Episode 705 - Encourage to Elevate

In this week's episode of Monday Morning Mojo, Phil discusses a moment he shared with his daughter as she begins her career in wealth management. Through their conversation, he uncovers a subtle but powerful insight about what truly builds confidence in young professionals, and why it matters for leaders at every level. He uses this to highlight the often-overlooked power of encouragement, mentorship, and coaching; not just for new hires, but for top performers as well. It’s a reminder that investing in people, not just managing them, is what truly sets great leaders and organizations apart.

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Transcript

 Top performers in every field surround themselves with those who inspire them, who seek to build them up, and who push them to reach beyond their current limits. I am Phil Buchanan, executive chairman of Cannon Financial Institute. I designed Monday Morning Mojo to provide you with a weekly spark, a push and motivational insight to live your best life. Thanks for joining.

Good Monday morning, Cannon Nation. It is Phil here with episode 705 of Monday Morning Mojo. My youngest daughter begins her career in the wealth management business this month. She is a first year, and so she obviously doesn't know what she doesn't know, but she's eager to learn and she loves to work.

She has worked all through college via multiple internships, co-ops, and part-time jobs. She and I were chatting about these experiences recently. I was inquiring with her what she had learned via each role, each job that she's had. And she's had a lot of great learnings. She spoke of getting real world application of courses that she had in college.

She worked in several different industries over college, so she highlighted an enhanced understanding of real-world supply chain issues, along with recognizing that different industries have their own unique language of business, although they all use the English language in their communication. One job she held in college required her to be on the phone constantly to source and purchase equipment and supplies.

She credits this in building her confidence to call quote unquote anybody about anything. Although, truth be told, she has a bit of my gift for gab. So that wasn't a huge stretch. There was one thing that she didn't recognize, and it is perhaps the most important learning that she had. She didn't recognize this until we talked about it.

See, in each job, internship or co-op she completed, the CEO of that organization or another very senior leader took the time to personally call her or write her. And in every instance, they thanked her for her contribution and specifically highlighted a couple of positive things that she had done or contributed while in their employment.

Now first, this is a- just a good business practice. When interns or part-time employees go on to their next endeavor, they take with them the memories, the impressions, and the conversations that were held during their time with that former company. Great experiences equal good will down the line. We always want former employees to have had a very positive memory and positive experience with the company, but more importantly, when we encourage our employees, especially our younger employees, their individual confidence and self-esteem grows as well. This has certainly been the case for my daughter, Ally.

Now, ensuring that mentoring and coaching of employees at all levels in the organization should be a primary strategy for every CEO. And this is true in any business, but it is especially true in the service business.

There will always be issues or errors that occur in business, but almost all of these can be overcome with great client experiences and great client service. And when you think about it, almost all client experiences and all client services is dependent upon the actions and interactions of the people within your organization.

How they handle themselves and the issues at hand will make or break the bond of the client relationship. If we don't invest in encouraging coaching and mentoring our employees, from the most senior level employee to our most junior level employee, we put our clients' ultimate experience with the firm at risk.

Now you'll notice I intentionally didn't use the word manage. I spoke of encouraging and mentoring and coaching. To me, managing focuses on resource allocation, deployment, metric analysis, et cetera. Now, is this important? Well, absolutely. In fact, managing is an area where most companies excel. But again, it is in the mentoring and encouraging and coaching of the development of the human experience; well, that's where the elite leaders and the elite organizations thrive.

I recently moderated a series of elite performer development sessions, taking a firm's very best performers and inducing them to evaluate how they can elevate even their own great efforts. In every session, members of executive leadership not only attended the entire session, but they were active participants in the session.

At the conclusion of every session, one of the most cited points of feedback was appreciation from these elite participants that their firm was investing in them to help them become even better at what they do. Now, let's be very clear what this means, even the best of the best, the elite need to feel the encouragement and support.

Not just to be part of the Chairman's Club trips or the advisory round tables, but to know that the organization is investing in them. I challenge each of you to reflect back for a moment on the times when a mentor or a leader took the time to encourage you. Not just to give you directions or advice, but-but to really encourage you to, to mentor, to coach.

When we know others support us. When we know others believe in us, it boosts everything from our morale to our confidence, to our enthusiasm. When these areas of our psyche are engaged, we will raise our game. We will represent the best of our organization, and we will contribute to even better ultimate client experiences.

So take the time this week to encourage, to coach, and to mentor; from your most seasoned elite performers to that most junior intern or first year employee. All it really takes is a bit of intentional time and I can think of nothing that generates such exponential returns.

Monday Morning Mojo is a production of Cannon Financial Institute, executive producer of Monday Morning Mojo is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner. Until next time, I'm Phil Buchanan reminding you to be a force for good. Have a great week and thanks for being part of the Mojo community.