Guest Post: How to Improve Team Engagement

One of the things I enjoy about my role as a coach and consultant is hearing about how firms that have been in business for 35 or 40 years got to where they are today. They’ll tell stories about sharing a sales assistant with six other “stockbrokers” (the term “wealth management” was not in fashion back in the ‘80s) and building up teams of 10, 20, or sometimes even 50+ members over the years.

Listening to their growth stories, a common theme arises: Most had trouble developing and retaining their top team members.

In most cases, the senior partners who got these firms off the ground were the top advisors, but leading a team was not their strong point. And yet they found themselves tasked with serving as CEO, building a team, and keeping team members engaged in the firm’s mission.

Sustaining your team’s engagement has never been an easy task, and research shows it’s gotten even harder in recent years. Gallup’s annual U.S. employee engagement score hit an 11-year low in the first quarter of 2024, and their latest survey reveals that only around a third of employees are fully engaged, with 16% actively disengaged.¹

The good news is, there are organizations out there getting it right. Top-performing firms average 70% engagement from their team members.² How are they achieving this level of engagement? The feedback I’ve received suggests it’s a combination of three things: Establishing a clear definition of success, providing the support team members need to achieve that level of success, and creating a coaching culture.

In this article, I’ll cover each of those areas in turn and explain how you can implement them to exceed your growth numbers, increase the number of individuals and families you can impact through your knowledge, and build a high-performing team that’s set up for long-term success.

1. Provide a Clear Definition of Success

Almost every team I have had the privilege of working with has some sort of roles and responsibilities document that lists assigned tasks for each team member. Don’t get me wrong: I understand the need for having clarity around team functions. But rarely do I find a team that has mapped out a clear definition of what success looks like for each role.

How can members of your team understand what a successful day, week, month, or even year looks like if they do not have clear measurements to guide them? To put each team member on the right track, consider building and communicating a roadmap for success that addresses the following questions:

• What are the lagging indicators (results) I am responsible for achieving?
• What are the leading indicators (activities) I should prioritize consistently?
• How will I take ownership and accountability for tracking my progress?

2. Set the Foundation for Long-Term Growth

Now that you have built a successful organization, it’s time to think differently as a leader about the people you bring on board.

High performers want to understand what it will take to grow and develop their skills so they can move up within the team. Take the time to define the specific skills your team members will need to acquire and the milestones they’ll need to reach so they can take ownership of their development. There should be a clear understanding that there is a future on the team beyond their current role.

For example, if you bring someone on as a sales assistant, what will that person need to accomplish so they can become a relationship manager? And once they are successful in a relationship manager role, how can they become a financial advisor on the team?

Following are some questions to consider as part of your team’s development plan:

• What skills does each role on the team require to be successful?
• How can I communicate expectations of the level of performance requires for someone to be considered for their next role?
• What can team members do to communicate their progress so they can be considered when opportunities arise?

3. Create a Coaching Culture

Have you ever experienced one of those “funny-but-not-funny” moments? Early on in my coaching and consulting career, there were several occasions when I showed up to meet with a wealth management team, and the conversation went something like this:

“Bryan, we are so glad you’re here, we have had this individual on the team and just want you to tell us how we get rid of them.”

My response has always been something along the lines of: “What support was provided to clarify expectations for performance and instill accountability?”

One response to that (admittedly rather pointed) question was: “I just wanted them to do what I did 20 years ago and it’s not happening.”

Most of the outstanding advisors I have worked with built their practices off a sink-or-swim mentality that still runs rampant through our industry. But that approach doesn’t work for everyone. Just look at the success rate of new advisors entering the field of wealth management: Recent research from Cerulli Associates shows that the five-year failure rate of new advisors entering the industry is hovering around 72%.³

I think we can do better as an industry, and I believe the key to improving that success rate is better coaching. In fact, Harvard Business Review research has shown that coaching boosts productivity by 44%.⁴ So why would you not want to build these skills?

To keep your team engaged, motivated, and on track for a successful long-term career, focus on creating a coaching culture where members of your team meet with you on a weekly or monthly basis. The goal of these meetings is to give team members the opportunity to report on their progress and ask for support in areas where they’re struggling.

Here are a few inquiries to get you started:

• As a leader, how can I grow my skills as an effective coach to support the development of my team members?
• What expectations can I set to make my coaching sessions effective?
• How can we build a process to instill ownership and accountability for each team member’s role?
• Creating a high-performing wealth management team is not easy, particularly as employee engagement appears to be waning. Furthermore, while day-to-day activities are critical to keeping the business running, they can take up a lot of time and energy and keep team members from thinking about future goals – including their own.

As a leader, it’s important to remember that your current and future team members are looking for a place where they understand what success looks like, know how they can build a long-lasting career, and can feel assured that they are being supported in their continued growth and development. Your success has led you down a path where it is no longer good enough to be the best advisor. To build a successful team, you must learn to be an effective coach so that your team – and ultimately, your business and clients – can thrive.

Should you need any assistance in any of the three areas listed above, feel free to reach out so we can help you implement these strategies in your practice.