Peter Switzer says the biggest issue is becoming better leaders.
The greatest challenge we have in our business is not the Gillard Government’s reform of our industry; and it’s not the impact of the GFC, which has made some clients toey about being invested in the market; and it’s not the fact that Storm has created a bad reputation for the industry.
The big problem was made clear to me after spending a week acting as MC for leadership guru, John Maxwell, at three conferences in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. For those who missed him, you passed up an opportunity to give your business and your leadership in that business a genuine boost.
To put this guy into context, he is a 67-year-old former pastor whose PhD became a business best-seller. His publisher actually told him that his core audience was increasingly becoming the business reader; and as he had led numerous big congregations, he chose to concentrate on showing business people how to boost their leadership.
Now, you might be saying: “So,what?” Many of us know you have to be a good boss, but too many underestimate the real importance of leadership in building a great financial planning business.
Let’s face it, we are not only leaders of our staff, but we are leaders of our clients. We are money thought leaders, money coaches and even money psychologists for those who follow us. And so if you are unhappy with the progress of your business, then maybe you should have an objective look at your leadership.
By the way, Maxwell has sold more than 20 million books and his next one out – The Five Levels of Leadership – is already a New York Times best-seller, as 250,000 pre-orders have already been made!
Maxwell starts off his presentation by arguing that there is a Law of the Lid, which comes from his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. What this law says is that a business will never rise above the level of the leader of that business.
So if you are a five out of 10 leader, you will have a four out of 10 business if you are lucky. But the good news is you can push up your leadership skill!
Old management books basically suggested leadership was more an innate talent. Maxwell agrees there are those who have a walk-up start with qualities that give them leadership elevation over others, but he insists others can catch up and go past.
He makes the point that when a football team fails too often or a company is underperforming, the coach or the CEO is usually the first to go. And so, if you are making excuses, blaming anything and everything for the poor results of your business, then face facts, it is your fault and you have a leadership problem.
Maxwell says “everything rises and falls on leadership – everything”.
So what is leadership? He says it is influence, plain and simple; but the question is, what kind of influence should you have?
Ideally it comes because you have formed relationships with the people who you work with – employees and customers. You should have knowledge and have put the runs on the board, which means you earn respect.
However, you are also someone who approaches a problem by not simply telling people how it can be fixed but by asking, could it be fixed in a better way than maybe what you were thinking.
Your goals are to bring along your staff to high levels of leadership, so they grow in stature and your business grows with them. In total, it creates a remarkable business that draws favourable remarks from staff and customers.
If you want to improve your leadership, start asking a lot more questions, listen better and let your team take more responsibility.
The most important question we all have in business is how can we be better leaders; and if you don’t understand that, then you are not a leader’s bootlace.
Peter Switzer is founder of Switzer Financial Planning and hosts SWITZER on Sky News Busi- ness Channel Monday to Friday at 7pm & 10pm. Visit www.switzer.com.au or email peter@switzer.com.au
