Team Vs. Family

(holding baseball in hand) Look at this ball it is perfectly round and fits great into my hand. It is meant to be thrown considerable distance. Without the ball there is no way for the team to come together to make the win. The pitcher couldn’t pitch, the catcher couldnt catch,  and the the hitter couldn’t get on base.

 In my experience, goal planning is serving our clients to keep the eye on the ball and limit distractions to get them to their base of choice. Do they want to hit a to first base gross/consolidation, 2nd base Essential portfolio, 3rd base Selective portfolio, or obtain the ultimate a homerun with Advisor Direct partner & consolidate assets. I have been able to observe the transition from the transaction model to the relationship model. Those who have been able to embrace goal planning as part of their process have found more business success than those who have not made it through spring training and are trying to muscle their way through the goal plans.

 I know when we construct a goal plan for a client we are in sense allowing them the chance to hit the most effective homerun.

 1.Motive and Inspire

As coaches our role is to motive and inspire our players to perform their best. We must set the tone that will inspire and uplift our team to greatness. It has been proven at TD Ameritrade when we have more goals in our plans we will have larger conversion sizes. By expanding our knowledge to using goal planning as part of our process when give our clients more reasons to speak with us quarterly deepening our relationship. 

 We are in the heart of the silicon valley. There are many amazing company cultures we can learn from. Netflix in particular fascinates me. In their company culture document, it states “we model ourselves on being a team, not a family. A family is about unconditional love, despite your siblings unusual behavior. A dream team is about pushing yourself to be the best teammate you can be, caring intensely about your teammates, and knowing that you may not be on the team forever.”

We can learn from this culture that we are here to get a job done. We must continue to push ourselves and adapt our skills to the demands of our clients. But like Netflix, we also need to accept and support our teammates—even with their quirky personalities, and our differences. If we don’t then we will lose the opportunity to provide our clients the better way. At TD Ameritrade goal planning, is an extremely important part of our job to bring our clients world class experience. It allows us to have a better understanding of our client’s needs, wants, wishes and then by partnering with the clients we can divide the work by leveraging partners to get them to their goals.

2. Support learning

To keep the motivation up we need to build our customized goal plan progress checks with our players. Each player is going to be stuck at a different place. It is our responsibility to ensure our teams have the support they need to be successful. As I watched the entire country role out goal planning the most successful regions were running lunch and learns with their teams on a weekly basis. They would have different team members going through the high probably score plans, low probability score plans, plans where they had a young client and a lot of money and sky-rocketing health care costs, and explain the performance projections. As a team they worked through these obstacles until everyone become comfortable with the tool.

3. Track progress and development

If you want to build a world champion team you don’t drum up people to play the game, and give orders. Instead, teach them to play and practice their skills over and over again. Right now, is our time to practice all we are asking for our financial consultants to practice is one goal plan per week. What are your team members doing today to keep their skills fresh if they are not practicing? We must track their progress and develop our teams today to be world champions in the future 

 Closing

Team San Francisco I know we have the coaching talents in this room to become the #1 goal planning region. When we combine the winning formula motivation, supportive learning, and goal planning accountability we will hit the home run and become #1. Our clients are counting on us to bring the ball and get them to the championships.