Recently, one of my financial advisor clients posed this question to me:  “How do I get my staff to rely on themselves for the answers rather than relying on me?” 

On the face of it, he was dealing a staff that seemed to lack the confidence to think through problems and find their own solutions. 

Thing is, he did indeed know the answers his staff was looking for. After all, he founded this very successful planning and investment firm over 23 years ago. He had an MBA and a clientele of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, many of whom he had worked with for years. 

But he was tired of being the “go to guy.”  He was constantly being interrupted all day, constantly being diverted from complex planning and investment analysis for clients to assist his staff with often mundane administrative tasks.  There were times when his staff simply did not move forward on projects because he wasn’t available with some answers.  And he felt that he couldn’t count on his staff to think for themselves.  In fact, out of sheer frustration, he told his staff “You can’t think for yourselves!”

So we took a fresh approach. We asked a question that could be answered. We talked about the underlying assumptions in his assessment of his staff being unable to think for themselves, and we examined what was really true about his assumptions.

1.  Identifying Underlying Assumptions
This advisor began by looking closely at what he was assuming. 

• They don’t want to think for themselves.
• I have to feed them the answers.
• They are too scared of making a mistake, so they won’t even try to figure things out.
• It’s up to me to do it all.
• I will never be freed up from the day-to-day pressure of handling so many details.

2.  What Is True
An assumption is “something supposed, but not proved, to be true,” according to Webster’s English Dictionary.  Assumptions are tricky.  By their very nature, they are mostly invisible to us.  If we assume it, we believe it, and we hold it to be true—even in the face of evidence to the contrary.  It doesn’t even occur to us to question our assumptions.  Another client I worked with many years ago said that the most significant question I ever asked him was, “Is that assumption true?”

Through our process, the advisor could recall any number of times when his staff members had indeed thought through an issue and come to their own solutions without any input from him.  He realized that, in fact, none of his underlying assumptions were true. 

My client created a new underlying assumption:  “They can and do think for themselves.”  This provides the opportunity to ask a question that can be answered.