is a rising movement that is quickly supplanting the cold, hard corporate machine of yesteryear. The truth is, leaders can no longer afford to ignore the shift toward a people-first culture and its direct influence on a healthy, effective work environment. Leaders today need to be flexible, fluid, caring, and individualistic to be competitive in today’s market.
This book was written not just for financial advisors but for any leader looking to make a sea change in his or her company culture. Many of these lessons, which I learned on my own professional journey as both an employee and a leader, have helped shape my views on successful and fulfilling leadership that leads to employee retention and company growth. In fact, another key benefit of creating a heart culture is that you will attract talent.
I have been a financial advisor for more than 25 years and am currently the president and CEO of Private Ocean, a wealth management firm in the San Francisco Bay Area that is the product of a merger of my firm, Friedman & Associates, with Salient Wealth Management. I am also the cofounder and president of Junxure, a technology firm based in Raleigh, North Carolina, that provides customer relationship management (CRM) and office management solutions to financial advisors.
My career – like many of our industry leaders – sprang from humble beginnings. In high school I started working part time for a warehouse retail chain stocking shelves, and after a decade I had worked my way up the ladder of that company while finishing college and graduate school. I did many jobs in that company – from driving a forklift to sales to accounting and purchasing. I learned a lot in those years, including the value of loyalty.
What I also experienced during that time was a spectrum of different kinds of leaders that truly covered a gamut of styles. It helped shape the kind of leader I wanted to be, and I made a conscious effort early on to treat people differently than I was treated on many occasions. I always knew I wanted to have my own business, and that I wanted to do things differently from the norm – certainly differently from what I experienced.
What follows are Seven Steps of Heart Culture – human values – that are vital to making a difference in a firm’s culture and in a leader’s influence within that firm.
These seven steps also represent the life cycle of a healthy relationship between a leader and an employee. From the hiring process – immeasurably important to building a culture – to maintenance and growth, each phase has its own set of challenges and rewards that can either hinder a firm’s growth or help it soar to new levels.
This book focuses on each of these seven key interconnected elements of creating and maintaining a heart culture. I have learned that being good at one or two of the ideas, or focusing on different ones at different times over the year or years, doesn’t lead to a sustainable heart culture. In reality, I have found it’s better to aspire to all seven even if I cannot be great at all of them at any given time!
Over the next seven chapters I will go into detail about each of these steps. I will also share stories of personal successes and missteps in developing the leadership style that has proven very effective in my businesses. At the end of each chapter I have included some practical, real-world tips that you can use to get started on your own path to successful and fulfilling leadership.
Now, as with every journey, we will begin by taking the first step.
Chapter 1
Patience
Taking Your Time to Find the Right People
One of the questions I am asked most often in my position is how I manage two companies on two coasts. I always respond in the same way. It’s all about the people around me. I am surrounded by great, quality people who work hard and are as passionate about the work we do as I am. For me, that means working longer hours and racking up lots of frequent flier miles. But the payoff is worth the time and jet lag. Why? Because the culture that’s been established in both companies moves both ships forward and that creates success and growth.
That culture, which is very similar in both companies, is based on caring, respect, empowerment, collaboration, and a powerful sense of team. There is also a clear, and common, sense of purpose and mission in both companies.
That sense of team serves as the foundation that drives us forward, weathering growing pains and a changing industry toward innovation and profitability.
What we have accomplished in our culture – and I say “we” because credit is due to all of the people I am fortunate enough to work with – is not only potent, it’s game changing for companies that struggle to create a cohesive team in corporate environments today.
Employee loyalty and satisfaction are at the core of building heart culture, and it should come as no surprise that creating and cultivating this type of environment begins in the hiring process.
The first element of heart leadership is patience, and it is vital for leaders to exercise self-discipline during the recruitment, interview, and hiring process if they want to protect the integrity of the firm’s culture.
Before we get started, though, I’d like to share some truths about my personal leadership style.
Since the beginning of my career I have known that I wanted diversity of thought and collaboration. I wanted different voices. I wanted ideas. Also, I wanted to build a happy and healthy environment that people wanted to come to five days a week. What I did not want was to be a leader who was overcontrolling and commanding.
That desire to help others achieve happiness in their work and in their lives is a foundational part of how I lead and how I encourage others to lead. With new hires, setting expectations on day one (and even earlier in the interview process) helps determine whether a particular candidate is the right fit for my firm.
For example, when new employees come on board at one of my companies, I start with the same conversation that I have had for many years.
At Private Ocean, for example, I talk to them about our philosophy, our purpose, and our culture, and what we want to achieve as a whole. I talk about my personal mission – what drives me – and the company mission. I want to make sure we’re on the same page when it comes to financial planning and wealth management and how to take care of clients. For us, financial planning should be objective and focused on helping people achieve their life goals – what’s important to them in their lives. Financial planning and investments are just the tools we use. Making sure potential candidates share the same philosophies that guide basic priorities of the company is the first thing I like to nail down.
Then I give them my “I Have a Dream” speech, in which I acknowledge that if all of us had unlimited money and resources we would likely be on a tropical island someplace, sitting in a hammock on the beach and watching the world pass by, or engaged in philanthropy.
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