PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS
How to Avoid Advisor Burnout
By Kent W. Schmidgall
We advisors place the highest priority on servicing our clients. Our clients are our lifeblood, and we want to take care of them. We are willing to go the extra mile for them. After all, they pay our salaries and the electricity bill, and we do not forget that.
The Conundrum
We try to focus on what we can control, yet our careers are mostly dedicated to dealing with unexpected events outside our control, such as market downturns and economic crises. Each client is unique, responding to uncertainty and negative headlines in their own way. Some express fear or anxiety, others disappointment or anger.
Multiply the desire to please our clients across dozens or hundreds of personalities, and we have a recipe for potential burnout. Following are some things I’ve learned during my career that have helped me avoid burnout. I hope they will help you, too.
Expectations
Years ago, when I was relatively new at my firm, Buckingham Strategic Wealth, the stock market pulled back mildly. Wanting to demonstrate empathy and support for my clients, I sent a mass email regarding the market dip. I was surprised that I received a chorus of chirping crickets and clients expressing a ho-hum attitude toward the pullback. It was clear that I had overreacted, and my clients were educating me, not the other way around.
If we do the work upfront with new clients to build a financial plan tailored to their risk tolerance, then these inevitable downturns should not come as a surprise. Granted, sometimes a person does not fully realize their tolerance for risk until actually experiencing a deep market crash or economic crisis. In that case, perhaps the client overestimated their risk tolerance, which requires a reassessment of the financial plan and level of portfolio risk.
I believe it is important to not create an expectation that we will reach out every time the stock market falls. Not only would this drain our time, but it also reinforces the very behavior that we strive to help our clients avoid. This additional time spent reacting to every economic bump in the road, in conjunction with the emotional pressure that can build when we establish unreasonable expectations, is a recipe for burnout.
Boundaries, Part I: Calendar
During my tenure at a major financial services company, I had no control over my calendar. I was merely a puff of tumbleweed, drifting along where the winds of necessity carried me. If a customer wanted to meet at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday, no problem. “Meet at midnight on the docks, you say? Sure, I’ll be there.”
I was too nice to tell my customers that their preferred time wasn’t convenient for me. This not only detracted from family time, it created hardships in my marriage (thankfully, not irreversible). Simply put, I cannot think of a quicker path toward advisor burnout than losing control of my schedule. If we don’t respect our own calendars, then I can assure you that no one else will, either.
When I joined Buckingham Strategic Wealth nearly 10 years ago, I regained control of most of my calendar, thanks to solid advice and mentorship from colleagues and my predecessor. I say “most of my calendar” because I still found myself occasionally unable to resist requests to meet at inopportune times. It was nobody’s fault but my own.
Not many things are more soul-crushing than heading home for the day, then having a nice meal with the family while a 7:30 p.m. meeting looms. I also found that when I had late-afternoon meetings on Friday, the weekend greeted me like a punch in the face. I felt harried, hot, and bothered. Similarly, when Monday arrived with a client meeting first thing in the morning, my week got off to a terrible start. If I don’t have morning time to plan and prepare for the day, it doesn’t bode well for the day.
Enter Calendly, a calendar management and appointment booking tool. I knew that Calendly would make my practice more efficient. I was not expecting it to change my life. That sounds melodramatic, yet it’s true. It allowed me to build precise parameters into my calendar, customized for many kinds of meetings.
When I explain to clients and prospects that evenings and weekends are family time, I receive nothing but support and understanding from them, sometimes with a wistful look. My clients genuinely want me to succeed, not only as an advisor but also as a husband and father. I cannot overstate how valuable this is to me. If a prospect or client refuses to meet during your regularly scheduled work hours, perhaps they are not a good fit for you. After all, do they meet with their banker, attorney, or CPA in the evening? Why should we be treated any differently than other professionals?
Again, if you don’t respect your schedule, don’t expect anyone else to.
Boundaries, Part II: Communication
Years ago, when contemplating whether to reply to a client email after hours, my predecessor dished out sage advice. “Kent, if you reply in the evening, then you are setting that expectation for your clients.” I have followed his advice and do not check or respond to messages received in the evening until the next morning. It is not possible for me to be mentally present with my family while monitoring the flow of emails into my inbox, tallying the tasks to be completed the following day. What’s more, with banks and markets closed, what urgent tasks can be accomplished after hours, anyway?
I set the expectation with my clients that I will respond to messages within 24 hours (the vast majority of the time, it is much, much quicker than 24 hours), with the exception of holidays, weekends, and vacations. If I receive a message after hours, I will respond the next business day. I have never received pushback on this.
Right, wrong, or indifferent, I choose to check emails once on the weekend and once per day while on vacation. This practice is entirely self-imposed, not a result of pressure from clients or colleagues. Maybe one day I will find it necessary to change this practice, but for now it works fine.
An important component of a long, healthy, and rewarding career as a financial advisor is taking care of ourselves to prevent mental and physical burnout. The boundaries set forth above not only help to prevent my burnout but also have resulted in a higher level of efficiency and productivity, allowing me to better serve my clients over the long term. A win for all!
Kent Schmidgall, CFP®, is a wealth advisor with Buckingham Strategic Wealth. He resides in southeast Iowa with his wife, Megan, and three children. His perfect day includes a steaming cup of coffee, a warm fire, and a Dickens novel.
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