RESOURCES
Tools
Widening your circle of professional connections is an "important, not urgent strategy." Be more of a hub in the professional circles you run in by becoming an invaluable resource. And do it from a place of service.
There will always be scary times, whether global, domestic, or in a particular industry or town. This piece was originally created in response to the climate of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that followed 9/11. Timeless advice, these ten strategies will help you find the silver lining when circumstances rage around you.
Directed at investors in late 2008, this article discusses practical ways to address anxiety generated in a downturn when risk tolerance has been over estimated.
From the report under Useful Links to the right,The Relationship Between Engagement at Work and Organizational Outcomes, here are Gallup's Q12 Statements.
Use this worksheet as a guide to articulating Vision, Mission and Outcomes. Super-charged execution requires meaningful purpose that is reinforced – in writing, in policies, and in expectations. When your people come to work every day striving for something important, clear on their role, a whole lot more gets done than just their job.
See A Shared Future: the Superstar Super-charger for why you need this tool.
RPM CHAT Agenda Template
Carving out regular quadrant ii time (important, not urgent) is essential for your team. The RPM CHAT session is a weekly 30 minute status update to “rev” up your team for the week. You’ll face issues together, celebrate wins, uncover problems, brainstorm solutions and strategize for next week.
See The Weekly Meeting that Revs up Your Team for why you need this tool.
Crucial Conversations Cheat Sheet
Good communication skills are a given in a professional environment. Being able to handle a challenging conversation is not a given, but it should be! Use this guide to help your team master crucial conversations.
Excerpts and Cheat Sheet Concepts taken from
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High
See Why should a team care about Safety? for why you need this tool.
Leaders may use as a cheat sheet to build better relationships with their
team members. Teams can use in a group session to help each other
meet goals and to have the right expectations of one another.
Questions adapted from The Secret, What Great Leaders Know - and Do, by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller.
See The Team Performance Multiplier: Trust for why you need this tool.
Be strategic with your next hire. Helps set the right expectations and to hire in alignment with firm values and requirements for success. Clarifies for the team the specific outcomes each is striving toward, and provides benchmarks to measure performance.
See The No Nonsense way to Hire "A" Players: The Scorecard for why you need this tool.
Useful Links
The Relationship Between Engagement at Work and Organizational Outcomes. The ninth edition of Gallup’s Meta-Analysis studies the relationship between levels of employee engagement and performance and provides actionable issues for management. The 12 statements of engaged employees are found on page 9.
What Distinguishes Great Managers: State of the American Manager
Gallup estimates that the manager accounts for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. When managers have both talent and proper development, teams and individuals win customers.
This online personal assessment helps you learn your conative strengths, the instincts that drive individual and group behaviors, and how they fit into jobs, relationships, and teams. Gives your team a common language.
Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? This personal assessment helps you uncover your natural talents and devote more time developing your strengths than fixing your shortcomings. Gives your team a common language.
A must read for any team-builder. Follow this process and your recruiting time will be focused on the crème of the crop. Includes a simple and effective performance benchmarking and evaluation process.
The author, Geoff Smart, offers accompanying tools for free.
The Personal Financial Planning section of the American Institute of CPAs provides information, tools, advocacy and guidance for practitioners who specialize in providing estate, tax, retirement, risk management and investment planning advice.
The Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) is the principal professional organization for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®) professionals, educators, financial services providers and
students who seek advancement in a growing, dynamic profession. Provides online networking and peer support.
Your local chapter is a great place to build long-lasting friends and partners.
Every young planner and advisor needs to be a part of this.
Investment Management Consultants Association® was established in 1985 to deliver premier investment consulting and wealth management credentials and world-class educational offerings through membership, conferences, research, and publications.
Live coaching programs to expand your entrepreneurial freedom.
“Always make your future bigger than your past.” –Dan Sullivan
Quadrant ii is the realm of the “important, but not urgent” activities that are so often neglected. Spend more time planning, thinking, and strategizing than doing. Here’s a comprehensive list of the many things you can do on a Qii day.
See Quadrant ii at Least Once a Week for why you need this tool.
Based on an Advisor Impact/Vanguard (now AbsoluteEngagement.com) study that concludes “engaged” clients are more likely to refer to you. This paper illustrates how an “engaged” client experiences your service, and contains a series of concepts to drive the processes to create more engagement.
Qii Membership
Becoming a Qii member has many benefits.
Brief actionable articles on practice management
Updates when new tools or resources are added to the site
Notification of podcasts or virtual conferences
Announcement of events or new books that would be of interest to ambitious growth-oriented advisors