Confidence is a massively important quality which goes a long way to make for a fruitful contribution to the success of any team.
- Communication – this is the key to happiness, the key to trust, the key to successful relationships and a happy team. It’s good to talk and even more so when it’s constructive, fluid and free-flowing.
- Objectivity – a balanced view is a healthy view. It is essential that we have people who see things from other people’s point of view, who can appreciate other perspectives. No one wants to be ranted at by a person on their high horse or their soapbox – and that includes the boss!
- Confidentiality – we talk about some serious and extremely private stuff. A business’s intellectual property (IP) and the affairs of the clients are top secret and should be kept that way.
- Disclosure – this is similar to honesty. You must be happy to speak out and be confident to say what’s on your mind, what may have gone wrong or what you have seen as a potential issue.
- Competence – if you need the skills, learn then; if you don’t have them, don’t say you do. You must have the right skills to do the job in the right way and at the right time. People’s true abilities and skills show their face eventually so not knowing everything is not a weakness, it’s a platform for you to build on what you have and achieve your best.
When demonstrated, these principles and behaviours are essential in defining the whole person and, as you can see, ‘competence’ is only ONE of these key principles and behaviours. So, factor these key attributes into everything that you do – your recruitment process, your team profiling, and your appraisal and development programmes. Set them as your internal benchmarks for behaviours and achieve excellence as your standard!
As we start to return to some of the normal practises of business and office life, I believe there will be a ‘people movement’ shake-up as both firms and team members start to see the true colours of where they work and who they work with. Much of this will be good but most I believe will be bad. This will give many people an amazing opportunity to change the state of play – and to review how things are being done, how and by whom.
These essential key principles and behaviours are what sort the wheat from the chaff, the valuable from the useless and the thriving from the surviving – and when these key qualities are not just met but exceeded, I believe only then will excellence become a reality.
A side note: For years we’ve heard business owners tell us what magical qualities they look for in an outstanding team player, so when we set out to draft The Paraplanner Standard™ (https://standardsinternational.co.uk/ certification/theparaplannerstandard/) we knew there had never been a better time to get these qualities in writing and part of the global benchmark. Now, one essential point to make: these key principles and behaviours are not exclusive to paraplanners – no! These qualities should be considered the bare minimum for every team member in every financial advisory and planning firm in the world – without exception!
About Michelle Hoskin
Michelle Hoskin (aka Little Miss WOWW!TM) is well known for her endless enthusiasm and energy, infectious personality and unique outlook on what she describes as a “magical profession”. With over 20 years’ experience working alongside some of the world’s most successful financial services organisations, Michelle is an internationally recognised author, speaker, coach and leading expert in the design and implementation of international framework-based best practice standards. Michelle is pioneering a drive towards increased professionalism and operational excellence through her continued work at Standards International – the UK’s premier certification body for British and international financial services standards – of which she is the founder. She also most recently led a sector committee whose objective was to develop and launch an exciting new international standard for professional paraplanners
