Owners of a financial advisory practice are leaders, managing and motivating staff to help them achieve their mission to serve clients and grow their businesses. But how often does an advisor take a step back to evaluate their leadership performance? Am I leading people to achieve results? Is what we’re doing the right thing to do? Do I inspire those around me?

 “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things.

He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” — Ronald Reagan

Try This Employee Survey

Self-evaluation takes brutal honesty and much courage, but the process can be exceptionally rewarding in identifying ways individuals can improve leadership skills.

The first step is taking stock of how effective your leadership is. One way of measuring that is through a simple exercise.

Write down your mission, your strategy and the key metrics you use to track your progress toward achieving short- and long-term goals. Add to that the two or three themes you’ve emphasized in employee communications. Don’t spend more than five minutes on this.

Once that’s done, ask your employees to separately complete a questionnaire asking them to briefly describe what they believe is the practice’s mission, its strategy, metrics and major communication themes.

You probably see where this is going. While leadership may be defined in many different ways, at its core, it is about making sure the whole team is operating under a common understanding of who we are, what we wish to accomplish and how we will get there.

This quick experiment can help advisors gauge how effective they have been in getting all team members on the same page.

Ideas to Sharpen Your Leadership Skills

There are multiple ways advisors can enhance their leadership to increase client satisfaction and loyalty, improve employee morale and advance their business goals. The best way to begin is by asking yourself…

• What training and other professional growth activities are in place to help grow employees’ job effectiveness, knowledge and skills?
• Do my employees see me as someone who listens to them, is fair and respectful, and responsive to their concerns or ideas?
• Do I lead by example? Do I hold myself to the same standards of integrity, commitment and hard work to which I hold my employees?
• How effectively do I communicate? Do I use stories and data to lead others?
• Do I lead by dictating or do I encourage my team to solve problems on their own?
• Have I established quantifiable goals and execute against them?

Of all the ways that advisors can take their practice to new heights, the most often overlooked ingredient is more effective leadership from the top.

Please reference disclosures: https://blog-dev.americanportfolios.com/disclosures/