Making beautiful music together

Close your eyes and picture an office where all staff members unquestionably share the same values, agree on guidelines for interpersonal communication, hold each other accountable without taking anything personally, and feel professionally inspired and emotionally supported.

Now open your eyes: Is that what you see in your practice?

If not, take note that a recent study by the Sloan School of Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that a poor office culture was 10 times more likely to cause staff to leave than financial compensation, with disrespect most greatly impacting cultural perception.

For some MDRT members, however, a seemingly idealized workplace is a reality forged by deliberate action. These steps and procedures not only have generated enormous success but are repeatable for anyone who wants to create similar elements of unity, productivity and positivity in their business.

Put it in writing

For Joffrey A. Smith, MBA, CFP, it started in 2020 while in school for his MBA at Cornell University. Professors introduced a social contract to each team in the program, and the now-seven-year MDRT member marveled at how effective this approach was in fostering camaraderie, accountability and constructive conflict for his six-person team.

“If you were late to the team meeting or if you didn’t give a really great deliverable to a project, instead of a personal attack saying, ‘You did a bad job,’ we could point to the social contract and say, ‘According to the contract that we all signed, you need to be accountable and deliver this to us,’” Smith said. “Instead of bickering, people said, ‘You’re right; I apologize. I won’t make that mistake again, and I’ll do better.’”

In the MBA program, Smith’s team spent several hours early in their time together deciding what should be in the contract and didn’t stop until everyone had bought in and signed. (They were one of the program’s highest-functioning teams and maintain strong relationships to this day.) Smith brought the same approach to his practice, which provides full financial planning for 350 young professionals, pre-retirees and retirees, with staff including a chief compliance officer, a compliance coordinator and a client services representative.

Questions to ask might include:

• What expectations do team members have of each other regarding preparedness, timeliness, attendance and quality of work product?
• When will meetings be held, and how (in person, teleconference or videoconference)?
• How will we assign roles to our projects, and what project management process will we use?
• How will we leverage individual strengths and support individual learning goals?
• How will we manage disagreements, and how/when will we give each other feedback?

This is just a snippet. Smith recommends breaking the contract into sections, such as staff meetings, staff participation and communication, and problem solving and conflict management. The social contracts must explicitly define answers to all appropriate questions and provide a blueprint for interpersonal behaviors, conflict resolution and more. The contract is a living document updated in tandem with experience, and everyone has a copy with everyone’s signature on it.

“In any team, norms exist whether they’re openly stated or not,” Smith said, adding that he has recommended some clients use the social contract in their workplaces, such as a doctor frustrated by a colleague taking vacation time without advance notice, per policy. “As a good leader, you should facilitate sessions to uncover those existing norms, both positive and negative. By establishing a social contract, you can reinforce positive behaviors while helping everyone overcome challenges and giving staff a feeling of control and security.”

Of course, to work, the social contract (which Smith doesn’t post in view of clients) must be enforced immediately upon violation, or lack of accountability can drive dissatisfaction. Without fear of conflict or personal attacks, everyone understands the benefit of addressing issues publicly and respectfully during team meetings. In Smith’s office, being late to a meeting — a sign of disrespecting others’ time — means you buy the staff lunch. So now everyone arrives five minutes early.

“The social contract holds everyone accountable, including me, and the end result is better, higher-functioning teams, better production and better relationships.”

Faster feedback

That explicitly defined team approach also has worked wonders for Harpreet Singh Atwal, Dip FA, BSc (Hons). After reading the section of Gino Wickman’s book “Traction” that states a strong company culture requires strong team values, the 13-year MDRT member recognized that creating six value statements upon which everyone would agree simultaneously could provide both structure and openness. The most transformational one: the importance of frankness and not being afraid to give or receive feedback.

So, where previously Atwal hesitated to address issues that involved staff (in one case, he took three weeks to confront someone who was making mistakes), now anything gets dealt with in just a day or two.

“It’s definitely, definitely, definitely reduced the time taken to give and implement the feedback instead of dragging on weeks and weeks of avoiding the subject,” said Atwal, who has six staff members and handles wealth management and insurance for 150 families.

Other values include broader ideas like honesty, determination and teamwork. Though Atwal wrote and explained each value six months ago and had his staff review and verify them two months later, they’ve already instituted several effective ways to use this new element of the office.

That includes putting the value of frankness to action: When one person told Atwal about an issue they were having, he reminded them about the core values and empowered them to confront the other person directly. (Smith experienced an identical scenario.) It’s also inviting people to praise colleagues during team meetings about core values they’ve seen help improve the practice, leading to more staff communicating and using “we,” not “I” statements about growth. During one-on-one meetings, Atwal highlights values that the staff member has embraced while also addressing areas for improvement.

Plus, now that Atwal has added the company values to job postings for the practice, every person who applied recently has indicated “I love your values.” It shows how values can be an engagement tool for potential new hires and a way of vetting people.

“I’ve told the team that if somebody doesn’t meet all of the values, no matter who they are, I won’t let them work for us,” Atwal said.

While Atwal hasn’t yet posted the values on the wall for all to see, everyone has a signed copy, and the values are read monthly as a reminder and reviewed every three months to match the values to the current vision of the practice.

Dream team

A different kind of motivating visual prompt is already in place for Shane E. Westhoelter, AEP, CLU. The 14-year MDRT member ensures every staff member designs and annually updates — thanks to magazine cutouts and photos — a dream board to turn goals, which sometimes are just written down and forgotten, into a physical reminder of what they’re working toward professionally and personally. Each month, one to two staffers present items from their board to the group and explain their photos. Colleagues will check in on their progress toward the goals to keep everyone focused and accountable.

“It gives more insight into who they are and what’s important to them,” said Westhoelter, who does full financial planning and wealth management for 1,500 households and whose 21 staff members include client service representatives and executive administrators. “We might think they’re money-motivated, but if they have a lot of photos of family or grandkids or travel or pets, they might be more motivated by time off and family vacations, which helps us at the leadership level to get to know them better.”

The dream boards started in Westhoelter’s office 20 years ago and were introduced by eight-year MDRT member Aprilyn Chavez Geissler, LACP, CCP. Whether it’s buying a car, taking a cooking class or maintaining a workout regimen, they inspire individuals to pursue their goals while uniting the team toward an investment in each other’s achievements. If, for example, someone says they want to learn how to play the guitar, Westhoelter says, someone else might say that they have a guitar and would be happy to work with them.

That’s not all. After noting staff members’ fitness goals, about four years ago Westhoelter put four treadmills in the office, which people can use during conference calls or just for a short break without having to go outside. (Now just one treadmill remains.) A few years prior, Westhoelter also established a relaxation room where people can meditate, read, listen to music, or simply take some time away from the workday and give their brain a break. Inside are yoga chairs and big pillows, and the space can be used in 15-minute increments for quiet time.

“It’s creating an environment where people are focused on their physical, mental and emotional health, and we do what we can to provide an atmosphere that supports that,” Westhoelter said. “It’s created more of a family, team environment vs. everybody working in a silo, doing their job with no interactions.”

Well, that time is a little less quiet, Westhoelter says with a laugh, when kids come by the office. This happens often as somewhere to go after school and do homework while staff finish their work, or if the kids are fever-free but not yet allowed to return to school, they can watch movies or play games in the relaxation room.

“It’s one of those perks that doesn’t really cost us that much, and employees appreciate it because they don’t have to pay for a babysitter or use vacation days to care for their kids,” Westhoelter said. “We’re all very family-oriented and in the business of working with families, so we want to encourage that for our staff as well.”

Recognizing different perspectives

Of course, it’s important to remember that one person’s sunshine sometimes can be another’s storm cloud. Twenty advisors share office space in the same building as Sofia Dumansky, MBA, LUTCF, who has seen a wide spectrum of reactions to certain cultural policies.

The 13-year MDRT member says that while some enjoy the occasional presence of kids in the office, others find it to be an unwelcome distraction — especially when a managing partner installed a basketball hoop in his office and his kids’ arrival resulted in loud noises from the ball bouncing.

Some advisors also disapproved of pets in the office, which happens rarely but occurred for two straight months just before a previous office manager left her role. The office manager’s dog, an Australian shepherd, was very visible on a counter.

“If you came up to the counter space, the dog would greet you and wag its tail but wouldn’t come past the counter,” said Dumansky, who works with two remote assistants and handles financial planning, life insurance and investments for about 1,000 households. “Other advisors thought it was really cool that there’s a dog here, and that brings a family feeling. I personally couldn’t care less whether it’s there or not, as long as it doesn’t come into my space.”

She adds that she has never seen a policy around what people can or can’t do regarding bringing kids or dogs into the office, seeing the setup as somewhat unpredictable.

Wisdom in word choice

Unpredictable is exactly what Vinny Dallo, ChFC, CLU, wants to avoid, and it’s as simple as being more deliberate with language and more accountable to colleagues.

Four years ago, the now-nine-year MDRT member was working with another advisor and an administrator, who approached Dallo to say that he was being a jerk. It reminded Dallo of something he learned in his college fraternity when he and his fraternity brothers agreed to respect each other as equals and focus on the issues at hand during meetings, rather than who brought them up.

He had tried to uphold this approach in the office but, seeing that he’d moved away from a collaborative effort in favor of merely telling people what to do, he recognized that something had to change.

“People want to feel that you’re respecting them, and that starts with your language and treating people a certain way when you’re interacting,” Dallo said. “My success is tied to the quality of everybody else’s work and ability, and I have to invest in them properly with decent treatment.”

He started by eliminating the word “should” from his vocabulary. Instead of telling someone what they should do, he instead asks, “What could we do that will move us toward our goal?” Simultaneously, he recognizes that conversations are about the clients and the functioning of the office, not about him.

“It’s about what they need first and how we as a group participate together,” he said. “I have to remind myself I’m not the center of the universe.”

Similarly, he knows he doesn’t want a repeat of when he conducted himself poorly during a meeting, and the staff left the conference room feeling tense and needing to vent and commiserate together. Now as he completes his first year as an independent advisor after 20 in the profession, Dallo encourages his colleagues — a part-time, just-hired administrative assistant, two part-time marketing assistants and a supporting advisor specializing in investments — to speak up if they see that sort of behavior recurring.

He takes responsibility for the possibility of something happening again as well as his determination to manage with openness and calm, while maintaining the fraternity lesson about discussing issues without singling out people who bring them up. The result has been more camaraderie and joking around the office as well as the ability to disagree without arguing, generating neutrality instead of resentment or behind-the-scenes complaints.

After all, Dallo says, how each person in the office acts can have a large impact on everyone else, especially when he’s the one there to set an example.

“Culture usually doesn’t start in the mailroom; it’s more in the C-suite,” he said. “You have to look at yourself as an advisor or CEO and know that if you’re having issues dealing with your staff, if you want something to be a certain way, it starts with you.

“Where else would you start?”

Putting the ‘brief’ in ‘debrief’

While extended discussion about project performance, meetings and more can lead to debates or personal attacks about individual contributions, Smith’s office sticks to a 10-minute debriefing technique. In this meeting, each person shares what went well and what didn’t, and each element is written under a corresponding happy or sad face. While people are sharing, there is no interruption or input until everyone has contributed.

Then, the group can consider what lessons were identified, what action items would address those lessons and who will take responsibility for those action items. 

Fostering growth and investment in staff

Another way that Smith creates strength in his office is by designating a project lead and a project second to every endeavor, but the assigned roles are not what you may think: Often the lead has less experience in the task, and the second has more expertise and is there to support the growth of the lead.

For example: If there were an initiative to document all office procedures, an administrator who had never done that would be the lead, and the project second would be there for guidance. With clearly defined responsibilities for the lead and the second, this dynamic develops new skills for team members and creates a system for success and accountability.

“It gets people to work with each other who might not otherwise do so,” Smith said. “When they flourish, it also helps to find leaders who otherwise wouldn’t get a leadership opportunity.”