Insights

Last week, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman told his 60,000 employees to come back to the office. "If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office. … If you want to get paid New York rates, you work in New York," Gorman said. "None of this 'I'm in Colorado...and getting paid like I'm sitting in New York City.' Sorry. That doesn't work."

For years I would send a reminder out to advisors at the end of every quarter: “Don’t forget to schedule professional development reviews with your team members.” I would usually get one of two responses: “Thank you! I completely forgot. We’re so busy we barely have time” or “I dread these meetings because I end up doing most of the talking and no one ever comes prepared.”

If I ranked all the questions I get from advisors by order of popularity, “Why can’t I find the right person to be my associate advisor?” would place in the top five. Perhaps even top three. I have found that the answer to this question has much more to do with the way advisors structure the role, rather than being an issue of the talent pool they are selecting from. Think about it this way: Our industry is obsessed with “rainmakers;” those who have a superior ability to sell and/or gather assets. We have taught advisors that if you cannot “produce,” you cannot be an advisor. As a result, advisor-leaders tend to have tunnel vision as it relates to what they want an associate advisor to look, think and act like. In fact, advisor-leaders are almost always looking for an associate advisor … who is exactly like them.