You've Been Framed

CHAPTER 2 What the Best in the Business Don’t Want You to Know The Five Wealth Management Reframes

What is it that separates the highest-performing financial advisors from everyone else? Is it the ability to sell big? Is it awesome technical expertise? Is it uncanny insight into markets, or is it super-savvy people skills? All of these traits help the best performers rise to the top, but at the core of these advisors’ success is . . .

• the ability to innovate.

Top-performing advisors—or those whom I call the “best in the business”—can change on the fly and know how to adjust. They shift, modify, and improve as circumstances and contexts change, and they are improving all the time. These advisors are not afraid to reframe when needed; in fact, they know that they will fall behind, maybe even fail, if they don’t.

What the top-performing advisors don’t want other advisors to know is that they are successful in the business because they are really good at adjusting. Right? No one wins the game because they insist on sticking with the game plan regardless of what they see happening on the playing field. The only way to win is to adjust, and the best in the business don’t want you to know that they are masters at adapting to changing circumstances. What’s more, they are also really good at empowering those around them—on their teams and in their firms—to adjust, too.

Another way to think of it is as a willingness to reframe. Reframing is really about getting a read on where your ...