The Ecology of Great Teams in Wealth Management
What makes the highest performing teams different? Talent? Communication?
Actually, according to data, it’s something else. This program helps wealth management teams understand what it is — and build it faster.
The Secret to Better Teams
Like most organizations, Google wanted to know what made great teams different.
But unlike most organizations, Google was unwilling to simply accept traditional answers like talent, motivation, or communication.
They wanted to use data.
So they spent two years analyzing hundreds of teams on dozens of metrics. And when the answer emerged, it surprised them.
It wasn’t talent (the “WHO”) that mattered most.
It also wasn’t goals (the “WHAT”) or purpose (the “WHY”).
It was the “HOW” — how connected people were to each other. How safe they felt being vulnerable. How willing they were to get real.
The best teams were like plants rooted in magic soil that infused everything they did with greater trust, authenticity, and camaraderie.
As a result, people were honest with each other. They killed bad ideas quickly. They made good ideas better. And instead of sweeping disagreements under the rug, they worked through them in real time, leading to even deeper relationships, and even better performance.
Ecology is the study of relationships in nature. The Ecology of Great Teams program helps leaders approach team relationships through a practical and productive new lens.
This version of the program is customized to the unique demands of life in wealth management.
Participants learn:
- why the HOW is essential for high-performing advisory teams, and then…
- how to give and receive simple, honest, actionable feedback
- how to take apart conflict safely, without resentment or blame
- how to make empathy and humility team norms
- how to make team meetings more authentic and productive
- how to make deeper well-being a competitive advantage with clients, COIs, and prospects
The content is shared via short virtual coaching lessons that build greater trust and performance across the entire team.
To preview the content and see how The Ecology of Great Teams in Wealth Management can help your people thrive, contact us.
The introductory price is $199 per team member per year.
You purchase licenses for your team, then invite team members via email. Each person logs in to our customized website separately and privately, and engages with the content on their own. There are also exercises you do as a team together. The training explains everything. It lasts a full year so everyone has time to integrate it.
You have to have a conversation with your team first:
“Does everyone here agree that being on a team is hard? While we’re putting out a thousand fires, we have to also continually manage our needs for autonomy, transparency, and appreciation. It’s easy to get swept up in resentment and blame. I’d like our team to engage in a program that can help us improve all of this, without any woo-woo stuff. It requires around 30 minutes of private online training you do on your own each week, and maybe an hour of team-time together. I think it can help us not just as a team, but also as individuals. It’s called The Ecology of Great Teams. If we agree to do it, there’s no outside accountability partner to make us do it. It’s us. We do it for us. So please look over the material this week, think about it, then let’s vote next week on whether we do it together or not.”
If your team members aren’t able to raise their hands and commit, the team isn’t ready. That’s okay. To help nudge commitment, we’ll share stories of other teams using this, and are here if things change.
We believe so. This program helps you develop your business. Contact us with your firm name and details and we can confirm.
This varies based on your firm’s policy and the specific sponsor’s policy. Contact us with details and we can help you find out.
Usually, yes.
The framework, toolkit, and language are intended to become part of your shared norms as a team. Excluding team members from those norms works against the goals of the program. But ultimately you are in charge of how many licenses or seats you purchase and share with the team.
Is your whole team as self-aware and emotionally intelligent as you are? Or are some people sweeping things under the rug and holding private grievances? Often the senior partners on a team think everything is great, but others are afraid to be honest with you. You could ask someone else on the team to quietly check with people off-the-record. If there’s no friction and everyone feels like the whole team is transparent, empathetic, and aligned, great. In anonymously surveying over 100 top wealth management teams, we’ve yet to see that.
Virtual client events for families (especially Next Gen) on what matters most for family well-being, and for institutional clients (401k plans) and COIs on both well-being and leadership. These help you build stronger bonds. The intro for families is personal, and sounds like this:
I was born in Manhattan on Park Avenue with every opportunity. But when I was little my parents got divorced, and then my father died, and I learned at an early age that there were things money couldn’t fix or buy.
So I spent years seeking answers, trying self-help processes (with a brief stop writing for the Muppets), and eventually developed a new process, done on paper, that makes transforming problems simpler — from relationship challenges to parenting conflicts to team dynamics, business growth, and more. It’s not stress management, and it’s not therapy, although it can complement both of these things. It’s just 7 steps, done on paper, that profoundly change how you see a problem, without any stigma or “touchy-feeliness.”
I teach this process to senior leaders at big companies like Google and JP Morgan, but I also share it through top financial advisors. Why? Because the best advisors know that if clients retire with enough money but their family dynamics are strained, they won’t truly be happy. So great advisors try to safeguard your financial and emotional well-being.
You probably picked up on this, but I try to integrate my work into yours and make you look good.
Then I explain that the most important thing for family happiness (based on data) is knowing how to resolve relationship challenges effectively. I introduce my 7-step worksheet as a way to do that faster. We go through it together. I tell a few stories of other people resolving challenges with it, and then I give attendees complimentary access to the Resilience Academy content to keep going. Signed books are also an option. Whatever increases the value you add to their lives.
Two things. First, the content appeals to an unusually wide range of people:
- HNW families (men and women)
- Next Gen
- Entrepreneurs
- Athletes
- C-suite leaders
- Referral partners (CPAs, attorneys, etc.)
- Institutional clients/401k providers
- Your own family and your team’s family members
Unlike a financial topic, political topic, or business topic, the most important thing for greater well-being interests almost everyone. So you can reach hundreds of people, especially virtually, which is what we strongly recommend. Your clients’ grown kids are all over the US. This can attract them.
The second differentiator is that it’s interactive. It’s not a canned, passive presentation. We go through the 7-step worksheet together, so people have real breakthroughs into their challenges without saying anything. They appreciate that. This has changed many families.
A possible third differentiator is that I used to write for the Muppets. So my content is serious, but my presentation style is humorous and engaging. People appreciate that. The more walls we can break down between you and your clients/prospects, the better.