In past columns I've talked about what we do to compete in an increasingly complex business environment. I've urged readers to look around and plan ahead. If you're like the majority of financial planners, however, you spend your day slogging through a backlog of work, wondering what's your next priority, or are involved in fire drills and urgent client calls. In either case, you have this vague sense you're not moving ahead.

Relax. This is not a self-help column about finding more hours in your day. It's about what our firm is doing to fight complacency and build a sense of urgency, both of which are critical to competing effectively. Take a few minutes to read this and see how to improve your firm's competitive edge.

WHAT, ME WORRY?

In my most recent column, I stated, "Managers must be change agents." So, once you've figured out you need to do something, and you see the changes outlined clearly in your mind, it's easy to get others to change, right? Wrong! How do you get everyone moving in the same direction? In John P. Kotter's book, Leading Change, he mentions eight steps for successful changes.

The first and most important step is creating a sense of urgency. In fact, Kotter's research showed that increasing feelings of urgency in companies is a critical part of leadership. His follow-up book, A Sense of Urgency, explains why this is important.

Right now, you're saying to yourself, "Boy, I do understand urgency! I've got a fire drill on my hands. Revenues are down, clients are cranky, costs haven't come down as fast as revenues, and profits are getting very slim. Kautt has no idea how anxious I am right now!" If this is you, you have several issues to deal with:

• Understanding the nature of the challenges
• Bringing the outside in
• Behaving with urgency every day
• Finding opportunity in crisis
• Dealing with naysayers.

I'm going to talk about the first three issues in this column and discuss the last two in my next column. But, before I get into these issues, here's something important: How you involve your employees in all these areas is critical. If your conversations are mostly intellectual, your impact—and results in the firm—will be minimal.

What do you do? Great leaders enlist cooperation and support by connecting emotionally to the hearts of others. How does this happen? The communication must be from your heart, evoking appropriate emotions, using experiences the listeners can relate to that make sense in their own personal framework.

To connect with people, you rarely need a lot of numbers or data to support your ideas. For example, you don't discuss the chemical makeup of a fire when trying to get people out of a burning building. On the other hand, you don't want to evoke fear, panic, anger or helplessness with your employees. You must communicate with confidence, conviction and passion. Finally, a good leader helps others to raise their sights and strive for goals out of their comfort zones and above the status quo.

KNOWING CHALLENGES

Every person in your firm must understand the nature of the challenges (without revealing sensitive data). "I'm on it!" you say. You've communicated to every employee the challenges you're facing, and they're pitching in, working hard and maybe feeling your pain by absorbing some of the financial hit. But look carefully. Are they really clear on what's going on? Do you remember Phoebe on the TV series Friends? She never saw her viewpoint or comments as out of place or disconnected. But everyone else did, which made her character funny.

In our firm, however, there's nothing funny about not "getting it." In order to ensure everyone knows about our financial and operational situation—and isn't thinking like Phoebe—I hold repeated individual employee and staff meetings, along with management and stockholder meetings, to discuss the financial, operational and industry issues we face. The dialogue is ongoing, with updated information as our business situation unfolds.

BRINGING THE OUTSIDE IN

"Not Invented Here." "The Right Way, the Wrong Way and the IBM Way." Sound familiar? Almost everyone has experienced insular thinking. Ninety-five percent of businesses disappear within five years because their inwardly focused organizations miss regulatory, market and technical changes critical to their survival. They miss opportunities too.

Doing well has its own issues. Business success can kill the sense of urgency by creating an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. For example, the entire marketing plan for many advisors is waiting for the phone to ring. Not having to compete in the marketplace creates a sense of complacency and stability, leading them to focus on internal matters rather than attack new outside opportunities.