The Six Pillars Of Character – Asset Or Somewhat Of A Liability?

The Six Pillars Of Character are:

– Trustworthiness
– Respect
– Responsibility
– Fairness
– Caring
– Citizenship

The Six Pillars Of Character came to mind today as I was preparing for an a appointment with a prospective client that is clearly a champion in the Financial Advisor Industry.

Just shaking the person’s hand sends the message of considerable character.

I was reflecting in advance of our conversation and the following notion came to me.

The prospective client has so much character and they enjoy people and this joy spreads through to the people that they do business with and the prospective client has been in business a very long time so they have many, many extraordinary relationships.

The challenge is that this asset of character can turn into somewhat of a liability when one forgets to put themselves first, because there is only so much of them to go around. While the value of character is important, one can easily forget to put themselves first when they are unconsciously and innocently allowing unmet needs or approval and recognition to get in the way. These unmet needs or approval and recognition will stand in the way of delegating long term clients that may have become B or C clients to competent team members because the financial advisor is unconsciously and innocently allowing unmet needs or approval and recognition to get in the way. In short, the financial advisors unmet needs of approval and recognition generate actions to do the work themselves, rather than delegate because they believe that their unmet needs of approval and recognition are at risk by not doing the work themselves. This is especially true when the financial advisor has been dealing with the client for a very long time. The concept of client segmentation goes out the window.