Effective Board Behavior

In recent months I have written a few blogs about corporate governance and business risk management. I have expressed the view that many of the corporate problems we have today are related to ineffective board governance. It has been interesting being in Europe for the past 2 weeks where this subject has come up in many discussions with business leaders and in the press. Clearly, the topic of corporate governance is high on the agenda. It needs to be because this is the source of so much corporate damage.

The 2 business problems related to corporate governance getting mentioned the most are executive remuneration and then acquisitions. In both of these areas, executives have allowed their own greed to take over at the expense of the company. This is where the business leaders have really lost sight. The key point then is that the Boards have been too weak to stop them. This gets back to the structure of the board, in particular separation of chairman and CEO/President, majority of non-executives, minimal conflicts of interest and then importantly the right mix of non-executives who have the right behavioral styles to oversee the executives.

Remuneration is a hot topic because it is visible and generally reported in some way by public companies. However, acquisitions are a major issue because of the high potential for destruction. Of course, there are executive remuneration motivations by expanding the company. How many acquisitions really work? Not many and there are plenty of stats to show that. Although, some do. The business integration and financing issues are very difficult. From a governance perspective how much are the boards really looking through these transactions? To what degree has management pushed them through? What is the Financial DNA of the leaders? What is motivating them?

As we move through these turbulent times I hope that more companies will start to look at their board behavior and make changes. This is the first step to true leadership development. Investors also need to look at these issues when making long-term investment decisions.

Identifying the Human Behavior Risks in Your Business

Back in March of this year, I wrote a blog about managing the human risks in your business. This issue has not gone off the radar screen. Identifying the human behavior risks in your business is critical to success. Every person has natural "blind-spots" which, if they go unchecked, can lead to individual performance failures, team failures, leadership failures and ultimately significant business problems. Regardless of the size of your business, the behavior of your people will influence the result. The influence will be higher the more senior the person is in the business. Look at why some major companies have failed in recent years - it is not the poor economy or financial markets, rather they have exposed the fundamental issues, particularly the behavior of leaders.

Some of the blind-spots may not seem that bad - e.g. uncomfortable to confront a problem, lack of patience, emotional decision-maker, poor planner, too driven and so on. However, these problems easily compound themselves at the individual level, then escalate when combined with others’ blind-spots.

Do you know where the blind-spots in your business are?

We have recently launched the Business Risk Management Report from our Business DNA profile which specifically identifies these risks. Please click here for an example.

New DNA Behavioral Solutions to Accelerate TRUST and Your Relationships

At the moment, more than ever, the whole notion of trust in every aspect of our lives is important. For many, trust is very low, if not shattered, with our leaders, advisors, partners and family members. Furthermore, trust in ourselves is low, which is the core of the issue. If your business and personal relationships are not working as well as you would like, or your performance could improve, see whether it is because your trust is low. “Relationships of trust depend on our willingness to look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others.” – Peter Farquharson

My starting point with trust is always to ask 3 questions: How much do you trust others? Do you feel others trust you? Importantly, do you trust yourself?

When you reflect on these questions, the foundation of trust comes back to whether you trust yourself. The answer to the other 2 questions will be determined by the answer to this question. Firstly, trusting yourself is a foundational life issue. Trust impacts your level of confidence to be who you are, to perform to your maximum potential and then how positively you relate to others. Importantly, when relating to others, your level of personal trust will impact the ability to be open, transparent, mutual and generally act in their best interests. If you act with a low level of trust (even though you may not be aware of it), you will trigger distrust from the other person.

There are many factors that contribute to whether a person trusts themself. Let me be clear, when I am talking about trust, I am not just referring to character or integrity. Our research has shown that your propensity to trust is influenced by both natural “hard-wired” behaviors and learned behaviors developed from life experiences.

This is why our firm, DNA Behavior International, has launched a new series of behavioral development tools focused on accelerating trust:

• LeadershipTRUST for business leaders and managers
• AdvisorTRUST for financial and professional services professionals
• FamilyTRUST for family members and their advisors
  

The approach we are adopting through these innovative tools to help you build trust is to firstly uncover your natural propensity to trust, based on your natural “hard-wired” behavior. This behavior is the core of who you are, and was shaped from birth to when you were approximately 3 years old. For some, high or low levels of trust are relatively ingrained. Therefore, the challenge becomes to work on trusting yourself more. Then our TRUST tools are used to help discover your ability to build trust in specific areas based on:

• Communication
• Achieving Results
• Building Relationships
• Emotional Intelligence
• Trust Building Skills
• Values
• Competence
  

These TRUST tools have a 360 rating system, enabling you to assess yourself and have others rate you as well. This will help uncover your blind-spots, which we all have. In the end, with greater self knowledge your personal confidence will increase and so will your trust. If you want to learn more, please email us at inquiries@financialdna.com

Partnerships and Money Personalities

In the past few weeks we have had a number of people contact us who are starting some form of business partnership together. Most of the time their request has been to find out more about their differences. Some of the typical issues they are seeking to understand are:

1. What are our different talents?
2. What should our role in the business be?
3. What areas do we have to watch out for?
4. Do we have shared values and purpose?
5. Who else should we hire?
6. How do we communicate with each other?
7. How do we hold each other accountable?

These are all very important questions and it is important they are always addressed in structuring and managing a partnership.

However, there is another dimension that needs to be understood and is seldom directly addressed. That is the influence of different money personalities.

1. What are the different money personalities of each of the partners?
2. What is each partner's different relationship to money?

In essence, we need to know their Financial DNA. How will each partner behave with money based on their financial behavioral style? This is absolutely critical to the success of the partnership. So often partnerships do not work or certainly fail to reach their potential because of the different financial attitudes. The different financial attitudes will have a large bearing on their respective goals, what each wants from the business, how they will handle money in the business, how the business is financed and the business development plans. You will even find the financial attitudes of the spouses will be important as this is another partnership to which each of the business partners is accountable and is strongly influenced by.

If one partner is more dominant, then his or her financial attitude will prevail and have a strong influence on the outcome of the business and the decisions. It is my experience from working with many partnerships, and first hand from being in partnerships, that each partner having a healthy relationship to money will be foundational to success. Just have a look at some partnerships that you know of that have worked and failed. Ask why? Money is nearly always there in a big way. Do not be afraid to find out the answers early as this will save a lot of pain later. This is important as having shared values and knowing your respective talents. If not understood, it will become a major road block.

Shirt Sleeves to Shirt Sleeves in 3 Generations

In recent years there has been a lot written about how wealth created by the first generation (the entrepreneur) is lost by the third generation. Often the second generation has also added to the wealth. Then the third generation has lost it through being irresponsible, idle or simply making poor decisions.

Research from a range of sources is consistently showing that this is happening in over 70% of family wealth transfers.

A significant aspect of intergenerational wealth loss is related to the fact that the financial and estate plans do not adequately take into account the human issues involved. Very often poor communication and relationships within the family along with negative emotions lead to bad decisions. The reality is that many wealth transfer plans whilst technically sound become redundant the day after the wealth transferor passes on.

So, how can you improve those statistics so there is greater intergenerational wealth preservation and also family harmony?

The solutions are found in some interesting research undertaken with a high number of wealthy families by groups like Family Office Exchange and also The Williams Group. Their research points to the top priorities for the families are now to address areas such as family legacy and the family relationships. Whilst investment competence is important it is somewhat low on the list. Investment management is generally seen as a given and considered somewhat of a known science. Notwithstanding, getting the family to adopt these priorities and change their behavior is another matter. If you are an advisor, accountant or attorney what areas should you spend the most time on?

The importance of building greater family unity cannot be underestimated. The family needs to have a defined legacy with a shared mission and set of values. This then becomes the framework and platform for family decisions, dealing with businesses, inheritance, financial education, philanthropy and so on. If needed, bring in specialists to deal with the human dynamics and facilitate this. We often do this with advisors. So, I would really encourage for family meetings to be held. Whilst this process can be expensive in some cases, it does not have to be. Just being aware of the importance of these issues and doing a little more to work on them even through more "relational" discussions will help. Of course, for a high net worth family with many financial complexities and plenty of family history then a family meeting is a great idea and will lead to great results.

Changing Lives with Powerful Questions

Today, I listened to a great presentation by Tal Ben-Shahar who teaches positive psychology at Harvard University. Interestingly, his 2 courses have been rated the most popular in the university. No wonder, he is so motivating.

The message he delivered was that if you want to change the reality of people's lives then you need to change the questions you ask them. The right questions can change people's lives. This is when miracles happen.

Think about when your life changed or you made a major change in your life. Was it because someone asked you a great question? Very often it is. I know many of my significant life choices have been prompted by a great question. Furthermore, I remember the people who asked me these life changing questions.

How do you ask these life changing questions, or what we call in our business powerful questions? They must be positive or what is often referred to as appreciative. Always come from a positive angle or the person's strength, regardless of what the situation is.

If you want to be more structured or scientific about it, then you can have the person complete a behavioral profile first. Then you know their areas of strengths and interests to which the questions can be directed.

The same approach can be followed with a person in any area of your life: whether it be clients, team mates or family members.

Know Thy Investments

The primary foundations of Financial DNA are "Know Thyself" and Know Thy Client". However, what I have not spoken up much before about is "Know Thy Investments". For both the advisor and the client this is absolutely critical to successful investing. Who at some point has been caught in an investment they did not fully understand and lost money? Usually, they are the "smart" investments that offer lucrative returns and/or tax breaks.

In recent times, I have had discussions with many advisors and investors who have been caught with an investment that they did not fully understand. You should forgive yourself because even the best investors have been caught at some point. This point is not just about "ponzi schemes" but also bona fide investments.

Market declines like we have had in the past year usually expose the cracks. When the market is going up the holes can often be covered up. Some of these investments are so complex that not even the creator or manager even understands them fully, let alone the advisor recommending it.

I have always said to my clients: "If you do not know what is inside the sausage do not invest". Until a year or so ago, I did have some doubts as to whether I had been too conservative and that I was the fool for not riding the trend. Well now I am very relieved. A good example of this advice was 5 years ago when I told a very wealthy retired couple not to invest in a hedge fund that they had been offered by someone who was trying to impress them.

I do not believe most people know what they have invested in other than the belief they will make a lot of money. Many hedge funds rely on very complex models and very fine margins. Also, many change their strategy after you have invested. So that what you have invested in is not underneath the same investment as what you exit. I also know that many investors and advisors did not understand how leveraged with debt our financial markets were. All of these complex products usually have a lot of debt in them. So when the market declines, the fall can be accelerated because everyone has to get out quickly.

If you are an investor, now is a great time to review all of the investments in your portfolio and check that you truly understand them. Also, does your advisor understand your investments? Can your questions be confidently answered? I also think advisors need to take stock and totally understand what they are offering their clients. You really need to get behind the "research" reports.