Lead the Collective: How to Align Your Team Around Outcomes

Nick [00:00:00] We think about what could be and think about where we are right now, and it feels overwhelming.

Nick So breaking it down to something that's much more manageable allows us to work through it and actually create the thing that we're working towards.

Intro Welcome to the Seven Figure Advisor Podcast.

Speaker 3 The show for financial advisors ready to scale their business to seven figures and beyond. Each week you'll get proven growth strategies, leadership insights, and best practices from someone that's helped countless advisors break past the million dollar milestone.

Intro Here's your host, Nick Davies.

Nick Building and scaling a business as a financial advisor isn't one day I'm out there pounding the streets, as it were, by myself, and the next day I have a full team with a chief of staff, three different admins, and five different advisors. There's obviously a transitional period all the way through to wherever you're trying to get [00:01:00] to.

Nick Emotionally, we tend to think about things like that binary on and off—black and white—that one day it's this and one day it's that. Of course, the transition is really what life is and it happens because the emotional weight on that—we think about what could be and think about where we are right now—and it feels overwhelming.

Nick So breaking it down to something that's much more manageable allows us to work through it and actually create the thing that we're working towards. Leading a team is so important here because it might just start off with 10 hours a week, 15 hours a week of an assistant that starts to build: okay, they're going to set some meetings for me, maybe they're going to prep some meetings for me.

Nick And as you start to get that person doing those things, you become more: okay, there's some different type of service work I want to give them to create more space for me—more time back—so I can go invest it back in the business as well. So as you are building a team, think about it in a way that you want to piece it together, and it doesn't mean it's like—

Nick Put together with sticky tape. It doesn't mean it's going to fall apart like bootstrapping. [00:02:00] Nothing wrong with any of that stuff. It's just: think about how do I put it together based on what I've got right now in the moment. Don't wait for it to be perfect. Don't sacrifice progress for perfection. As the old saying goes, you want to create around it.

Nick So an example would be: think about, okay, perhaps I've got one assistant in my business, which I share with a couple of advisors. Perhaps I've got a new assistant that's coming in right now. Perhaps I've got a junior advisor that they're going to do primarily a joint work with me. So now I'm starting to think about this smorgasbord of resources that I've got that are helping me grow the practice that I really want to grow, work with the clients I already want to work with, provide massive service and value to the clients that I've already got, and do all that and make sure I've still got time with my family and look after myself.

Nick And so a great way of doing it is have those individual conversations. So I've got an advisor coming in that's new to the business. Perhaps they were an advisor before or it's net-new for them, but it's a second or third career. They're coming in. You expect them to ramp up pretty quickly, and at that moment, that person's going to be with [00:03:00] you in the long run and they're going to be an advisor with you.

Nick But in that first moment, it's recalibrating with them and saying: what does success look like for you this year? Here's what I see it as. Think about it as a partnership. I love that old saying: you can't work with someone for 30 years and not work with them for 30 minutes—because it creates a mindset of longevity rather than “I don't think it's going to work out.”

Nick Guess what's going to happen? It's not going to work out. And so, sit that person down and say: okay, what are you trying to achieve? Now you've got your licensing done—what are you trying to achieve this year? What do you think that we can do together? Take their feedback. Listen to them. Give your version of it. And remember: you've got the experience.

Nick They're going to listen to you. And don't forget what an important role you play for them in their life at that moment—regardless if they're grown up with their own family and everything else—the value you are providing to that person is leadership and certainty, because you've done it before.

Nick You've got the evidence. You know what it takes. And they're there for you to help them, and then for them to help you.

Nick [00:04:00] Then let's say you've got a shared assistant with some other advisors that you're working with as well, and maybe that one new person that's coming in as well. Each of those conversations is to really align on the bigger picture, not just “do this thing for me and I'll let you know.”

Nick “Let me know when it's done and I'll give you more things to do.” Don't make it about managing tasks—make it about delivering on outcomes. Here's the key piece today: think about leading the collective, creating more leverage as well. You have those individual conversations and then you bring them together.

Nick You know, maybe you bring them together with your business coach along the way as well, or some other key person—leader in your business overall—and you have that conversation. You have that: wow, this really feels like we're about to go to that next level. This is the first day in the new version of my business here.

Nick Everyone is here because you all play a great role in where it's going as well, and I'm really excited to help you along the way. I believe you all see a piece of your vision inside my bigger vision here. And maybe that sounds big and grandiose, but it is. It's raising the standard.

Nick Most people aren't doing this, because most people are going: it's all right, I'll probably get a good result anyway. And while that might be true, it's not going to be sustainable and it's not going to be anywhere near a long time.

Nick Ask anyone long term where success comes from—anyone that's had success for a long time—it's going to be the depth of relationships with people in your team.

Nick Now, your clients are very, very important and very, very valuable. If you don't serve your clients at a higher value, then you won't have a business. But a lot of that comes from leverage through your team, because you can't create more of yourself than the hours you've got to go around. So the leverage comes from your team, and that starts with sharing the vision—sharing the message of what we're trying to create right now, why this day is a big day.

Nick And what you'll find is everyone—even if this is a virtual conversation—everyone's going to be like: wow, I'm happy to be here and working for this person, but actually this is something bigger than I realized it was. And it offers everyone an opportunity to step up.

Nick And guess what it gives you as [00:06:00] the lead advisor? It gives you another reason to step up yourself as well.

Nick Because on the days where you're not feeling your best, your team's going to expect that from you. Make sure that you're leading the collective. Have those individual conversations to show why those people are important to you, what you can help them with, what you can create together, and then come together—supercharge that conversation—and that's going to give you a great jump-off point, whether you are heading into a new quarter, heading into a new month, heading into a new week.

Nick It doesn't matter. You get to offer everyone on your team a chance to go and create something—create something that no one else would, right? The unique version. What builds out, quite frankly, change.

Speaker 4 Thanks for listening to today's episode. Hit the follow button to be notified of new episodes and visit seven-figure-advisor.com for more resources and to connect directly with Nick. See you next [00:07:00] time.