find
yourself thinking, oh my gosh,
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how do I find another client
service associate last minute?
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Or you’re an advisor or leader
who maybe has had turnover
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multiple times in a role around your team,
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and suddenly you’re thinking, oh my gosh,
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what is wrong with me?
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Why can’t I make this work?
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I’m not cut out for this, et cetera.
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I’m gonna give you a
couple best practices,
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and I’m gonna give you guidance
a little bit differently
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than the way maybe you’ve
traditionally heard
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leadership guidance from coaches.
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I believe that we need to
be doing a lot more work
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around helping leaders and
advisors manage turnover
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and manage the turnover
process than giving them tips
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on how to be great leaders.
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I think we need both,
but we can’t just focus
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on the best practices for
leadership because, this brings me
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to point number one, the
reality is is that turnover,
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employee turnover is inevitable
and it’s to be expected.
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It’s especially to be
expected when you’re running
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a boutique business and
you’re constantly creating
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and changing and evolving,
and I think even advisors
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who have been doing this for
20 years are still creating
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and changing to some extent,
and so it’s to be expected
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that not everybody, every
employee who, by the way,
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usually the profiles of
employees, the communication
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and behavioral profiles
of employees look very,
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very different from the profiles
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of the entrepreneur or leader.
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So it makes sense that at some point,
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somebody says, you know what?
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This is just not for me anymore.
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The second thing I’d say
is it’s also to be expected
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when you’re employing Gen Z and Gen Y.
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I think having a realistic expectation
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and a healthy framework
through which you view
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the younger gen employee
is also very important.
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Statistically speaking,
if you employ somebody
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between the ages of 21 and,
we’ll call it 35, the chances
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of them leaving you are higher
than if they are an older
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Gen X or a Baby Boomer,
and I think advisors
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and leaders need to, get over
it maybe is not the right way
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to say it, but accept the fact
that these two generations
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have been raised in a society
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where it’s not considered
disloyal to leave somewhere,
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someplace, or someone who
or that makes you unhappy.
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In other words, this idea
that you stay at a firm
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for 30 years, the way our
parents did, you’re miserable
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for 28 of those years, and
you’re just waiting to get
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that pin from the CEO
that says, congratulations
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on 30 years, the CEO who,
by the way, doesn’t know you
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by name and has never met you
and doesn’t care about you.
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That concept to the younger
generation made zero sense,
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and so to them, and
I’m speaking as someone
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in that early 30 range,
but going somewhere else
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where you can be happier
and maybe be more creative,
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maybe take less money
simply made more sense,
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and so that’s the reality of what we have
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with the younger gen.
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It’s not gonna change,
and I say it all the time,
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responsibility is on leadership
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to adapt, not the younger gen.
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The younger gen has only
ever been brought up
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in this society where options
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and choice and flexibility was the norm.
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Having a healthy relationship with that,
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with that truth is really
important as a leader,
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and I will tell you the
leaders who are unhappy,
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who are really struggling are the ones
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that have old belief systems
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and structures stuck in their minds.
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You can’t work from home,
Millennials are lazy, et cetera,
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and so if you are somebody
who’s really struggling
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to shed those old belief
systems, I would highly recommend
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working with an outside
coach or consultant
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to help evolve the way you think
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about the business and
yourself and the team.
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That being said, here’s
my other, I’m still
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on the second point or first
point, it’s perfectly okay
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to get to a place where
you say, you know what?
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I’ve realized that I really don’t want
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to manage this anymore,
and I want to find perhaps
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a different business model that allows me
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to spend a majority of my
time doing just what I like.
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For so long, we’ve told
advisors, you know,
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you’re only successful if you
build a team with 10 people
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and hit a billion in assets,
and I’ve been seeing this a lot
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on social media, says who?
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Says a group of people
who became successful
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a couple decades ago and
have set that as the rule?
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We have so much flexibility
and so many options now
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in our industry, and if
you’re at a good firm,
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you have options where you
can leverage internally
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or even if you’re independent now, gosh,
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there’s so many places
that you can tack onto
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that help solve the human
capital piece for you,
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and so getting to an inflection point
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where you realize, you know what?
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I don’t know if this is for
me, totally healthy and okay,
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and having somebody to have
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that discussion with is important.
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Now, let’s say you’re
committed to building.
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You just want to know how do I do this
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in a better, healthier way?
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What I’d say is there are table stakes,
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and then there are things that
you should start implementing
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that maybe you haven’t
started implementing.
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So table stakes are things
like, well, first of all,
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number one, having a proper expectations
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about what it means to be
a leader and lead others.
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If you are committed to building
a team, the best leaders
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in the business are the best
coaches, and by coaches,
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I don’t mean sports coach,
I mean like life coaches.
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They believe that their responsibility is
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to bring out the best in others
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and help others create success in a way
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that is customized and unique to them.
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In other words, if you’re building a team
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and you’re telling the
team of junior advisors,
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do everything the way I did
because I’m super successful
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and make $1 million a year,
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you are never going to get it right.
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Showing the team what
success looks like, hey,
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here are the goals, create
your success pathways
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wherever you want and I’ll
support you, is a much better way
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to do it, and so that’s,
but that’s table stakes.
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So that’s number one.
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The second thing is, just
looking at my notes here,
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setting proper expectations
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at onboarding and when you’re hiring.
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Absolutely have to do that,
and sort of, in theory,
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this prevents you from
having turnover, right?
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If you’re leading in the right way,
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helping others sort of bring
out the best in themselves,
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if you’re setting expectations,
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here’s what the role looks like,
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here’s how I would define
success in the first 30 days
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for you, and then in the first year,
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here’s what development sort
of looks like, you know,
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here’s how I imagine you
growing and developing
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over the next three
years, really important.
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The last thing I’ll say is
setting aside specific time
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throughout the year to have
feedback, consistent feedback
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with the employee, also
critically important
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and I would consider table stakes.
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In other words, you should
absolutely be doing this
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no matter what, and so what does
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that ongoing feedback look like?
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Maybe that’s a quarterly
professional development
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conversation, one-on-one where
the person is telling you
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their wins and losses and
you’re giving them feedback.
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Maybe that’s a monthly
communication session
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with your whole team where
you’re sitting there talking
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about communication
breakdowns during the month
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and how you can sort of get better.
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So those are all the things,
but even if you’re doing
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all those things, the reality
is you’re gonna have people
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leave, and so here are the
things that I want advisors
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to start implementing so that
they can manage that better.
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Number one, by the way,
I messed up my numbers,
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so it may be number one,
I may be on number seven,
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but number one, keep a
running list at all times,
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and I talk about this a lot,
of people who you may want
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to keep, may want to hire at some point.
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Maybe these are people
who you’ve come across
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on social media, maybe these
are people who are friends
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of your children, maybe
you’re a Baby Boomer
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who has a Millennial child
who has a really smart friend
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who’s working in a startup,
maybe these are people you meet
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at conferences or belong
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to the same networking group as you.
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Keep a running list of
people who potentially
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you can envision being part of your team
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and keep in touch with them consistently.
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Think of this as your bench
that you can tap at any point,
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and I’m not saying they’re
gonna come work for you,
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but that you’ve established
your relationship with
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and that’s your go-to if you were
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to lose somebody on your team.
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The second thing is, this is so silly,
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but not enough advisors do
it, keep a library of all
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of the roles that possibly
could exist on your team.
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A job, literally a job ad for
the administrative assistant,
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client service associate,
paraplanner, junior advisor
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at any time with the
responsibilities, the objectives
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and key results that that
role needs to achieve,
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and salary ranges for that possible role.
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So if you lose somebody,
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you can quickly tap your
library and get that.
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By the way, people constantly
ask for job descriptions.
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Folks, Google is a wonderful
tool and you can Google
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and get a lot of free resources.
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The last thing I’ll say,
well, two more things,
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summarize everything in a
policies and procedures manual,
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and this is something that
you and your team can manage
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on an ongoing basis.
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Ask your team members each
to, and this is something
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you should do regardless of turnover,
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document all of your
processes, what does a day,
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morning to night, look like at the office?
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Like literally come in, answer
the voicemail, check email,
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et cetera, but then on an ongoing basis,
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what are the policies and procedures?
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How do you onboard clients?
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How do you hold review meetings?
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This will serve as your go-to for training
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when you bring somebody new in.
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One other thing, team
members should always keep
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their personal professional
development plans updated,
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and not to say that you would
share that with somebody
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if you were to replace
someone on your team,
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but at a minimum, having
the employee who was there
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before articulate what
they’re trying to achieve
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and how they measure
success is really helpful
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for somebody new coming in.
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The last thing I’ll say,
and I’m over on time today
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for the first time ever, obviously,
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this is another hot topic,
have an objective third party
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conduct an exit interview.
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If somebody were to leave voluntarily,
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having somebody get some
feedback on why they’re leaving