Change for the Better

You know your clients – but how well do you know yourself?
 
As leaders and as women, we all strive to improve, and, like many of you, I have spent considerable time on self-awareness during my career in financial services. Along the way, I’ve been challenged to understand and define my leadership style: I took a DISC assessment; I mapped my Myers-Briggs personality inventory… What did I learn? Not much – and frankly, nothing that anyone who spent more than 10 minutes with me couldn’t readily see; I am an extrovert, I get inspired by relationships and interactions, I like a whirlwind of activity… but affirming that knowledge didn’t really help.
 
What did help were two “ah-ha” moments that really changed how I approached my day-to-day interactions:
 

1. Early in my career, I read a book called She Wins, You Win  by Gail Evans. The premise of the book is simple: Every time you succeed, you must open the door for the women who come behind you. Every time. Let that sink in. We’ve all dealt with “there can be only one-ism” and we’ve all encountered “Queen Bees” who undermine other women. But this isn’t that. This is about refusing to succumb to passivity. In every interaction. In every success, big and small, you must help women who are not yet at your organization level. Sure, sometimes, it’s easier to just let it go – to not insist that the promising woman in the cubicle who is putting together the client presentations or the executive assistant who doesn’t have the educational pedigree but is whip smart get a shot at a more high profile assignment. Sometimes it’s just easier not to speak up about someone who is overlooked. But you shouldn’t and you can’t. For me, it has been a philosophy that I put into practice every day – it has shaped me to my core.
2. A few years ago, I watched a video of Marcus Buckingham, a British author, speaker and business consultant. In the video, he simply states that your strengths are what energizes you and your weakness are those things that drain you. Think about that. It’s radically different than how we have been trained to think: that our strengths are where we excel, and our weaknesses where we fall short. But if you let that definition decide your focus – what you do with your time, what you choose as a career, how you interact with people in your life – you will be exhausted. Instead, Buckingham suggests that you craft your life and your career around what energizes you. For example, I am highly organized and can project plan to within an inch of my life (you should have seen the Gantt charts I created for my wedding!) But boy, does it drain me. As I internalized Buckingham’s message, I changed the kinds of projects I volunteered for – and I surrounded myself with people who love to manage project details. That little shift allowed me focus on the big picture and the strategy. It was life changing.

Sometimes a little shift is all that it takes to make a difference in your happiness and your success – but in my experience that requires an investment of time in knowing yourself, the same way you invest time and energy in understanding your clients or other stakeholders.
 
Whether you’re an extrovert, an introvert, or some type in between, I am certain that your personal growth path will be different than mine. But you know what helps? Getting together with like-minded, growth-oriented female leaders at the Women in Retirement Conference (WiRC). WiRC is an event with a focus developed by women for women like you, with content tailored specifically for female advisors and TPAs. The entire agenda is designed to offer holistic improvement on both a personal and professional level. 
 
Invest some time in yourself, and your personal and professional development. Join us at the 2019 Women in Retirement Conference June 24–26, in Chicago: http://bit.ly/GetToWiRC. It’s time to get to WiRC!

Daniella Moiseyev is the Chief Marketing Officer of the American Retirement Association.