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Ask Yourself 2 Questions About Every Candidate You Interview

In our business, there are tremendous ups and downs. It’s easy to be happy in your work environment when things are going well — when you’re closing business and clients are saying yes. However, it’s challenging to maintain a positive outlook when things don’t go according to plan.

To help get through the ups and downs we face in this industry, I try to hire people who are compatible with our culture and who have the same core values we have as an organization. Sharing values helps us get through the challenges we face in this industry.

In addition to hiring to our core values, I ask myself two questions when I am looking at a prospective hire:

  1. “Do I like being around this person?” I spend an inordinate amount of time at work, far more than I do at home with my own family. I need to make sure I enjoy being around the people I work with.
  2. “Would I bring this person out to dinner with my best client?” This means having professionalism, polish and great communication skills.

If I can check off both those boxes, it improves not only the chance of success for a candidate, it also improves the relationships and positivity in our office environment. I’ve passed over quite a few candidates for whom I couldn’t check off both boxes.

When I arrived at this firm, the culture existed, but we didn’t have the population we have now. My partners and I, over the years, have been charged with growing the office — and we have done so in a very methodical, calculated way. We have a three-round interview process that is very selective. If we interview 50 people in the first round, only two to three make it to the final round, and we might make one offer. We are very meticulous in hand-picking the people we want to hire into the firm.

We want to recruit financial professionals who want to be a part of our winning culture. This means always crossing the finish line. It means starting something and seeing it through. We are in a complex business, and we handle very serious matters. We handle people’s finances, which is an important task. It can take a mental toll on somebody who truly wants to help clients succeed with their goals. The main goal in our culture is to help clients across their own personalized finish line. Our staff all understand that this is the epicenter of everything we do.

Unfortunately, in this business — especially for new people — things don’t always go their way. A new financial professional might go into a new week and say, “This is going to be a great week.” Maybe they have 12 appointments set up, and they are very confident. But by the time Friday afternoon rolls around, they’ve finalized two appointments, and both prospects said no. Being part of a strong culture is what helps override disappointment. It overrides negative dissent that might creep into one’s psyche after having gone through those types of disappointing weeks.

We use an online tool to help us in recruiting new candidates and evaluating our current organization. We run each person through our set of core values and see if they fit. An FP might sell you a bill of goods in an interview and play the part for the first six or 12 months, while trying to get on the same page with the company’s values. But the reality is, core values are intrinsic within people, and it’s hard to change.

What I’ve learned is that we should spend our time on people who share our values. You cannot change a deep-rooted value that’s embedded in somebody. In our organization, everyone knows what our core values are. They know that every decision we make comes from those core values. Sharing these values is what gets us through the difficult times and across the finish line.

Philip Kim, CFP® ChFC®, RICP®, is Senior Vice President, Southwest Branch, AXA Advisors, LLC, Scottsdale, AZ.

Opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of NTSA or its members.