Motivation is essential to growing a successful business. A motivated team is focused on your goals and likely to achieve those goals. But even a top-performing financial advisory team can land in a motivation slump.
You can employ effective strategies to make sure your team becomes motivated — and stays that way.
“Your role is to provide leadership and direction, set goals and reward employees when those goals are achieved,” says Joanne Ferguson, president of Advisor Pathways Inc. in Toronto.
> Know the symptoms of a lack of motivation
“When a team is losing its motivation, you will see a drop in productivity, more errors in documents and a lack of communication,” says Joshua Zuchter, a business and personal coach based in Toronto. Other symptoms include an increase in absenteeism due to illness and disagreements between co-workers, he adds.
> Get the whole team on board
To get your team motivated, the first step is to make sure everyone on your staff is aware of your niche market and knows the team’s philosophy, its approach to business and its goals, according to Ferguson: “Anyone in the office who is asked a question about your business should be able to answer it.”
This step makes everyone, including administrative staff, feel involved in the running of the business. That feeling of involvement is a strong motivator, Ferguson says. So, any success comes as the result of a team effort.
“It is very important that the whole team is conscious of a common goal,” Zuchter says. “Everybody should have an idea of what the goal is and their role in helping the team to reach it.”
One way to ensure administrative and junior team members feel more involved is to give them more challenging responsibilities, Zuchter says. Offer training or have juniors shadow senior people.
> Set goals together
The goals you set will determine your team’s level of motivation. Involve everyone on the team in the process of setting goals, Ferguson says.
“It shouldn’t be the advisor saying, ‘These are my goals and this is what I have to do’,” Ferguson says. “If there is input in the goal-setting, people will take ownership and commit to achieving them.”
Goals can involve bringing in new accounts, getting new business from existing clients, getting new business from referrals or other measurable business objectives. The goals you choose will depend on the characteristics of your business, such as your niche market, the types of services you offer and your fee structure.
Make the goals realistic, so everyone can commit to them as a team and has a reasonable chance of achieving them.
> Set a time
Once you have set your goals, set a time frame for achieving them. For example, you might aim to bring in a specific amount of assets, or a number of new clients, over the next two months.
> Offer rewards
Achieving a goal and helping the practice reach its overall objectives can be satisfying in itself. But offering a tangible reward can motivate the team further.
When deciding on a reward, be sure to offer everyone the same bonus across the board, regardless of their position in the firm.
Rewards can include gift certificates from favourite shops, tickets to a sporting event or the theatre, a dinner together in a good restaurant or cash. Make sure it’s something the staff will value and look forward to.
IE