Being a tool guy, it seems natural to me to think about using "power tools" when managing the growth of our firm. No, not a turbo-dishwasher, but powerful management tools used to evaluate new talent, motivate staff and enhance performance. I'm going to discuss some of these tools, how we've used them and the results, which might surprise you.

Something I heard often on Home Improvement: "You can't have too much horsepower!" Well, I agree about management techniques—although I'm not sure about dishwashers. My business education exposed me to the most advanced academic and corporate thoughts on management. Since then, I've continued to study what leading experts say about corporate organization, behavioral science, leadership, supply chain management and performance management. In a way, it's as if I'm able to examine the engines of NASCAR or Formula One race cars and observe the best designs possible—how to get the most power and torque out of the smallest, lightest engines.

Don't be fooled into thinking the horsepower thing is just a cute metaphor. General management tools are apropos for financial planning and wealth management firms if you employ more than one person. To turbocharge your firm's management, study the best thinking by subscribing to the management magazine from your business school or the Harvard Business Review (HBR). Information from HBR and books by leading experts has appeared in many of my columns and is used in our firm.

Smart is as SMART Does

Here's an example: Recently, feedback from senior staff at our firm indicated that the responsibilities for the client relations manager (CRM) position were too vague, and the criteria for evaluation were not specific enough. I decided it was time to be SMART, creating job metrics and evaluations based on Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-based goals.

Using tools from coaching programs I've participated in, plus feedback from an industrial psychologist, I created a 10-page document, "Client Relations Manager: Job Description, Responsibilities and Guidelines for Evaluation." It includes a description of job responsibilities as a CRM, as well as requirements for practical experience, professional training and formal education prior to becoming a CRM. Minimum required standards of performance and metrics for evaluation are clearly indicated as a 23-item matrix. This undertaking would have been impossible without outside help.

You may wonder about the efficacy of developing a complex set of criteria for jobs in your organization. The primary reason good people leave organizations isn't pay, it's job dissatisfaction. More specifically, they leave because they don't have a clear sense of their future role at the firm, how they will be evaluated and promoted—or they have doubts about management. You may not be looking for a faster car, but your best employees are looking for that turbocharged ride—maybe somewhere else!

I recommend that you look at every job in your firm and get five things written down on paper: job responsibilities and tasks; required professional experience; required education and certifications; on-the-job training requirements; and evaluation standards. Don't know where to start the process? Use the Moss Adams/SEI annual survey, which has descriptions of practically every job imaginable at a financial planning or wealth management firm. Get your people excited about their turbocharged future with your organization.

Speaking of jobs, as our firm size increases, job descriptions have become more specific. Simply liking the way candidates interview with us, hiring them and hoping they work out is no longer financially or organizationally acceptable. All candidates now take DISC and Kolbe tests and are interviewed by an industrial psychologist. You can find out more about these and other tests at www.discprofile.com, www.kolbe.com and www.nielsongroup.com. Testing does not cost much and has helped us avoid placing a candidate in a job not suited to his or her aptitude, personal skills, task preferences or motivational style.

For current staff, knowing what they can and can't do well is critical to your success. Current management thinking is to focus on the strongest attributes of each staff member, rather than attempt to fix perceived weaknesses. Doing the former assures the highest possible performance; doing the latter guarantees mediocrity.

For me, it was impossible to quantify the attributes necessary for each job until I knew what the job responsibilities were. More important, I really didn't know how to assess each staff member's strengths. We started to use a third test (based on the book Now, Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Clifton) to assess personal strengths. This identifies each individual's five strongest personal attributes relative to his or her job. Sometimes, not surprisingly, there are mismatches. We have responded by reassigning individuals to different jobs, redesigning the jobs themselves or—in a couple of cases—helping those individuals find jobs in other firms.

Coaching

If you want high performance, you need a coach. If you can't afford a live coach, Napoleon Hill remains one of the greatest personal coaches of all time. I recommend you read Hill's classic Think and Grow Rich, first published in 1937, and Keys to Success, published by the Napoleon Hill Foundation after his death in 1970. Have every key person in your firm read and reread these books often.

One of Hill's ideas is the mastermind alliance. The older I get, the more I realize I don't have the experience, training or knowledge necessary to be a success at every level and in every area of my business. I have been able to overcome challenges by using the power tools I've described above, plus my alliance with some of the brightest minds in the business. Fortunately, I was invited to join a business consortium called the Zero Alpha Group, which comprises eight domestic and two international firms with discretion over $7 billion in assets. The combined experience and knowledge of the principals of these firms far outstrips my limited talents.

Not part of a mastermind alliance yet? Read Hill's books and you'll have a blueprint on how to form or find the right one for you.

Not Invented Here

Do you laugh when you hear about the "not invented here" syndrome? In this classic management mistake, companies refuse to use technology or practices they didn't create. I confess, I've got NIH tendencies—you probably do, too. It's not surprising. If you're like most planners, you've got time and money invested in hardware, software, filing and storage, planning and business procedures, etc. Yet every year you go to conferences and read countless magazines (like this one), reports and books, searching for nuggets of wisdom to use in your business.

But you screen most nuggets by how they'd fit with existing systems. Sometimes your ability to use a new power tool means you have to get rid of something. In these cases, you need to ask yourself what price you're willing to pay for progress? Try this: Evaluate new ideas using the Ben Franklin technique. This involves a pros and cons, item-by-item comparison and a complete cost-benefit analysis. We use it for all proposed major projects and repeat the analysis for things such as software on an annual basis.

If you're interested in finding and keeping talented people, ensuring growth and having a better chance of success in business, use all the powerful management tools you can. Consider these four key tools to help you:

• SMART job metrics;
• professional testing and evaluation for new hires;
• personal coaching, either live or from the best classic techniques; and
• cost-benefit analysis for things with a large impact on cost or revenue.

Get in gear with these concepts and you'll cross the finish line a winner every time.

Glenn G. Kautt, CFP, EA, is a financial planning practitioner and president of The Monitor Group, a wealth management firm in McLean, Va. He can be reached at kautt@themonitorgroup.com.

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