We all have blind spots—assumptions we don’t question and habits and behaviors we don’t see. As advisors, our blind spots can cause big problems with clients, prospective clients, employees and even other professionals we work with such as CPAs.

That’s why it’s so important to understand the blind spots that exist and watch out for them when we step through the front door of the office every morning. To help us with that, we reached out to Allison Tirado—one of CEG Worldwide’s advisor coaches who helps advisors uncover the blind spots that limit performance, damage team dynamics, and dull their impact with clients.

Common advisor blind spots

Tirado notes that while every advisor is different in some respects, there are a few blind spots that she sees repeatedly among this group:

1. Intellect. Advisors tend to love numbers and facts, and can process them rapidly. As a result, they often spend most or even all of their client-facing time talking about all the things they know about the financial markets. Unfortunately, most clients don’t care how much you know until they understand how much you care—about them and their lives. Relying too much on intellect can make you come across as arrogant. Instead, ask questions that get clients talking and connect with you on an emotional level.

2. Achievement. Many advisors struggled with money and financial security when they were younger. So they become very achievement-oriented. While there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that motivator, it can sometimes drive advisors to spend all their time trying to earn money or respect in their communities—leaving no time or energy for anything else.

Client-facing blind spots

Some advisor blind spots can directly impact your relationship with clients. Tirado’s advice:

1. Check your motivation. You might be driven by power and control—but your clients and prospects may be motivated by different factors, such as knowing they can take care of loved ones. Or the opposite might be true: Your approach to investing centers on being a family steward, but you have clients with a mogul-like mindset who simply want to accumulate more and more money. Don’t assume your clients are motivated by the same things and in the same way as you.

2. Watch for overconfidence. Once advisors get to know their clients on a deep level—using a discovery process, for example—they often assume they’re done with that part of the relationship. But, of course, people’s lives change. Their values shift. That’s why it’s so important to check in on occasion and have “re-discovery” conversations that alert you to any major changes in clients’ lives beyond just their financial health. In short, making emotional connections with clients is not a one-and-done exercise.

3. Don’t assume you’ve “trained” your clients. You may have gone over what to do—and not do—during volatile markets and therefore you assume your clients don’t need to be reassured during rocky environments. But the fact is, even clients who have heard the message many times are susceptible to fear that can lead to errors. What’s more, a client is likely to feel very differently about a 10% market decline at age 50 than at age 65. Your job is to check in with clients during periods of uncertainty and remind them of what’s important.

Team-facing blind spots

Advisors may also have blind spots when it comes to their relationships with employees and other team members. For example:

1. Feedback. The more successful you are, the less likely the people around you are to challenge your ideas or plans. This can cause advisors to assume that everyone thinks their ideas are terrific and that everyone around them is on board with their plans. In fact, it might be that lots of employees have concerns—but they’re too intimidated to raise them with you. Encourage push-back and exercises such as red teaming, in which plans and assumptions are formally challenged.

2. Triggering. Take notice of how you react to others when you’re feeling upset or stressed. If you lash out in ways that are demoralizing to your team, you can take steps to change your behaviors and “catch yourself” before taking things too far. Tirado notes that if you are seeing a spike in turnover or poor team morale, you may have a blind spot in terms of how you respond when you yourself are triggered.

Check out the webinar above for more insights into blind spots that can hurt your practice—and how to overcome them.

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