What I’ve found in my current role with Millennium 3, and previously at the AFA, is that many financial advisers are looking for assistance on how to find and mentor the next generation.
With an ageing demographic right across our industry, I believe it’s really important that we attract the best and brightest into our profession, and so we all need to support the current generation to identify the next.
As we move towards a more trusted-advice model, the most valuable commodities for many future advisers will most certainly be trust and advice, with product a distant third.
From my experience, those advisers that have been successful in bringing through the next generation within their business have always been very good at:
– Managing expectations through being upfront about what they expect as their younger advisers learn the ropes. Being realistic before you start will help ensure that the relationship won’t go pear shaped due to either of you making bad assumptions. You’ll also find that many younger advisers are in a ‘career hurry’, so you’ll need to emphasise that there are no shortcuts and that building the foundations is vital to success.
– Putting together a development plan that maps out the ongoing work needed to become a competent adviser. Positioning it as a practice-based apprenticeship, where your younger advisers learn by doing and observing will significantly increase their chance of success. Having them sit in on client interviews with your largest and most profitable clients, for example, will also show that you’re serious about developing them and that they have a clear pathway within your business.
– Highlighting the importance of mentoring through having them establish relationships with 2-3 senior people that they can learn from and role play with. Again, it’s the idea that they’ll learn more than they think not only by doing but also by observing. You could even organise for a trusted colleague to take a mentoring role and ask them to provide feedback on your younger adviser directly to you, subject to permission of course.
– Developing their client engagement skills as this can be a very strong competitive advantage. Encouraging your younger advisers to take courses on client engagement, presentation skills and building relationships, either as part of a longer curriculum program or as a specific short course, will build their emotional intelligence and help them become a more rounded adviser.
– Ensuring that your values are aligned with those of your younger advisers. While you should always do your own homework, using an external assessor, such as Myers-Brigs or DISC, will give you an independent view about their values, personality, strengths and weaknesses, all of which will help you to decide whether they’re the right fit for your business.
I’ve been extremely fortunate, through a number of roles I’ve had, to have been able to help a number of younger advisers starting out in our industry and, through the right training and mentoring, have seen them become industry leaders and own a stake in their profession.
I hope some of these ideas will help as you look to pass on your passion for transforming the lives of your clients to a younger adviser – done well means the future of your clients, and our industry, will be in good hands.
Richard Klipin is the Chief Executive Officer of Millennium3 Financial Services and is passionate about the role we all have in identifying and mentoring the next generation of financial advisers.
