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Stop Before You Start: A Team Exercise for Year-End

By David RichmanManaging Director, Advisor Institute

You and your team are likely thinking about the highlights and low lights of this year and how they will shape new habits for 2024. Remember that habits are often shaped by the choices we make - or, more often than not - the ones we don't make.

Take a moment to consider the following question with your team:

"Is it possible the choices we make on what to stop doing might be even more significant than the choices we make regarding what to start doing?"

Let's take a classic example of a January reflection:

"Last year we had organic growth of 25 new households and $50 million in new AUM. Let's aim for larger clients with a 2024 goal of 25 new households and $75 million in new AUM."

What's a typical next step for a goal like this? You'll probably have a brainstorm meeting to develop a prospecting plan for the months ahead, putting a team well on its way to starting new tasks for achieving that 2024 growth goal.

There's nothing wrong with taking initiative on new strategies for growth. However, intentional teams tend to focus on answering the question of "What should we stop doing?" first. Identifying actions and habits to stop doing will hopefully create bandwidth and energy to tackle the things your team wants or needs to start doing.

Let's revisit the team looking to grow new households and AUM in 2024. If they take a stop doing versus start doing approach, it may lead to the following realizations:

  • Capacity has already been strained by 2023 growth and existing processes, and personnel may not have bandwidth for further growth initiatives. We'll need to expand infrastructure or realign roles and responsibilities to pursue additional growth.
  • The team's primary rainmaker is losing bandwidth due to her growing involvement in managing the business. She must identify what to stop doing before taking on further initiatives. This may prompt a shift in business responsibilities to younger team members who are hungry for growth opportunities.

Bottom Line: Determine the things you should stop doing before the ones you should start when you approach year-end.