Since our office is closed for meetings, most of our staff can work from anywhere. Some are visiting friends and staying in warm places, some are working from second homes. Some are working from vacation rentals, while others are trying to understand how to handle their newfound flexibility.
Does this mean we can bring in staff from anywhere? If so, do we need to have a setup so we can bring people in for certain meetings when travel is safe? There is a lot to gain in a virtual world—and there is a lot that is lost.
In our open office concept, it is distracting to have people overhear your conversations, yet it also leads to a sharing of ideas that can’t happen remotely. If I drop by someone’s desk and they aren’t there, I have passed 20 other people on the way that I can stop and chat with. I can’t do this remotely.
So understanding where we are going to work is one of the key things we have to learn. There are going to be missteps and casualties as this gets worked out. It’s simply better in many situations to meet face to face rather than on Zoom. So giving up the great to deal with the good will take work.
When?
When financial advisors ask the question “When?” it’s usually when they’re thinking about retirement (their own).
Knowing when this needs to happen is an art, not a science. I know accountants who had mandatory retirement. For some it was great, and for others it wasn’t. Some firms were ready to get rid of the old blood and some still valued it.
In our firm, the people who are next in line to take over our firm are older than my partner Wil Heupel and I were when we started the business. They have a different set of skills than we have, and the company is in a far different place than it was almost 35 years ago. But asking when our retirement happens is hard, because as we give up our ownership, we don’t automatically give up our influence. It’s often cleaner for, say, the head minister to leave the congregation when he or she is no longer in charge of it. In our business, however, neither Wil nor I are ready to walk away (and the next generation is not asking us to).
Still, every day we give up a little more, unfortunately feel a little less significant, and try to demonstrate the reasons we are so important. Those efforts probably won’t delay the due date, but they mean it won’t be as traumatic. There is no need to replace Wil and me. We need to understand what parts of each of us can be replaced, what has outlived its usefulness and what we can and should continue to offer. Can Wil and I be comfortable as trusted elders who allow the next group to do things potentially differently than we did? Does the next generation even value elders? If not, then the future of the organization is in trouble.
It won’t be a drop-the-microphone moment. It also can’t be the next generation performing covers of our music. They have to be able to write their own songs, which maybe Wil and I will learn to perform. (I hope it turns out better than Pat Boone’s In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, where he performs songs like “Enter Sandman” and “Smoke on the Water.” Let me tell you, that isn’t music to my ears.)
Why is it important to ask all these questions? Because it matters. Most of us are generally great at the “how,” OK at the “why,” but maybe not so attentive to all the stuff in between. And without understanding the in between, the “how” is not as good as it could be.
Ross Levin is the chief executive officer and founder of Accredited Investors Wealth Management in Edina, Minn.