Do we have to hire a recruiter? The cost is prohibitive for a small firm like ours (we are nine people). Where are advisors having success finding the right talent?

Could buying my team a book help them be more effective at sales? I am very skeptical. Convince me.

I’m looking for an employee performance-measurement process that works and is easy to implement and use.

I don’t want to give up my practice. But I have this gnawing desire to do more with my life.

My boss, the senior advisor, is a no-nonsense, almost nasty guy.

One of our analysts is making serious mistakes time and time again. Is it possible to change someone’s behavior?

Is it necessary for a financial advisor to be active on social media? The limitations we have due to compliance are significant and there already are not enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done.

What ways are new and innovative to connect more deeply with clients?

Should advisors be pushy about selling or be more discreet in our approach?

Are financial advisors more stressed out than other professionals?

The problem is my boss – I keep asking for a job description, or at minimum a set of outcomes that I am being measured against.

Am I destined to work for people who think they know everything? Is that this business?

We are trying to sell our firm or merge with a new firm. There are dozens of opportunities but we can’t find the one with the right cultural fit.

I hate to sound like an old advisor (I’m not even 50 yet), but I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the casual nature of the younger people we are hiring at the firm.

I am about to have my first child and plan to work through the pregnancy and directly afterwards. Should I address my pregnancy with prospects and clients?

One of our partners won’t listen to reason on anything, thinks he knows everything and shuts people down literally in the middle of their sentences.

If we do an offsite on our own, can you share any tips about how to make it most effective?

Where do we go to find good talent? We have a thriving advisory firm, run by great leaders and we grow every single year. We rarely lose any of our team. But when we do, it is usually because someone is moving out of state or leaving the industry. We’ve never lost anyone to a competitive financial firm.

Our millennial advisors push us (the three partners) on our “value to the community.”

I have a question about the importance of gossip. Some of the people I work with learn things they should not know, and because they weren’t told them directly, they don’t consider them to be secrets. However, many of the things that get passed around could be misconstrued and hurtful to others.

A recent conversation with a highly successful advisor prompted me to write on the importance of understanding “behavioral style.”

Is it possible to deal effectively with senior people who are irrational and don’t care about the truth?

Our founder wants to put a halt to any new hires who he doesn’t personally approve. I don’t see how this is manageable – we are at 32 people.

How can I identify advisors looking to retire and position myself as a worthy candidate for their succession needs?

As you think about ensuring your team is performing as effectively as possible in 2019, here are five key areas.

How can I find a successor to work with my clients and take my business over as I move out? I have a team of 11, but there is no one who is prepared to be my successor.

Here are a few ideas about how to redefine the stage where a client moves from full-time work to another stage of their life.

Our long-time head of operations quit unexpectedly last month. The absence gives us a chance to consider what this role should be for our firm.

It has been my life’s work to study human behavior. In this week’s column I’ll share some important elements I include whenever I work with advisors to help them be better life coaches.

In honor of my own new beginnings starting today, this column is dedicated to sharing three ideas to help you start anew and become an even better financial advisor.

How do we find good talent? Our biggest challenge is identifying those who can take the mantle from our existing partners and bring us to the next level.

I am exerting a lot of effort but don’t move things in important ways. Is there a way to think about this differently or some technique to get myself more focused on important, over-arching initiatives?

What steps are firms taking to bring about diversity? I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years and I don’t see much changing despite all of the talk.

I’m a wholesaler who wants to sell. But our firm is constantly putting new ideas, projects and priorities on our plates. We have sales-related goals we have to meet each week, but these other requests are not counted in how we are measured.

Our partners think it is important to communicate with everyone about what’s happening. I’m all for open communication, but this has turned into meeting after meeting to talk about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and then the results of what we’re doing.

Our firm is moving to a more planning-based approach. I am not opposed to doing this but our clients seem to be. In many cases they hired us for our investment expertise, not to talk to us about their future goals and desires.

My team shuts their doors all day long. I’m a very social person and as leader of the firm I want to engage and have discussions about what’s working and what’s not.

Our advisors (seven of them) are perfectly content to work with existing clients and not worry about what’s coming next. I’m one of the younger partners in the firm and am motivated to put a true sales system in place. I need advisors who will sell within that system. How do I get them motivated and on board?

How can I pull a team together most effectively? We have spent a lot of time in the hiring process identifying great people and each one – on their own – is very good. But when they come together they all jockey for the top-dog position.

We are managing money well for our clients; I’m not worried about our performance, but I am worried about my own retirement and holdings.

We hired an HR person who turned out to be an irascible gossip. Team members are coming to me to complain. What should I do?

You can minimize stress by becoming more mindful in your day-to-day advisory work.

It is frustrating to have great relationships with clients and centers-of-influence (COIs) but virtually no one refers, especially considering how many people we know. Too few of our happy clients refer to us. Is this normal?

We have had a lot of turnover at our firm. While we are a large organization, it sends a bad message when we lose so many talented people at once. And, of course, many of them are going to our competitors.

I have been very successful establishing high-value relationships and keeping clients happy. But lately our management has been focused on new sales. How can we strike an appropriate balance between driving new revenue and maintaining our existing relationships?

I frequently receive questions about dealing with aging clients. In addition to saving for retirement and developing an estate plan, learning how to deal with mental and physical incapacity in clients is important for advisors.

Why is it so hard to find good talent in this industry – young people who are motivated, know what they need to do and do it?

I can’t get my supervisor to acknowledge I can add value, even though I’ve been at my new job for three weeks.

I typically read about successors who came in and they didn’t know as much as or were less capable than the original founder. In our case we prefer the son to his dad.

When I ask an audience of advisors who wants to be a better salesperson, the room goes silent. I often say “sales” is not a four-letter word (it is five!).