Love your clients, not yourself

Doing a lot more talking than listening — Too many advisors begin a client relationship with answers rather than questions. Assuming a client needs product X without doing comprehensive fact-finding is unconscionable.

Having weak ethical values — Certain advisors put expedience ahead of integrity in their business practices. Anything is acceptable, they believe, as long as it feathers their nest — now.

What happens to a business of narcissists? Does it produce satisfied customers and growing revenues over time? Does it deliver true long-term value to customers rather than flash-in-the-pan thrills? Does it expect a commitment to ethics instead of lips service to compliance? Does it make for a better society?

On all counts, the answer is “no.” So if you find your eyes gravitating to the mirror more frequently these days, here’s what to do:

• Start viewing yourself as a servant. You exist to help your clients, not vice versa.
• Don’t make recommendations based on what you stand to earn. Focus exclusively on what’s best for the client.
• Force yourself to walk in your clients’ shoes. Think about what it would be like to own their problems — and what it would take to solve them.
• Practice full disclosure. What you think you might lose by disclosing, you’ll gain in trust.
• Get comfortable with the idea that the world does not exist to make you happy.

Advisors who stop admiring themselves quite so much will become better advisors — and better human beings. I also suspect they’ll work less, but make a lot more money. Now that’s something to love.

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