Financial Advisor Leadership: Time management is one of the most crucial skills you can develop. You are guiding the rest of your team, and they will only be able to meet various goals when the proper allocation of time and resources is achieved.
As a professional financial advisor career coach, leadership coach, and prosperity advisor, I frequently speak with those in the field struggling to differentiate when to focus on client emails, team building, or any number of other crucial tasks.
When you learn the benefits of managing your time best, you will see a direct impact on your positive productivity and firm efficiency. It is all about striking a balance so you and your team accomplish the most highly relevant tasks to keep your ship sailing smoothly.
In this article, we’ll review the basics of time management and the tips I’ve found most helpful in my professional career as a financial advisor.
How Does Time Management Relate to Financial Advisor Leadership?
Proper time management must be in place so that you can assign specific time slots to those tasks that benefit your practice the most. Not everything on your giant “to-do” list has to be completed today. There are priorities, and it is your role to assign them as you see fit.
Delegation and understanding your team’s capabilities are equally important to time management. You want to assign tasks to specific members, so your workload is also achievable. At the end of the day, you want what works best so you can serve your clients and meet their unique needs without sacrificing the leadership your team relies upon.
Remember, you are setting the example and business tone. The more people see you as being highly efficient and respecting their time-frames, the likelier that same attitude will be given to you.
Top Tips for Boosting Time Management
Here are some of the most important tips I’ve learned as a financial advisor. We can discuss many others during a coaching session, but this should give you enough perspective to rethink how you optimize your time with clients and team members.
#1 – Stay Positive
Being a financial advisor means making thousands of unique decisions every single day. You have to do everything from anticipating your firm’s complex challenges to convincing certain clients to take risks they may not be prepared for mentally or emotionally.
You must stay proactive and positive through this process. Trying to get to all of these decisions as they crop up will not lead to efficiency. Prioritization must be your mantra. Allocate time only to those issues you know must be addressed and remain positive so people see you are managing confidently.
#2 – Introduce Strategic Efficiency
Every minute of your work time should be focused on goal achievement. Even if you’re meeting with a team member looking for skill development opportunities, you are improving your team’s ability to achieve more down the road.
As you consider your daily activities, don’t move from topic to topic like a dog hoping for a treat. Focus your attention where needed most and streamline all activities to maximize your productivity equally. This way, you always remain aligned with long-term goals that benefit the firm the most.
#3 – Manage Communication First
Anyone working in financial advising is well aware of how much of a “time suck” answering endless emails and client inquiries can be. If you want to infuse time management into your practice, you must develop a strategic and structured plan for addressing emails, texts, leads, and other daily communication.
For example, author Tim Ferriss of the 4-Hour Work Week only answers emails for 20 minutes at the beginning and ending of a day. While the beauty of technology has done wonders for global communication, it doesn’t mean you must be tethered to every notification coming your way.
I recommend you integrate a calendar, CRM software, and other marketing efficiencies to manage all communication. Also, hire a social media director or assistant, as that will save you a lot of time down the road.
#4 – Document Everything
This is more of a two-part tip for financial advisor leadership and time management. Productivity is easier to achieve when you have solid organization. All documents floating through your office should be flagged appropriately for dates, client names, and other information relevant to your searches. That will ensure you can quickly locate crucial information when needed most.
The second part of this tip is to use a template for all your documents. Having a package ready to send through a digital PDF or physical format saves you a ton of time when dealing with clients. You want your onboarding and communication processes to be streamlined with templated paperwork that everyone on your team understands.
#5 – Use Time Blocking
You’ve probably noticed a theme in this article about prioritizing items in your time management goals. Time blocking helps with this task. Setting aside 10, 20, or 30-minute blocks for dealing with specific tasks and then moving on once that time is up.
An excellent example of this process is the Pomodoro technique. The basic idea is to set a timer for 25-30 minutes to focus on a single task, then break for 5 minutes and rinse and repeat as needed. You can do the same thing, but from task to task. Maybe 25 minutes for updating one client and then a tiny break until you spend another 25 minutes addressing any employee requests for the month.
Breaking up your tasks into blocks also helps with achievement. You’ll get a confidence boost that the ship is moving forward because you’ll see incremental improvements as you finish each block. Bigger tasks suddenly become much more attainable through segmentation using time blocks.
#6 – Stick to Effective Meetings
I will say this very clearly so everyone can hear it: never hold a meeting that can be achieved through a 5-minute phone call or simple email. Meetings waste so much time because they can quickly lose focus on the primary goals or get sidetracked by other subjects unrelated to the task at hand.
That being said, as a financial advisor, you must meet with clients. In these cases, stick to an agenda focused on specific goals, set a strict time limit, and be disciplined about meeting times. Ensure your team knows to respect each other’s time by attending the meeting at the correct time and not late.
#7 – Universal Notifications
A CRM or other financial advising software is crucial to your success. It allows you to take notes directly to client files so the information you need to act on is readily available in the most convenient location.
Trying to write out handwritten reminders or set up endless alerts on your smartphone will not end well. Details will likely be lost, or you’ll lose a frame of reference for the notification. Have a universal system of notifying yourself of any adjustments, notes, or reminders. A CRM has built-in follow-ups and deadlines to help you manage your time best.
#8 – Automate with Technology
One of the most significant benefits of technology is automation. Boosting productivity for financial advisors helps with software where you can schedule automated marketing campaigns, auto-responding email messages, and other streamlined tasks.
The goal is to reduce the workload on repetitive and mundane tasks. This will free up the time your team has to address more unique needs and business concerns. A popular option is to have a generative AI chatbot to answer client questions through your website or an immersive FAQ page. Another would be an email sequence for new leads you capture through your website intake form.
#9 – Integrate Remote Everything
Don’t be surprised when clients, team members, and partners request remote access to files and meetings. Working in a virtual environment is way more common now that we live in a post-Covid world.
Integrate remote access to everything you need to operate your financial advising firm. It will help you manage all the details you need as well as digitally delegate to your trusted team members so you can manage your time better when not in the office.
Final Thoughts
Time management is an integral part of financial advisor leadership. You must find a way to implement strategies to maximize productivity and efficiency as you lead your team.
Remember that a small change to your processes can lead to significant changes. Something as simple as having an autoresponder to general emails may not feel like much when you save 15 minutes daily. But if you spread that out to 50 weeks, that’s over 62 hours of saved time.
There are so many ways to ensure you get the most out of your time, so test what methods work best for the style and personality of your team. Set the tone and invite your clients to share in the journey. You may be surprised how many have faced similar challenges in their careers and can offer exceptional insights.
