Rob Knapp's first book, The Supernova Advisor, provided great practical concepts for productivity improvement ideas for financial advisors. Most of those concepts revolve around advisor team improvement strategies. This book focuses specifically on team effectiveness strategies. It answers the question, “How do we continue to help teams be more effective?” Many of the concepts have materialized because of our firsthand experiences coaching and leading teams for more than 37 years at a major investment firm, entrepreneurial pursuits, and coaching financial advisors at many firms across the country.

We want to build on the training learned in The Supernova Advisor and help current advisor teams develop the strategies and tactics to become more efficient. When team members go through the program together, what emerges is a consensus view as to how a team can improve productivity and deliver its value proposition and improve the client experience.

Throughout this book we are sharing experiences gained by seeing teams both succeed and face many roadblocks during their journey to success, and productivity improvement as well as learning to deliver a client experience that went beyond a basic commodity experience. Our firsthand knowledge came from coaching several hundred teams over the past several decades, coupled with years of corporate experience being involved with teams being assembled without thought given to team alignment, business plans, or strategy. We experienced teams falling into dysfunctional traps without a framework or guidance to make midcourse corrections. This is a key focus of our consulting practice.

The motivation for the book came about after doing much research about teams and not finding a current book that addressed the issues that were more specific to financial advisor teams. However, many of the ideas and concepts discussed can go beyond organizational silos and provide relevance to other sales organizations.

We also discovered if we could get teams to capture the collective wisdom of their knowledge and experiences, they could improve their chances of success. The Wall Street culture, the one we grew up in, didn't foster collaboration and the Force Multiplier Effect described in Chapter 7, “Team Collaboration,” to the best benefit of the team or the organizations that employed them. This isn't necessarily a knock on these organizations, however; the sole practice model was largely based on individual performance, not team performance, and, as such, you were rewarded accordingly. The former model didn't foster collaboration.

Chapter 15, “Wealth Management in the Digital Age,” was a challenge to write due to the speed at which change and disruption is occurring in the financial services industry. Teams must consider that these changes are like a “sea of permanent white water” for those of you who have ever been rafting on the Colorado River and experienced the calm, the speed, and the turbulence associated with this type of adventure. Also, discussing diversity is a challenge given most people's proclivities to form teams with like‐minded individuals without consideration given to exploring differences that might create improved performance.

Most of what was written comes from our collective experiences. However, there were numerous articles to be found online and many periodicals from well‐known universities as well as many books that helped us frame the concepts. Some of the information simply came from discussions with financial advisors on teams over the years.

Teams are the principal building blocks of the strategy of successful organizations. The focus of your organization may be on service, quality, cost, value, speed, efficiency, performance, or any other similar goals, but teams remain the central methodology of most organizations in the private, nonprofit, and government sectors. While our focus is on financial advisor teams, there are many areas and discussion points that are applicable to teams outside the financial services industry.

The fact remains that when a team becomes more aligned, a commonality of direction emerges, and the individual energies harmonize. This way there is a shared vision as well as an understanding of how to complement each other's efforts. This is where the real leverage occurs.

Vertical teams and horizontal teams can transcend organizational silos and boundaries if properly focused and supported. Building collaborative teams can improve the client experience.

The financial services industry has become very challenging for a host of reasons. The role of the financial advisor has become increasingly more challenging because of several factors:

• Price and margin compression and an inability to raise prices require larger number of assets to increase productivity.
• The sole practitioner has limited scale to provide an elevated level of service and be knowledgeable or an expert on a range of strategies and products that clients need.
• Clients are demanding an above‐average experience in a relationship that puts pressure on the sole practitioner advisor service models.
• The regulatory environment requires advisors to do a deeper dive in understanding client relationships as well as their goals and objectives.
• Digital advice channels that can scale in a price‐competitive way have emerged.

In this new reality, advisors must build, lead, and manage their business through team dynamics. This goes beyond just an assembly of individuals thrown together because they like each other or have similar business strategies. More emphasis will need to be placed on creating the right team scenarios, coaching them, and providing the best opportunities for leverage and success. Supernova has decided to take team training and development to the next level by offering additional training for teams to improve productivity.

In 1965, Bruce Tuckman¹ identified five phases of team development as Storming, Forming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. Supernova focuses its training on team effectiveness strategies for advisors:

1. You must come to grips with your fears or inhibitors that hold you back. Write them down and then ask yourself, “What are the positive outcomes if I make the change?” Don't lead with the negative by asking, “What's the worst thing(s) that can happen to me?”
2. Remind yourself of your core values and dedication to helping others reach their dreams and goals. You must believe that when you wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror, you are trying to do good for others.
3. It's okay to think about yourself and your family's quality of life. You can create balance for a win‐win outcome.
4. Don't forget how far you've come. Recall those situations when you stepped out of your comfort zone and had positive outcomes. Take some solace that you have broken through barriers at other times during your life.
5. Don't go it alone. Get a coach, find mentors, and establish your personal advisory board. Sometimes a third party can help you through some of the challenges you might be facing. Seek feedback from people you can trust.