During the basketball and hockey playoffs this past spring, many advisors and clients were glued to their televisions, marvelling at the skill level of athletes such as hockey icon Sidney Crosby and basketball star Kobe Bryant.

When coaches who have taken their teams to professional hockey’s Stanley Cup finals are asked what it takes to succeed at that level, their answers provide some impor-tant lessons for financial advisors. Some responses are obvious: talent, leadership and some luck in avoiding key injuries.

Beyond these, four other ingredients to success also apply to advisors.



> Having The Right Plan

Every winning team starts with a well thought-out game plan.

No two winning plans will be the same; every team is different and its game plan has to be adapted to the team and its opponent. Without a clear plan to chart your course and take you where you want to go, your chances of success are slim. So, the first questions advisors have to ask are:

> What are the two, three or four key elements that set me apart from other advisors?

> What is it going to take for me to succeed in the period ahead?



> Discipline To Stick To The Plan

In sports, when you get behind in a game or in a series, it’s easy to lose focus on your plan. But winning teams don’t get distracted; they stick to their fundamental plans.

That doesn’t mean they follow their plans blindly. Every team needs to modify its approach to the circumstances it is facing on the field and to what’s working on that day.

Winning teams will often change tactics, but seldom change their overall strategy.

Similarly, advisors need the discipline to stick to their plan, especially in tough times such as we have been experiencing lately. Yes, if what you’re doing isn’t aligned with what investors are looking for, you need to be prepared to adapt, but this must happen in the context of your overall game plan.

One of the challenges for an advisor today is modifying your approach to the economic environment and investor mindset that we’re facing — while, at the same time, sticking to the core principles of your business.



> A Focus On Preparation

Today’s athletes are a breed apart from those of past generations. They’re much bigger, stronger and faster. Less obvious is one other difference: they’re infinitely better prepared.

Today, almost every successful athlete focuses on conditioning year-round. That’s in stark contrast to the habits of professional athletes just a few years ago, many of whom would report to training camp after the off-season out of condition and overweight. Even a sport such as golf, in which overall fitness was not seen as being critical in the past, has been transformed by Tiger Woods’ focus on conditioning. You’re certain to see fewer pot-bellies on the Professional Golfers Association’s tour in the future!

An important reason for this change is that the huge escalation in player salaries has made the stakes much higher. Video technology has transformed game preparation. Today’s pro athletes spend hours studying tendencies of the opposing players they’ll be facing.

And it’s not only the players who are better prepared. Today’s top coaches are more than just great judges of talent and terrific motivators. Coaches such as Bill Belichick of the National Football League’s New England Patriots are notorious for their obsessive commitment to pre-game preparation.

Similarly, hockey players who were interviewed about Scotty Bowman, co-holder of the record for coaching the most Stanley Cup championship teams, noted the hours he invested before each game to anticipate the other team’s tactics and tendencies. “Scotty seemed to know what the other team was going to do before they did,” one player said.

These principles also apply to advisors. Too many advisors show up for an important meeting with a key client or prospect with only the most general of game plans. That may be a luxury you can afford in good times; but in times like these, you have to make every minute of every meeting count.

For each meeting, you need to spend the time before the meeting to identify the specific outcomes you are looking for, the items you’ll be discussing, questions you’ll be asking and recommendations you’ll be making.

Taking the time before a meeting to get client buy-in to a meeting agenda can be helpful in that process. Even if you’re just talking to an existing or prospective client on the phone, taking 60 seconds beforehand to jot down what you want to achieve from that call will increase your success rate.

@page_break@(For more ideas about preparing for meetings, go to www.investmentexecutive.com, click on “Back Issues” and select “Feb. 2009” to read the article entitled “Get more value out of client meetings.”)



> The Determination To Win

The best players and the best teams have a “refuse to lose” mentality, along with the drive to win at any price.

Teams and players that underachieve are often accused of complacency and lacking mental toughness. Talent alone will not lead to success if it’s not accompanied by the determination to win at any cost.

It’s striking that in their end-of-season media interviews, the general managers of three underachieving Canadian hockey teams (the Edmonton Oilers, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens) all ascribed part of their teams’ underperformance to the unwillingness of key players to pay the price to win.

The biggest problem many advisors face today isn’t unhappy clients or cynical prospects. It’s that those advisors have lost the enthusiasm and the drive that made them successful in the past.

Given the markets over the past year, a loss of enthusiasm is understandable. If we’re going to work through the current tough period, however, a lot of advisors are going to have to suck it up and adopt that “refuse to lose/I’m going to work through this no matter what it takes” mindset.

For most advisors, this motivation won’t happen unless they make it happen with specific strategies. (For an article on steps to help keep you motivated, read “Getting motivated for 2009” from the January 2009 issue of Investment Executive, also on the IE website.)

In the meantime, consider this simple idea if your productivity is lagging: before leaving the office, write down the three most important things you need to do the next day. When you get in the next morning, focus on those three things and resolve that you won’t leave for lunch until you get them done. This alone may help you break the paralysis some advisors are facing and may be the first step toward recapturing momentum in your business.



When we watch top-performing athletes and winning sports teams, it’s tempting to attribute their success entirely to talent. And, yes, talent is, of course, essential.

But talent alone isn’t enough. Every sports fan can identify abundantly talented athletes and talent-packed sports teams that have a sad history of underachievement. For athletes and for teams to deliver on their potential, talent has to be backed by a well thought-through game plan, discipline in executing that plan, commitment to preparation, and the mental toughness and determination to win at all costs.

That’s true of winning athletes, and it’s just as true of winning financial advisors. IE



Dan Richards is president of Strategic Imperatives Corp. in Toronto. For other columns visit www.investmentexecutive.com.