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Ep. 19: Carolyn Armitage: Competing for Talent in a Shrinking Advisor Pool
13 Plays3 months ago
Attracting new clients is often a top priority for growing RIAs, but the competitive and aging wealth management landscape also means its critical for firms to attract and retain talent.1
Human capital can play a key role in building enterprise value, according to Carolyn Armitage, Founder and CEO of RIA CircleTM and Wealth Management Consulting, LLC (formerly known as Carolyn Armitage Consulting).
In this episode, Armitage joins hosts Bill Coppel, Chief Client Growth Officer at TradePMR, and Ryan Neal, Senior Editor at TradePMR, to explore how an RIA could assemble and retain a team that helps capitalize on the growth opportunities that lie ahead.
Listen as they explore:
• Hiring strategies that may help RIAs position themselves for growth
• Practical steps for building and leading high-performing teams
• Ways to potentially avoid hiring the wrong people and help retain key players
Subscribe now, and connect with us on social media:
• YouTube
Get the transcript for this episode, with sources, at https://synergizepodcast.com/.
About Carolyn Armitage:
Carolyn is the Founder & CEO of RIA CircleTM and Wealth Management Consulting, LLC (formerly known as Carolyn Armitage Consulting) – two companies designed to help industry leaders shorten their learning curves and achieve better results.
She is a former independent financial advisor, producing branch manager, and wealth management firm leader. Before her most recent role heading up Thrivent’s independent RIA, Carolyn provided investment banking and consulting services including strategic planning, compensation design and equity sharing structuring, valuation, expert witness, and succession solutions through the firm ECHELON Partners.
Carolyn Armitage, RIA CircleTM, and Wealth Management Consulting, LLC (formerly known as Carolyn Armitage Consulting) are not affiliates of TradePMR.
More About Carolyn:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynarmitage/
Website: http://www.wealthmanagementconsulting.com/background
RIA Circle: https://www.riacircle.com/
If you want to join the conversation or connect with us, please visit us at synergizepodcast.com. This content is provided for general information purposes only. The views expressed by non-affiliated guest speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TradePMR or its affiliates. TradePMR and its affiliates do not endorse any guest speakers or their companies and therefore give no assurances as to the quality of their products and services. This channel is not monitored by TradePMR. TradePMR does not provide investment advice, tax advice or legal advice. TradePMR is a member of FINRA and SIPC. TradePMR, Inc. is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission {SEC) and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). TradePMR provides brokerage and account services to registered investment advisors. Custodial services provided by First Clearing. First Clearing is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. Copyright 2025.TradePMR, Inc. For a transcript of this episode with sources, visit
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Transcript
Introduction to Synergize Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to Synergize, unscripted conversations where we explore the evolving role of the financial advisor in an emerging AI driven world.
00:00:11
Speaker
Join us as we bring together thought leaders across a range of disciplines and industry experts, sharing insights designed to help RIAs thrive in the industry of tomorrow.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hi, I'm Bill Capelle, Chief Client Growth Officer at Trade PMR.
00:00:26
Speaker
And I'm Ryan Neal, Senior Editor at Trade PMR.
00:00:30
Speaker
And welcome to the Synergize Podcast.
Building High-Performing Teams with Carolyn Armitage
00:00:32
Speaker
Today, we're welcoming Carolyn Armitage back to the podcast.
00:00:36
Speaker
We had a great conversation with her earlier about leadership and business growth.
00:00:40
Speaker
That's right, Bill, and we're bringing Carolyn back today to talk next time about building and leading high-performing teams.
00:00:47
Speaker
It's no secret that there's a shortage of financial advisors out there, at least relative to the amount of demand for advice among retail investors.
00:00:56
Speaker
There's also increased competition to recruit and retain that top talent.
00:01:00
Speaker
So what do RIAs have to do to assemble that team and retain them if they want to capitalize on all of the growth opportunities that lie ahead?
00:01:09
Speaker
That's right, Ryan.
00:01:11
Speaker
As a leader of an RIA, or an independent practice for that matter, the team you build around you plays a key role in your ability to grow and sustain your business.
00:01:21
Speaker
I don't think anyone would argue that having a quality team isn't important.
00:01:25
Speaker
The real issue is what does it take to achieve this goal of building that quality team and the fact that failure to execute upon this could be a problem for a firm regardless of their size.
Purpose, Strategy, and Values in Talent Management
00:01:39
Speaker
But there are ways to maintain focus on this important driver of growth, as our guest, Carolyn Armitage, is here to share with us.
00:01:47
Speaker
Knowing why the firm is there and what they're driving for, their why, as Simon Sinek says, having a strategy to get there, and having guiding values or your non-negotiables for the process and path along the way, these elements, while you don't think of that necessarily from a hiring perspective, are
00:02:07
Speaker
are absolutely important in bringing on and retaining employees.
00:02:11
Speaker
They want to know there's a purpose beyond just processing whatever business they're doing.
00:02:16
Speaker
Why are we doing this?
00:02:18
Speaker
Where are we headed?
00:02:20
Speaker
So that they can follow along and be fully committed.
00:02:24
Speaker
As a reminder, Carolyn is an industry veteran and a wealth management consultant providing a range of services, including strategic planning, leadership development, and talent management.
00:02:36
Speaker
Carolyn, it's great to have you back.
00:02:38
Speaker
Thank you, Bill.
00:02:39
Speaker
Thank you, Ryan.
00:02:40
Speaker
I appreciate being here.
00:02:41
Speaker
Let me start here, Carolyn.
00:02:42
Speaker
You've been in the industry for a while.
00:02:45
Speaker
What have you seen change in the last decade or so with regard to attracting and retaining talent?
00:02:51
Speaker
I don't suppose it's getting easier.
00:02:54
Speaker
No, in fact, it's just the opposite.
00:02:56
Speaker
It's getting so much more competitive than it was in the past.
00:03:00
Speaker
And part of that is because of the growth of our industry, right?
00:03:05
Speaker
We're moving away from this cottage individual solo practitioner model into ensembles and full-blown enterprises with dramatic scale that we've never seen before.
00:03:19
Speaker
And that is taking advisors into the CEO role and sometimes CEOs of very large organizations where the people management needs to be front and center as much as the vision and the strategy of their organization.
00:03:37
Speaker
Because after all, we are in a service business.
00:03:40
Speaker
We're not making widgets.
00:03:41
Speaker
We provide services and those services are provided by people for the most part beyond the technology.
Impact of Advisor Retirement on the Industry
00:03:48
Speaker
Yeah, in addition to that, I recently saw a report from Cerule that suggests about 37% of financial advisors are going to be leaving the industry or retiring, controlling $10.4 trillion in assets which are going to move.
00:04:05
Speaker
And that represents, as I think, about 40% of the industry assets at play here.
00:04:12
Speaker
So in addition to the points you made in terms of attracting talent, we're actually seeing the talent pool shrink, if you will.
00:04:21
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:04:22
Speaker
And that's forcing us to take a look at how you train employees.
00:04:27
Speaker
And maybe you don't bring somebody in already experienced.
00:04:31
Speaker
Maybe you need to coach them up, hire people with terrific characteristics and the ability to learn rapidly and have terrific attitudes, customer service work, where they can excel into the organization quickly and move up the chain.
00:04:49
Speaker
as well as we're seeing a lot of M&A specifically for the talent acquisition or to fill some gaps that the organization may have.
00:04:57
Speaker
Well, awesome.
00:04:58
Speaker
Well, Carolyn, again, it's great to have you back.
00:05:00
Speaker
Congrats on being, I think, our first repeat guests.
00:05:04
Speaker
You know, the reason we're having you back is you gave us a lot of great stuff last time.
00:05:09
Speaker
And so this time, I'd love to get down at some of the nuts and bolts here of what does it take to build a high performing team?
00:05:15
Speaker
What do leaders need to go out and do?
00:05:17
Speaker
What do they need to look for?
00:05:18
Speaker
What does that process look like?
00:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great question.
00:05:22
Speaker
And it's
00:05:24
Speaker
It's hard to give some generalities without specifics, but I do know one common thread that goes throughout all of the hiring elements, and that is really knowing what you're hiring for.
00:05:39
Speaker
And I know that sounds really elemental, but it's super important, right?
00:05:44
Speaker
So that is having a job description.
00:05:47
Speaker
You'd be amazed at how many firms try to hire without a complete job description.
00:05:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:56
Speaker
So really honing in on the skills that you need for a role as opposed to just hiring the first person that you like.
00:06:06
Speaker
It's helpful to like the person and enjoy working with them.
00:06:10
Speaker
More important is that they have the right skillset and the right attitude to be able to collaborate with the other team members and execute on whatever you need them to execute on.
00:06:22
Speaker
And it's so easy for folks to hire people that they like
00:06:27
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And it's really hard for them to get rid of people that they like, even if they don't really fit the bill for what they needed for the organization.
00:06:36
Speaker
So you can really hone in on what you're looking to achieve and what are the skill sets to get there.
00:06:43
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That will help you define more of a niche for the people for you to recruit and retain.
Effective Hiring and Interview Techniques
00:06:52
Speaker
And so as you go through that hiring process, when you bring in a person, hopefully the organization has several people that will be interviewing them.
00:07:04
Speaker
Super particular if they're going to be working on a leadership or a management team or supervising employees.
00:07:13
Speaker
It's really critical to get the others on the leadership team to also interview with them, get their perspective.
00:07:20
Speaker
Usually each one of those interviews, somebody will pick up on a clue that somebody else didn't, that will either be a positive or maybe a detractor for their candidacy to work in your organization.
00:07:33
Speaker
And so to have several different meetings with the employees, I think is crucial.
00:07:38
Speaker
If there's any type of client facing or business development work,
00:07:43
Speaker
And really just kind of the teamwork element, I highly recommend that you have a meal with the employee in a separate location.
00:07:54
Speaker
Don't just bring a lunch into the office because it's convenient.
00:07:57
Speaker
Spend a little more time with them.
00:07:59
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Get out of the element.
00:08:00
Speaker
Go to a restaurant, ideally dinner.
00:08:03
Speaker
If you only have time for lunch, okay.
00:08:06
Speaker
But break some bread, have a meal, see how they treat strangers, see how their mannerisms are.
00:08:14
Speaker
Sometimes in these other different environments, people will let their guard down a little bit more and you might be able to find more of the real self.
00:08:21
Speaker
They might feel more relaxed and feel comfortable being more authentic so that you can really understand who they are and whether or not they will fit in with the team.
00:08:33
Speaker
I love that because I firmly believe you can tell a lot about a person by how they treat a waitstaff at a restaurant.
00:08:40
Speaker
Absolutely, Ryan.
00:08:41
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I couldn't agree with you more.
00:08:42
Speaker
You know, I want to pull on a little bit of a thread there, Carolyn, because, you know, what I'm hearing here kind of ties back to one of the five things that you identified when we spoke, you know, last podcast.
00:08:57
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And I would talk about this in terms of that idea of the job description, right?
00:09:04
Speaker
If you don't have a clear vision of where you want to get, and if you haven't identified the right still sets ahead of time, you're creating this
00:09:15
Speaker
Filling this role becomes challenging because a lot of times it's around, oh, we need another person.
00:09:20
Speaker
Right.
00:09:20
Speaker
We're really busy.
00:09:21
Speaker
We need another person.
00:09:23
Speaker
And I think of it in the context of actually two roles, right?
00:09:28
Speaker
There's the role you need today, and then there's the role you need tomorrow from that same individual.
00:09:34
Speaker
Talk to us a little about how you would advise a leader of a firm, what would be the kind of right way to think about a hiring strategy, if you will, in order to not only achieve your immediate needs, but also position the firm short brinks.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah, that is one of the largest challenges of managing individual development and the firm growth is that you need some individuals that are bread and butter, day in, day out, love to do a certain type of work, and they don't have the desire to climb up the corporate ladder, so to speak.
00:10:17
Speaker
And there are others that very much want to see that career path from the get-go.
00:10:23
Speaker
So I would encourage owners and CEOs to design a career path for those that want to do more and more and more and are hungry for growth at both personal and professional development, as well as it's okay if somebody doesn't want that growth.
00:10:43
Speaker
A good example here would be servicing advisors versus business development advisors.
00:10:50
Speaker
Growing organizations need both, very much so.
00:10:54
Speaker
And those two types of advisors have very different skillsets and motivators.
00:10:59
Speaker
And so you need to build your organization to support both types.
00:11:04
Speaker
And I would say that oftentimes folks are underutilized in organizations.
00:11:11
Speaker
Right?
00:11:11
Speaker
So for employees, I will find employees in organizations who are really not utilized to their full capability because perhaps the firm isn't growing large enough or fast enough, I should say, to support a promotion for them.
00:11:28
Speaker
That employee is at risk to leave and go elsewhere where they can have a faster growth process.
00:11:34
Speaker
There may be an employee who's more of a servicing type employee and comfortable doing the same thing over again, you know, for many years.
00:11:44
Speaker
And if they're being forced to change and evolve too quickly, that might be uncomfortable for them.
00:11:51
Speaker
And they may do a lateral move to another organization.
00:11:56
Speaker
Still, oftentimes, because it's a new position, they will get a bump up in compensation.
00:12:02
Speaker
but they're looking for that change of environment.
00:12:04
Speaker
If the change management process isn't being handled smoothly enough, if it's too chunky, if everybody's running around every day like their hair's on fire and there's confusion, that's not gonna be comfortable for a lot of personality types.
00:12:19
Speaker
So the ideal leader will embrace all the different types of personalities.
00:12:26
Speaker
Organizations are really strengthened when you have a variety of personality types in the firm.
00:12:32
Speaker
You just need to understand where they're coming from and how to communicate with them.
00:12:38
Speaker
And really, organizations could only go as the slowest person on the team.
00:12:43
Speaker
So you need to have the right personality fit as well as the right job description for the organization type that you're trying to lead.
00:12:51
Speaker
You fit out a bunch of very, very important issues, Carolyn, with that.
00:12:58
Speaker
Let me ask this question as a follow-up.
00:13:02
Speaker
You've done a good job of hiring a team.
00:13:05
Speaker
You've identified the right roles, the right skills, but you just hit on something that's critically important.
00:13:12
Speaker
How do you keep that team in place?
00:13:14
Speaker
You mentioned a couple of things, but talk a little bit more about, as a leader, what should I be doing?
Complexity in Managing Growing Teams
00:13:20
Speaker
What should I be thinking about in order to keep my key people in place so that we have stability and are in a better position and continue to grow?
00:13:30
Speaker
Free snacks, free snacks in the lunchroom.
00:13:32
Speaker
That's the answer.
00:13:33
Speaker
Free snacks are great.
00:13:34
Speaker
Employees love that.
00:13:37
Speaker
Now, if you're operating a virtual organization or some of your folks hybrid, then you'll need to send those snacks out to where they live.
00:13:46
Speaker
Right?
00:13:47
Speaker
Yeah, one of the downsides.
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's one of the downsides.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:13:54
Speaker
And so I think...
00:13:56
Speaker
What we're seeing today is that managing employees is more complex than it ever has been.
00:14:03
Speaker
Especially the larger your organization becomes, the more sensitive folks are to this environment.
00:14:09
Speaker
If you're an organization of five people or less, you can get away with a lot more in that environment.
00:14:16
Speaker
As you have 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 employees, you've got to have a lot of systemic processes in place to support those employees.
00:14:27
Speaker
For example, I do a lot of compensation work throughout the industry.
00:14:32
Speaker
And having an intentional compensation program for all of your team members
00:14:41
Speaker
can really help avoid conflicts.
00:14:44
Speaker
Today's employee oftentimes will share what they're making with other employees, which didn't happen back in the day, right?
00:14:52
Speaker
I'm one of the old veterans in the industry, been in the industry for 35 years.
00:14:56
Speaker
Like that never would have happened 20 years ago.
00:14:58
Speaker
Today's employee understands that they can gain a competitive edge by sharing out that information.
00:15:06
Speaker
And if an owner has a haphazard way of compensating folks without a systemic design for the organization, you're going to find some vulnerabilities there and some feelings will be hurt and you'll probably have some turnover because of it.
00:15:21
Speaker
Additionally,
00:15:24
Speaker
Compensation isn't everything by any means.
00:15:27
Speaker
It is an important element and to have alignment between what your compensation incentives are and the mission of the organization
00:15:37
Speaker
is really critical.
00:15:39
Speaker
The higher up folks go within the organization, the more crucial or key they are to the success of the organization, the more likely they will expect equity incentives.
00:15:50
Speaker
So equity incentives are very commonplace for executives, especially at larger firms in our industry.
00:15:59
Speaker
And oftentimes, firms will come to me for advice and equity incentives
00:16:07
Speaker
sharing program to implement for the organization after they have lost a key person or two and then they realize, okay, this is really a big deal.
00:16:16
Speaker
I need to put in place an equity sharing program.
00:16:19
Speaker
My phantom plan didn't work, right?
00:16:21
Speaker
A bonus program wasn't sufficient.
00:16:24
Speaker
It's because the employees aren't feeling valued.
00:16:27
Speaker
They're not feeling seen, heard.
00:16:30
Speaker
And there's really that mismanagement or the lack of sharing of the economics that can lead to a lot of resentment.
00:16:39
Speaker
So I guess what I'm, long story short, I'm trying to say is that as you have a larger, more scaled organization, the more complex managing your human capital will be.
00:16:52
Speaker
And the earlier you can get ahead of that with a systemic approach, soup to nuts of job description, specific hiring process of who they meet with,
00:17:02
Speaker
a specific goal intention for year over year for both corporate goals as well as individual goals and then a performance management system and a perfectly aligned compensation system as well as a great culture.
00:17:17
Speaker
Like it's a complex model to have success here.
00:17:22
Speaker
And that's why you're seeing people being very specifically hired as chief people officer to help with that employee experience.
00:17:31
Speaker
Right, let me just add this one thought here real quick, which is, Carolyn, I think that the way you describe that is spot on.
00:17:39
Speaker
And I think that it isn't necessarily only for the larger firms that we're talking about here.
00:17:49
Speaker
Whether you're a firm with five people or 50 people, the principles of what you're talking about should be there.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, right.
00:17:59
Speaker
Well, so now on the flip side, talking about hiring, what can firms do to avoid hiring the wrong people?
00:18:07
Speaker
Because we all know what that looks like.
00:18:09
Speaker
All of us at some point have worked somewhere with a person who just really did not fit for one reason or the other.
00:18:16
Speaker
And there's a cost associated with it, right?
00:18:17
Speaker
If that person has to move on,
00:18:19
Speaker
You got to fill in for him.
00:18:20
Speaker
And it's just, it's, it's, it's, you know, not great.
00:18:23
Speaker
Not to be too negative, but what confirms do to avoid getting into that situation in the first place?
00:18:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great, great comment, Ryan.
00:18:32
Speaker
So I would say that the optimal situation is for a firm to be proactive or to hire ahead of the curve, right?
00:18:43
Speaker
So more often firms are, oh my gosh, we've got so much business development, new clients coming in, new assets coming in, new programs that we're implementing.
00:18:56
Speaker
I need another body, right?
00:18:58
Speaker
Right?
00:18:59
Speaker
So they're hiring after the curve.
00:19:01
Speaker
And so it creates stressors on everybody, the current team, the owners or the executives running the organization and pressure to get kind of almost anybody in to help relieve the pressure.
00:19:17
Speaker
And obviously that can lead to poor decision-making.
00:19:20
Speaker
So the ideal firm would hire ahead of the curve of, okay, we're going to go into this growth mode here.
00:19:27
Speaker
Who are we going to need to support the growth?
00:19:30
Speaker
You have to dip into your pocket a little bit there because you're hiring this person before that new revenue is on board.
00:19:38
Speaker
And that can be painful.
00:19:39
Speaker
And thus most advisors hire after the fact.
00:19:43
Speaker
So if you are hiring after the fact, going back to some of my earlier comments of making sure you have a good review of the candidate and have many individuals provide feedback.
00:19:58
Speaker
their input on the person, every interaction from the receptionist when they come in, to peers, to people they'll be supervising, to folks that will be managing them.
00:20:12
Speaker
Have as many eyeballs and meetings with this person as possible.
00:20:17
Speaker
Don't just bring them in once, at least see them in three different occasions.
00:20:21
Speaker
So hiring slow and thoughtful, anybody can show up once or twice
00:20:29
Speaker
Well, I'll show you one of my fables over time.
00:20:36
Speaker
There was an employee that I hired, gosh, this was like 20 years ago.
00:20:40
Speaker
It was for a marketing position and she gave the best answers.
00:20:45
Speaker
She brought materials that she had developed before.
00:20:48
Speaker
She was amazing.
00:20:50
Speaker
When she actually showed up to work a few weeks later, I swear it was somebody else.
00:20:57
Speaker
Like it was a completely different person.
00:20:59
Speaker
And what I ended up finding out by digging in more is that the person had had somebody else, actually his sister, create the marketing materials for them, for their interview.
00:21:12
Speaker
And so I was able to through, you know, answering some questions and some work that was assigned and some honest, difficult conversations with the individual.
00:21:25
Speaker
She did have a quick early exit, but it was really a mess on my part and that I needed to go a little slower, a little more thoughtful with her.
00:21:33
Speaker
And so I've implemented that process ever since.
00:21:37
Speaker
You know, and you're absolutely right.
00:21:39
Speaker
And one of the things I wanted to pull out before I ask my next question is that notion that I've seen this myself in the work that I've done consulting with firms is there's a tendency to want to wait to hire until the revenue's there because of the belief that it's going to cost more.
00:22:01
Speaker
And the real answer is it's going to cost you a multiple of more
00:22:06
Speaker
when you don't hire in anticipation of growth.
00:22:09
Speaker
Either you believe you're going to grow or you're not going to grow.
00:22:12
Speaker
One or the other.
00:22:13
Speaker
You can't sit in the middle.
00:22:15
Speaker
And I've consulted with a number of firms on this front.
00:22:18
Speaker
I said, if you know you've got a plan in place and this is what needs to get done and this is where you expect to be, hire now.
00:22:25
Speaker
In a lot of positions, it takes them six months.
00:22:29
Speaker
to just get comfortable in the role where you then can depend on them to make the right decisions and do what they need to do.
00:22:36
Speaker
So that's a great point you raise.
00:22:38
Speaker
I want to shift gears for a moment and draw on your experience from the M&A world for a moment.
00:22:46
Speaker
When you think about the value of a firm,
00:22:50
Speaker
How does the quality of the team, and I know this sounds simple and obvious, obviously it matters, but when you really start to crunch the numbers and assign value, how much value can you assign to the quality of a team in valuing the firm?
The Role of Team Quality in Firm Value
00:23:10
Speaker
The team members are sometimes the motivator for acquisitions in today's marketplace, where instead of trying to bring somebody in and train them or to try to hire in such a competitive market and having to pay outsized numbers, um,
00:23:31
Speaker
it can be a really good play to merge with or acquire a firm that has some really competent individuals.
00:23:40
Speaker
And certainly, it's absolutely critical when somebody's doing an internal succession.
00:23:48
Speaker
Also, for external successions, the firm that is acquiring the firm is also not just looking at the number one rainmaker, they're looking at the bench strength.
00:23:59
Speaker
So that number one brain maker typically has the best relationships with the clients because they convince the clients to come with the firm.
00:24:08
Speaker
Sometimes they're servicing those clients.
00:24:11
Speaker
What happens when that person retires?
00:24:13
Speaker
Whether it's one year later, two years later, five years later, you need to have bench strength.
00:24:19
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for the team.
00:24:20
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So this is where building up your team, while it can cost you in the short run, actually is a strength and adds value to the organization when it comes time to selling.
00:24:33
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So it can possibly affect the value of your firm.
00:24:37
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Absolutely.
00:24:38
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As well as if you have gaps and not enough team members will hurt the value of your organization, as well as you probably had a lot of inefficiencies that you weren't able to capitalize on the optimal profitability for the organization as well.
00:24:56
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Makes sense.
00:24:57
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Makes sense.
00:24:57
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Great.
00:24:58
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Well, Carolyn, I'm going to start wrapping up our
Leadership Vision and Maximizing Resources
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conversation.
00:25:00
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You're a veteran of the podcast.
00:25:02
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You know how this works.
00:25:03
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But we'd like to leave our listeners with three actual items, something they can implement and start working on today to whether it's building a team or retaining a team.
00:25:14
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What are three things to help them gain that competitive edge?
00:25:18
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Nice question.
00:25:19
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So I would say...
00:25:21
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The first one starting with the most important one, right, is having a vision for the organization, vision, a mission, whatever you want to call it.
00:25:30
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But knowing why the firm is there and what they're driving for, their why, as Simon Sinek says, having a strategy to get there.
00:25:42
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and having guiding values or your non-negotiables for the process and path along the way, these elements, while you don't think of that necessarily from a hiring perspective, are absolutely important in bringing on and retaining employees.
00:25:58
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They want to know there's a purpose beyond just processing whatever business they're doing.
00:26:04
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Why are we doing this?
00:26:05
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Where are we headed?
00:26:07
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so that they can follow along and be fully committed.
00:26:10
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So that's number one.
00:26:12
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Number two, I would say is to best utilize your resources.
00:26:18
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This is on the people side as well as technologies.
00:26:22
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So from the people side, this is both your employees as well as your centers of influence.
00:26:31
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making sure you have the right alignment and you're fully leveraging them to have full employment.
00:26:38
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Oftentimes, organizations may have people with a lot of capacity, and that isn't necessarily intentional.
00:26:45
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It isn't because they're hiring ahead of the curve.
00:26:48
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It's just because they're underutilized.
00:26:50
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And when you look at that element of waste with technology, instead of just buying the latest, greatest technology tool out there, make sure there's alignment with your purpose and that you're fully utilizing technology tools.
00:27:05
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Oftentimes I'll see firms having a couple of CRMs, for example, and neither one of them are being used to their full extent.
00:27:14
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And then thirdly, I would say is to
00:27:18
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really know yourself as a leader, as a CEO.
00:27:21
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And I know that might be strange, but as a CEO, the more authentic you are, the more self-aware you are, the more you'll be able to appreciate others' differences and the value that they bring to the organization.
00:27:37
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and that you will intentionally hire others that don't have your skill set instead of just hiring people that you like or people that are just like you, you actually need differentiation to maximize the value and the optimization of your organization.
00:27:54
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The last thing you want is to be like the emperor who has no clothes.
00:27:59
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You don't want to surround yourself with yes people.
00:28:01
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You want to surround yourself with a variety of thoughts and opinions to be able to have all perspectives in place to be able to make the best decisions for your organization moving forward.
00:28:12
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Fantastic.
00:28:12
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So to sum up, I believe I've got, have a vision for the organization, utilize your resources and know yourself.
00:28:20
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And I'll tweak a little bit.
00:28:21
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Be honest with yourself, sounds like.
00:28:23
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Which is harder than it sounds like.
00:28:26
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Yeah, absolutely.
00:28:28
Speaker
Well, once again, Carolyn, thank you so much for joining us.
00:28:31
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We hope you enjoyed today's conversation.
00:28:33
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If you like what you heard, please take a minute to like and subscribe wherever you're getting this podcast.
00:28:39
Speaker
Please follow us on social media.
00:28:41
Speaker
And thank you for listening.
00:28:44
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And I want to add my thanks, Carolyn, for being with us today.
00:28:48
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Great insights, and we appreciate you sharing your thinking.
00:28:52
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And to our listeners, I say thank you.
00:28:54
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And watch out for our next episode, where we'll bring you even more insights and actual ideas to help you grow your business.
00:29:01
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And remember, the challenge is yours to capitalize on what the future offers.
00:29:09
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If you want to join the conversation or connect with us, please visit us at synergizedpodcast.com.
00:29:15
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00:30:19
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