Emotional Intelligence and Wealth Advisors

By Rob Peters, Financial Services Editor  

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This month's article is an interview with Dr. Mike Thompson, Founder of Interlude Empowerment Coaching (www.interludecoaching.com).

Dr. Thompson has demonstrated the ability to effectively guide, mentor and focus individuals and organizations as they examine their mission and vision for the future. He is particularly successful at helping them understand their interdependence and relationships.

Dr. Thompson is focused on the use of Emotional Intelligence (EI) Skills in the workplace. He has a strong interest in the use of EI in the financial services industry. Emotional Intelligence skills are essential to the successful advisor and user of these services.

Dr. Thompson graduated with honors from several academic institutions. His diversified background in business, nonprofit associations and venture capital funded startup medical devices companies brings a powerful insight into the needs of 21st century businesses.

 

Question: How important is Emotional Intelligence in advising high net worth individuals (HNWI)?

Dr. Thompson: It is critical. HNWI are successful people who are looking for ideas on how to preserve and grow their wealth. There are goals that HNWI are trying to achieve:

  1. Create Foundations
  2. Fund Endowments
  3. Preserve their wealth for their family

Wealth Advisors need to have strong awareness and knowledge of the Emotional Intelligence skill set; its processes and tools.

I am assuming that the Wealth Advisor has a long-term relationship with his or her client. In my experience, the top performing Wealth Advisors are well skilled in "nurturing" or encouraging their client to continue their development, growth, and success. Wealth Advisors need to be not only skilled at understanding their clients and their emotions, but also have the ability to manage their own behaviors or have situational awareness of how they are expressing themselves.

Question: How important is Emotional Intelligence in Social Networking?

Dr. Thompson: Emotional Intelligence refers to the capacity to deal effectively with one's own and others emotions. You need to have all attributes of Emotional Intelligence to build strong social relationships.

When applied to the workplace, emotional intelligence is about thinking intelligently with emotions; perceiving, expressing, understanding and managing emotions in a professional and effective manner at work.

Emotional Intelligence can have a profound affect on an individual's ability to attain his or her professional and personal goals. For example, research has shown that EI accounts for as much as 36% of the variance in leadership success. In an article published in May of 2007, a study done in Australia demonstrated that there was a ROI (return on investment) of five (5) dollars for every dollar spent on training in EI skills in the form of better and bigger sales.

Being self-aware is the foundation of emotional intelligence. As you communicate with another person, there are moments when you will briefly detach from the conversation in order to perceive their emotions as well as your own in order to manage effective communication and trust.

A financial advisor must be able to listen very well. This is a critical skill in building and maintaining strong social relationships. As a conversation progresses, become inquisitive.

Make note of a word or words that you can ask questions about in order to understand the other person better. The questions are important in the way they are constructed. For instance, most questions should be open-ended, starting with words like "what or how". This will lead to constructive dialogue and appropriate actions.

Having respect for the other person through understanding and acknowledgement, builds a strong relationship of trust. Overall, if a person who is an advisor/leader in any field, whether it be in financial services or leading a corporation that is creating relationship capital, it is important that they understand the power of EI in their work. The seven skills that they need to develop are as follows:

  1. Understand your own emotions in given situation;
  2. Appropriately express those emotions in the context of your work;
  3. Understand the others around you and their emotions;
  4. Use emotions appropriately in the decision making process;
  5. Management of your moods as you work with clients, direct reports and/or others in a team setting;
  6. Management of the mood of the client, direct reports and/or others in the team;
  7. Avoid Emotional hijacking if at all possible.

Question: What is your value proposition with respect to EI Consulting & Coaching?

Dr. Thompson:

Our Purpose, Our Passion:

We uniquely combine life and executive coaching. We give you the rare opportunity to learn how to speak your truth, which will permanently change and transform you and your company.

We commit to honor our client's agenda and unique situations by refusing to impose our own solutions. We'll take risks and may say that "we may not be a good fit" or "now is not the right time" to a company or individual who may not be ready for transformation.

We know our values, but do not impose them on a client. True coaching requires that we act as the catalyst for exposing the client's values and strengths while integrating them into solutions.

Our clients are:

  1. Clients who dare to bring the power of coaching, its courage, truth and compassion to the business process. Professional people who understand the new realities of the global economy and the impact it may have on their industry – who are willing to think, and "go" outside the box.
  2. Clients who understand the difference between motion and ACTION. Companies and individuals who are looking for new or enhanced skills through the use of Emotional Intelligence Assessments. We work with men and women who have mastered their field and are looking for new and different solutions to professional or personal issues.
  3. Clients who are willing to take the "Leap of Faith" necessary to reach a new level of understanding. Leaders with open minds that might consider including an intuitive and/or spiritual component to their practices. People who understand, recognize and are willing to include the power of the heart when making sound business/life decisions.

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