Power and responsibility
So how has the world of financial planning changed in the past 10 years? In some ways not very much and in others a crazy amount. The role that a financial professional fulfils when they’re in front of their clients, with their teams and with their own friends and family is a beautiful gift that many are lucky to experience. However, and quoting Winston Churchill as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1906, “where there is great power there is great responsibility”. Let’s use those powers and responsibilities to the best of our abilities and make the next ten years even better for ourselves and for all concerned.
Top tips for listening success
- Pay attention
When someone is talking, pay attention. Remove all possible distractions, lose the devices, the laptops and the screens, make eye contact, engage with the person and listen. Listen so hard that if there were a test asking you to recite that person’s conversation word for word, you would pass with flying colours.
- Hear the words that are not being said
We often listen at a heightened level – a level that allows us to get the main points of what is being said, but at times the choice of words and the words that are missing hold the key to what is really going on. A friend recently told me that her husband has given up everything for her and the children. Now, in the context of what we were talking about, the sentence could appear to be true – factually accurate in her mind, and most people would have no reason to question what was being said. But lucky for her, I am not ‘most people’.
I wasn’t happy with the words she chose. While that statement may have been true, I knew that the choice of words and the context in which they were said were the key to unlocking many limiting beliefs that I believed were preventing her from moving forward with a fulfilled, happy and full life.
- Be brave
If you hear something that you feel uneasy about, question it. If you hear something that you don’t believe is true, question it. If you hear something that doesn’t make sense to you, question it.
Remember the statement “seek to understand before being understood”. In order to show that you’re truly listening, ask questions – not just easy questions but the hard questions that may open up a can of worms that have been buried for some time. Do it even if some of the questions that you ask make you feel a little bit uncomfortable. Some of my most important breakthroughs have come when someone has asked questions that made a huge difference to me but made them feel a little scared and a little uncomfortable. When you’re brave, amazing things happen to and for you and others around you.
- Recognise your own frames of reference
If life is tricky for others, it’s likely to at times be tricky for you. Look at your own journey – every step of your life has formed your own beliefs, your own set of values, your own opinions about how things should be and should not be.
While I know it would never be your intention to impose any of your beliefs or opinions on others, unfortunately it’s something that cannot be helped. The truth is there is very little we can do about our own hardwiring, but what we can do is be aware that we carry it around with us all of the time.
Taking the opportunity to clear your mind, put your own life challenges to one side and focus solely on the person and situation sitting right in front of you makes you perfectly placed to help some of the most important people in your life navigate through the challenges that their life presents.
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.
Relentless in her pursuit of a global movement of change within financial services, Michelle is fully committed to supporting financial professionals worldwide to achieve things they only dreamed were possible, and to working with them so that they become the best possible version of themselves.
