With such a fantastic year for Sport in the UK, I wanted to stay with Bigrock’s October theme and continue to look at the analogy with our sporting professionals as we move into 2013, albeit from a slightly different perspective. With those wonderful memories of summer rekindled having just watched Sports Personality of the Year, it was yet again great to share in those memories and celebrations.  I also reflected as we heard from our Olympians across the globe, that they don’t stop and take that well- earned break for very long.  A brief rest perhaps to catch up with family and friends, to re-charge the batteries or indeed a quick stint on “Strictly” and then it is on to the disciplined training regime with clear focus on the next big event.

Perhaps that’s how many might be feeling as we reach 31^st December and RDR implementation. It has been a very tough track to steer organisations to successful conclusions and for many the festive break will be a very welcome one,  but, for those who have been impacted by RDR and will be equally by the Mortgage Market Review (MMR), the prospect of 2013 may seem a little daunting. Of course nothing is ever entirely that simple, few organisations will close down their RDR projects and move onto the next one.  Even in the last few weeks we have seen firms change direction, withdraw from markets, even the largest ones admitting they won’t be ready on time and a recent Standard Life study suggests that as many as 17,000 advisers may leave the industry in the next 12 months. With many  still holding our breaths as to consumer reaction to adviser charging and how distribution will shake out, you can be certain that RDR strategies will remain fluid for the coming months.

So where is Bigrock’s message of cheer for 2013?  It is a simple one.  For those who have worked on RDR development and implementation in the last few years, so much has been learned and experienced that can then be taken forward into MMR. For those who have not, you are surrounded by experts and coaches who can support you along the way.

So let us look a little more closely at the MMR, how it impacts organisations and customers and therefore why the lessons learned from RDR implementation, if applied, will be very valuable.

Rather like RDR, the Mortgage Market Review commenced in reaction to a market that did not appear to be operating effectively.  Around the period of 2005 to 2007 the mortgage market was witnessing a very rapid expansion of credit and that was balanced with poor lending decisions. New policy is therefore aimed at “ensuring continued access to the mortgage market for the vast majority of customers who can afford it, while addressing the tale of poor mortgage lending in the past”. (Policy Statement 12/16).

Some of the key proposals taken forward include the removal of the non-advised sales process, the strengthened arrears charging rules and the three elements of the responsible lending reforms (affordability, interest rate stress test and interest only rules) as well as enhanced prudential requirements for non-deposit taking lenders (non-banks). The main changes from the review will come into play on the 26^th of April 2014.

So what do these changes actually mean in practice and where are the real impacts going to be felt by lenders and distributors?

Well first of all it has to be recognised that many lenders have already adopted substantially different approaches to lending and implemented revised internal policies.  Therefore the key areas that now require focus and attention in 2013 will be those around people, proposition, process and Training & Competence.

Indeed you should not consider MMR in isolation. In addition you have the extension of APER to include Mortgage Advisers under the new controlled function CF31 as well as the inclusion of Compliance oversight for this channel. Though there is currently a delay in this becoming policy as the regulator gets new systems into place, we can be very sure this will be with us in the coming months and therefore must be planned for in 2013. Finally you cannot ignore the impacts of twin peaks regulation, when the PRA and FCA are formally in place next spring. They promise us a “tougher, more interventionist and pre-emptive approach to regulating conduct in Financial Services including the on-going delivery of MMR”.

Let us look at each of the areas of focus in turn;

People

With much Regulator concern around mortgage fraud and unsuitable advice, the new customer function for those advising or arranging home finance business will come into place. This will create the ability to track individuals across the industry and bring with it the requirement to meet the Fit and Proper Test (FIT) and the Statements of Principle and Codes of Practice for Approved persons (APER).

This will require a close look at the leadership and culture within Mortgage distribution and should be reviewed in tandem with FSA Guidance Consultation regarding financial incentives which considers the potential correlation between incentives and sales behaviour.

The removal of non-advised sales will result in all Mortgage Advisers requiring appropriate qualifications which are currently at level 3 but there is industry debate whether that might be raised in the future.

Not to mention the firm specific requirement to raise core benchmark capability and deliver the new proposition in 2014.

So there is a lot to think about when considering your people impacts. How many will choose to exit from the role as the benchmark is raised and potentially the reward less attractive. The natural career path from counter to adviser may become skewed and alternative recruitment strategies might need to be considered. Without question, a significant investment in training in 2013 must be planned and budgeted for. A valuable lesson from RDR is to get the right balance between exam requirements and firm specific standards of capability, including skills and ethics and to deliver in a timely and effective manner.

Proposition

From 2014 we see the removal of non-advised sales and the ability in the future to offer advised or execution only. Rules are tightened around affordability assessment; we will see the introduction of interest rate stress tests and there must be proven and credible repayment strategies for interest only mortgages.

In a depressed market where it is already extremely difficult to step onto the mortgage ladder, there is concern that this problem will simply escalate. In addition with FSA scrutiny of the current Interest only market there is suggestion this could become the next mis-selling scandal, causing major issues for consumers and lenders alike.

So with a potentially rocky road ahead, lenders and distributors need to think carefully about their future proposition. They need to consider how to blend distribution whether face to face, by telephone and on line and the interaction between intermediary and lender. With the ultimate goal to retain or grow market share, firms need to decide how to create a profitable and a risk-averse operating model without losing their innovation and customer focus.

It will also be interesting to monitor the shift in the relationship between Intermediary and lender, with the lender taking absolute responsibility for affordability assessments and therefore quality being paramount. A balance will need to be found that delivers cost efficient distribution and meets the needs of consumers who seek both advice and future protection.

Process

As well as managing transitional and BAU arrangements around advised and execution only, we also see the introduction of new rules around professional consumers and HNW individuals. There are enhanced sales standards for right to buy, debt consolidation and equity release. In addition firms must deliver transparency around the service and product range they offer, as well as meet   new requirements of disclosure and the use of KFIs (Key facts illustrations).

A review of processes and supporting systems and MI will be critical to ensure a firm can clearly demonstrate how it is managing the transition and meeting the requirements in 2014. It will be essential to demonstrate for existing borrowers when affordability rules come into place, and in order to protect “trapped borrowers”, lenders will be expected to demonstrate that they treat them fairly (TCF principle 6).

Do not forget that effective systems, controls and reporting must be in place that demonstrate  and evidence that Senior Management are wholly involved in their firms conduct related mortgage-lending practice, whether by the board itself or a governing body.

Training & Competence

It won’t come as a surprise when adding up the extent of change on both business and people, that your T&C scheme for mortgage distribution will require close scrutiny and a wholesale review. It will be critical to consider each of the roles that in turn are impacted and how this will shape your scheme moving forward. You need to think about your recruitment processes, meeting APER at outset and on-going, minimum qualification requirements and induction and BAU training. The standards to attain and maintain competence must be re assessed against the new rules as well as how you will manage and monitor these in the future.

Critical will be what you measure and how. The FSA expects a culture that raises the standards of professionalism and puts the right customer outcomes at the heart of the process. How will you equip your leadership team to deliver this cultural shift? What steps do you need to take now to start with the right foundations and equip your advisers and supervisors to raise the professionalism bar and thrive in an environment that flourishes through personal ownership and development?

So in summary;

For those of you that are the Olympians of RDR, you can see there are many common themes and challenges set by MMR that must be met by 2014. If there is a very significant lesson to be learned, it is to start immediately and plan carefully.

Where better to learn about how best to put that into practice than looking at our Sports Personality of the Year, Bradley Wiggins, the first ever British winner of the tour de France and remember that it was after Beijing that Team Sky was set up in a bid to achieve exactly this.

So how do you deliver such certainty of success?  If we turn to Team Sky’s Performance Director, Dave Brailsford,  he puts it down to a combination of commitment, meticulous planning, team work and the “aggregation of marginal gains.”, where every little aspect of a cyclists performance and preparation is analysed in an attempt to save crucial milliseconds. Of course Dave was the recipient of the 2012 coaching award!

Put quite simply you should have absolute clarity of strategy and precision in planning and be able to break those plans down into your “marginal gains” that become your key milestones across next year. If you support these through strong leadership, great teamwork and the best coaches then you have a winning formula.

How long is it since you asked the questions….”what exactly is T&C all about”?
It’s actually not as easy as you might think to get a sensible definition. Some descriptions talk about the ‘right skills for the right people’, but the FSA themselves in their Handbook talk of ‘having the skills, knowledge and expertise needed to discharge the responsibilities of an employee’s role’.

Our question is this…is that enough, and where does the professionalism message around ethical behaviour fit?

We have recently been studying very closely what makes the most successful organisations in any industry so successful. We have compared all our findings with what we have learnt to be the fundamental essentials for success in seeking to blend optimum commercial effectiveness with extremely high levels of regulatory compliance.
The incredible thing is that in all situations the same 5 essential ingredients exist which deliver ‘The Secret of Adherence’. However, most T&C schemes struggle to deliver such universal and willing compliance.

If we take the FSA definition literally, then T&C would stop at ‘having’ the right skills knowledge and expertise to discharge the responsibilities of the role. However, we know that this is not enough and so does the FSA. In our last article (TC News April 2012 – The Race is on to the RDR finish, but who will be the winners) we postulated that the great danger for the firms who will not win in this race is that they may ‘Know’ what they should be doing but are not actually doing any of it.

In the same way, in almost every organisation we study, knowing what is required from a T&C perspective is not the major challenge. The main objective is an organisation where those skills and knowledge are applied consistently and willingly in an embedded culture that is focused on the right behaviours and ethics to deliver the best outcomes for both the customer and the organisation, this is the “The Secret of Adherence” and some organisations and financial services teams get it right, so let’s look at why.
The answer very simply seems to be that those who have cracked this have understood and then applied the model ( illustrated in Image 1 at bottom of article) across all aspects of their business not just advisers, but in sales management structures and within Significant Influence Functions (SIF’s).

…So, what does this tell us and why can a slight variation from this mean the difference between winning and losing?

Values

Google ‘the world’s most successful airline’ and you will quickly start to see the name Southwest Airlines arise, and there is good reason.
Southwest Airlines employee motivation is a magnificent-living example of what most companies are striving for. Fortune magazine has called it “the most successful airline in history”.
Key to this success is seen to be a strong set of values.
The SWA set of values determine the behaviour of all employees at all levels in the organisation – not only front line workers must behave according to these values, but especially top management as well, who maintain credibility by acting as role models for the values and therefore demonstrating high integrity

Stop and think for a moment:

In your company where you work right now, are the employees’ values that they live by every working day, identical to the company’s corporate values?
If your answer is “no,” your company has a clear area of opportunity.
If you don’t even know what your company’s corporate values are, your company has a gigantic area of opportunity.

Proposition

As a Consultancy we will often have the opportunity to ask people….”what is it that you do for your clients”? The frequent inability to clearly and powerfully articulate that simple fact is staggering.
This is the second stage of The Secret of Adherence, the Values must be translated into a Proposition that enables all within your organisation to simply and powerfully articulate what it is that your firm does for its clients.
This can be what turns a whole client engagement form transactional into a far more consultative approach.

An example of a firms values:

Profoundly understand all our clients, their goals, plans aspirations and fears. To deliver financial planning solutions that enhance security, optimise returns and protect the financial journey through life for current and successive generations.

Process

All great so far….and actually not that hard to do.
Of course what one then has to do is deliver on that propositional promise. The Process must support and deliver the Proposition for both client and organisation.
With a clear set of values and a defined proposition it is also easier to define precisely what Process will deliver that proposition and indeed what skills, knowledge and ethical behaviours are required to support delivery. This is the very heart of T&C. This means that we can see that a firm must have an Advisory process that derived a deep and profound understanding of clients current position and future plans. It is only then that they can start to explore and reveal areas of need, and in each one explore the psychology that will drive and motivate the client to act, rather than pushing products.
Process becomes so much easier to define, capture and then follow if it delivers upon the Proposition that has been set out.
So process is not just about client interaction it is also about how sales management and senior management create the environment that reflects the culture and ethics of the organisation or firm.

Adherence

Surely the ultimate goal of all in T&C is to have people who actually want to adhere, who feel compelled to do so through a desire to succeed not through fear of censure.

Is that possible?
Well the evidence suggests that it is. Studies of organisations such as Southwest Airlines, BP, Accenture and others that have clear and aligned values tell us something highly pertinent for T&C….they have strong adherence. People actually want to fall in line with the given processes. Why, not because they are slavish automatons, quite the opposite, because they understand the Core Values and this gives them a clear framework within which to operate, it allows them to know what to do….even when they don’t know what to do! This is supported by a process that they know will deliver results for them and for their clients. Adherence becomes something that will deliver success and so, highly desirable. The results of an adhered to process are hugely commercially attractive as this Boston Consulting Group Survey shows;
Image 2 – Boston Consulting Group. Darker circles show closer process adherence (bottom of article)

Alignment

Something else happens though when organisations have true alignment through their Values, Proposition, and Process; Social Norming Compulsion.
This is rare. It’s highly unusual for firms to have absolute and universal clarity of Values, Proposition and Process, it is rarer still to find true alignment in that organisation.
The expectations within these organisations are so clear, universally shared and ‘felt’ by the employees that they would feel they would be letting themselves and their colleagues down if they did anything other than adhere

What does this mean for T&C Practitioners and Managers in Firms?

Is this the right time to re-evaluate the effectiveness of your scheme? By linking T&C, procedures, outputs and outcomes to Values, Proposition, Process and Adherence it moves to a space where T&C becomes more than just meeting FSA TC Rules and Guidance and into one that is about supporting commercial success through highly professional and ethical people.

As was stated earlier….. If people don’t even know what your company’s corporate values are, or can’t articulate the proposition, then your company has a gigantic area of opportunity.

What can you do to move towards “Adherence” the new Compliance?

• Establish your firms Values
• Establish your firms Proposition with regard to client and organisational outcomes
• Build or realign sales, sales management and senior management Processes to the Proposition
• Align your T&C outcomes to Values and Proposition
• Define the capabilities required in roles to deliver as your benchmark
• Structure training to develop appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours
• Develop or build T&C and sales management tools to review, assess and coach the required capability
• Consider the measures you require to test Adherence. Traditional KPI sets may not achieve this successfully, it will be important to look at this from both client and organisational perspectives. For example mystery shopping, cultural and behavioural surveys
• Determine what reporting and MI tools are necessary to evidence outcomes and gaps at all levels in order to drive Aligned sales and senior management behaviours and action

So, perhaps this gives us insight into:
The Secret of Adherence – a New Compliance.
Organisations where Values, Propositions and Process are so well aligned that only full and willing adherence feels right.

With the majority of firms now confident that most of their advisers will be qualified by the end of this year, the real winners in this race will be those who have balanced this requirement with the knowledge that there are much broader strategic levers that drive fantastic consumer outcomes and deliver bottom line returns….

If you aim to plan with the end in mind, what is your ‘end in mind’ for the implementation of RDR? Does it have a strategy that puts the customer at the centre of everything you do?
That matches a compelling proposition to excellence in Advisor capability, and promises an excellent commercial outcome for your firm?…
or
Is like so many firms currently….simply focussed on achieving the required level of qualification?

We are certainly not saying qualifications are not important, of course they are imperative. We are suggesting however that the firms that are ahead of the game are those with a clear line of sight on protecting or growing market share and driving strong revenues. They are now well on their way to delivering a post RDR business model that is supported by clearly defined business plans, appropriate systems and processes, a revised People Strategy and Training &Competence which are totally aligned. Absolutely critical to all of this is that your people understand your strategy for change and are communicated with along the way. The findings of a recent FSA survey by RS Consulting in December 2011, suggested either larger firms were less well prepared for RDR than their smaller counterparts, or if they were well prepared, they had not communicated their plans to their advisers.

With 9 months to implementation, it is imperative that people have clarity about the journey they are on, they understand their organisation’s strategy and plans, are excited about the future and want to stay and get fully engaged. (You don’t want to see that significant investment in attaining qualifications going to your competitors.) There is little doubt the best people are going to be in high demand. Every major organisation we work with gives the same answer when asked about future recruitment plans;.-in the short to medium term everyone wants to recruit experienced existing advisers who are already qualified at QCF level 4.

Current Economic challenges put pressure on training budgets but ensuring your people have the right skills and are demonstrating the right behaviours will prove critical in the coming months. Adviser and Supervisor capability at all levels will play an important part in the successful launch of RDR propositions. As the market shakes out, the shape of distribution will change and you may open up new opportunities as well as find greater competition in your own territory. There may be increased focus on the HNW arena and therefore more competition there, and less attention on the mass affluent and mass core, so perhaps less competitors but certainly increased cost challenge. The capability and motivation of your people will play an extremely important part in your agility and flexibility to succeed in any market sector. The sales and advisory processes you develop will be critical and must be aligned to an excellent proposition. Demonstration of superb client needs based advice at all levels and efficiency around the sales cycle to all client segmentation levels will be absolutely essential.

But of course we are not telling you anything you don’t already know! So what is stopping you just cracking on and doing all this good stuff?
According to Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Stanford University and author of ‘The Knowing – Doing Gap; How great companies turn knowledge into action’, “knowing what to do is not enough”…as he puts it…”common sense is remarkably un-common and there are many barriers that can sit within organisations that make it difficult to turn knowledge into action. The ability to move from smart talk to action is critical to success and that’s how good organisations become great so how do you make RDR a success in your organisation and motivate the Board to see it as an opportunity that drives income rather than a cost burden to the Firm.”

What is causing your Knowing- Doing Gap? Let us suggest 3 things……..

Fear – There is fear amongst the Adviser community. And this fear is very often driven by lack of clarity and certainty. Days are busy with customer activity and exam study, but are they looking at what lies over the horizon. How much do your Advisors and Managers absolutely understand about the wider professionalism agenda and how it impacts them in their day to day roles and career choices in the future? They need to understand their personal responsibility as a professional in UK Financial Services and how this will impact the overall value proposition they take to their clients, the fee tariffs that they must explain, the ethical behaviour that they must consistently demonstrate and the level of individual reporting to the Regulator on their conduct and sales.

There is a window of opportunity to replace fear with certainty and to realise great stories to tell supporting new proposition developments, distribution opportunities and your investment in people and technology. There is also a risk if you are not telling them, your competitors might get to them first.

Measuring the Wrong Things – There’s an old saying in business, what gets measured gets done. According to Professor Pfeffer, “Companies have managed to convince themselves that, since what gets measured is what gets done, the more they measure, the more stuff will get done”. But what is absolutely critical is that measures are not there just for the sake of it and are reviewed to ensure that those measures are in fact driving the right things that should be done and the right way to do them!

So what are we suggesting? Let’s take Sales Targets as an example, probably the number one focus in any sales discussion from Board level down – are we hitting the numbers? This drives the strategy of the business and the behaviour within the field. But how does this fit with creating the right culture within the firm and driving ethical behaviour. We might point out as writers; we both started our lives in Sales and Sales Management so are highly pragmatic in our thinking. What we are advocating is actually great practice in Training & Competence too! The key is driving the overall capability, competence and effectiveness of your people and developing a culture of supervision that balances great outcomes for customers as well as business performance.

Organisations are too slow to Change – Organisations need to be prepared to build in “A tolerance for error and failure — into their culture”. A company that wants you to come up with a smart idea, implement that idea quickly, and learn in the process has to be willing to cut you some slack.

Too often Firms will want to ensure they have the absolute full picture before going into action. However with the pace of change and fierce competition, there is a need to let go of fear of not having the 100% solution. The impact of RDR on firms is a great example of lack of certainty of the change and diminishing timelines. Regulatory policy is drip-fed, provider and distributor business models are uncertain, customer reaction unknown and your market opportunities may very well be different. But with only 9 9 months to implementation it is essential that implementation plans are well under way, you need to test customer reaction and feedback, time is needed to pilot and review your value proposition and you need to engage your people through communication and education.

Anyone who has developed a prototype of their RDR business model and enhanced sales process and proposition and tested it in the market with tell you it needs about 2 to 3 goes to get it right and so you don’t want to be going live for the first time in November 2012. In order to do all this successfully, you need to have the right foundations in place. Stephen Covey talks about “getting your big rocks in first”. Everyone recognizes that it takes much longer to develop new skills and change behaviours and ensure they become embedded as second nature. Those with enlightened thinking are doing exactly this now. They have defined the new level of capability and behaviour they need to drive across their leadership population, into Supervision and Sales and have set out on major programmes of development to get those rocks in place. Then as the year plays out there is then space for the “gravel and sand”, as new products, changes to processes, new distribution opportunities start to emerge.

So let this article start and finish with the end in mind!
Attaining appropriate professional qualifications of course remains absolutely key to any regulated Investment business. However the real winners in this race will be those who have balanced this requirement with the knowledge that there are much broader strategic levers that can drive fantastic consumer outcomes and deliver bottom line returns. These are your sales process, client interaction skills and delivery of an enhanced proposition. Now is the time to alleviate fear within your adviser population and get them engaged and on-board for the changes ahead.
If lack of detail or having all the answers is getting in the way, then start by identifying those critical big rocks that you can get into place now!

Reflecting on the absolute triumph that was London 2012, the Olympics and Paralympics brought home the belief that what lay behind the medals and PB’s was true professionalism, a word now becoming synonymous with financial services but perhaps not yet fully understood.

In the athletes we saw ownership and responsibility for their own performance, including courage, total conviction and commitment to being the best they possibly can.

There are some strong parallels with our message about values, proposition and process.

However what was fascinating to see was the role that their coaches played at the games and also in the preparation and the journey to the starting line. In the midst of high pressure competition, to see athletes running to the side of the stadium to seek guidance and motivation from their coach was particularly powerful. It is very apparent the value they placed on their coaches and it’s clear that without them they would not have achieved success.

So what can we conclude from this especially as we turn our attention back to the day job? The answer is straightforward, that effective management, leadership, coaching and development are a non- negotiable in a successful organisation.

The FSA call it “supervision” but are we clear what this needs to look like?

That will be a regulatory matter…..

This is often the response when asked what supervision is all about. Of course the FSA have increased the emphasis on supervision through numerous Consultation Papers, Policy Statements and in the TC section of the Handbook.

We believe this is a fantastic message, especially when the FSA make it clear and state that supervision is not about checking client advice files but fundamentally about coaching advisers to high standards of professionalism and therefore the requirement to have supervisors with appropriate experience, qualifications, knowledge, skills and behaviours makes absolute sense

So what is supervision then?

If we refer back to our principles of values, proposition and process, then this is for the organisation to decide and define. They can refer to FSA Rules and Guidance as the starting point but what must be clear is how the organisations needs its managers to role model, lead and perform in order to deliver success. This then takes us straight back into the age old debate about supervision versus sales management. We believe that Training & Competence is actually great sales management in practice aimed at delivering commercial success, great client experiences, robust risk management and high standards of advice. It is not something separate and bolted on to other people and compliance related processes. This requires the highest standards of professionalism, absolute ownership and responsibility at all management levels as well as the adviser population, otherwise it just won’t happen. So, T&C schemes need to be designed, managed and monitored around these deliverables.

Yet often when we take a look around the industry and at T&C schemes we see them centred on activity, with prescription around inputs that drive tick box cultures  and where compliance is seen as delivery of the activity requirements. The more progressive firms have or are now refocusing on the outcomes that effective T&C needs to deliver with commercial success and customer experience being key drivers.

Commerciality

We look around us and we see the impacts of the recent economic crisis and the prospect of changes that RDR will make to the viability of current advice propositions. A number of bancassurers have withdrawn from the market and IFA firms are looking carefully at their business models based on Client Agreed Remuneration (CAR).

So perhaps, when it comes to T&C, we need to think more carefully about the commercial impacts our schemes will help deliver. That of course is all about striking the right balance between results, advice quality and risk. Not an easy task but one which needs to be addressed now and certainly before 1 January 2013.  What is required? High standards of technical knowledge, advice skills and yes selling skills too wrapped around  ethical behaviour. All of these elements need to come together to make organisations commercially viable, sustainable and profitable not just for its employees and shareholders but also very importantly for its clients and customers. T&C frameworks combined with great supervision and management are then vital.

Professionalism

As we have talked about in previous articles, attaining qualifications is not the be all and end all of simply becoming RDR compliant. Without doubt the FSA see it as much more than this. They are particularly vocal about ownership, responsibility and accountability for knowledge, skills and ethical behaviours especially at individual adviser level. One could argue that the implementation of the Statement of Professional Standing issued by Accredited Bodies reinforces this message. But let us not forget that despite SPS’s and AccB’s it remains the firms’ responsibility for the competence of its staff. This may lead therefore to some confusion. Again it’s interesting to look around at current T&C practice and schemes to see what the current emphasis is on. It is apparent that inadvertently firms and especially large firms have removed responsibility and accountability from their advisers for ownership of professionalism because of the support mechanisms they have in place. For example; training programmes, internally driven CPD, layers of supervision and management, advice checking units, HR policy to name but a few. Sometimes it can feel like a “done to” world in which the adviser is on the receiving end of a number of activity led interventions that are driven by a scheme that only points to what the supervisor will do to manage the competence of his advisers, this certainly clouds the ownership question.

What does all this mean for senior leaders, Supervisors and T&C practitioners?

If you haven’t started to re-evaluate the effectiveness of your scheme or want to test it against some good practice, here are some big rocks that you can put in place.

• Against your firms values and proposition determine exactly what you require your managers and supervisors to deliver.

• Determine the capabilities and competencies required to achieve this. Centre these on knowledge, skills, ethical behaviours and also performance expectancies. Commercial outcome measures are just as important as indicators of competence. This is likely to result in a change to and or expansion of the KPI sets you currently use to measure competence and the data feeds you will require to evidence them.

• Challenge what ownership, responsibility and accountability should look like at all levels from adviser to SIF. Explore how this will be delivered e.g. through performance conversations.

• Think about redefining supervision. Is it all about what the manager does with the adviser or is it equally about how the adviser supervises themselves? For example, advisers are often observed by their manager but when are they asked to honestly self-assess against appropriate standards and criteria? This can be built into the observation process.

• How is your sales process defined? If it is primarily process input driven, then think about re-defining it from the customer’s perspective. You can then consider using other forms of supervision and assessment such as mystery shopping and/ or overt independent assessments of the sales process to test outcomes. This will then provide a richness of data with a combination of regulatory, customer and sales effectiveness conclusions which can influence coaching and training.

• Consider how supervisors and managers drive change in adviser behaviours. What we describe as the Cord of Three ; Observations, Coaching and Development driven performance discussions are key to this and managers must have their skills at optimal levels for the post RDR world…. and to be top of their game, you must review how you recruit, train, coach and manage your supervisors. Does a great sales consultant necessarily make a great coach and manager?

• Wrapping sales management, risk management and competence management into one framework via your T&C scheme is about making it easy for managers and supervisors to understand your organisations expectations and deliverables. Perhaps doing this and calling it something new will be the start of knocking down those silos, changing perceptions and removing unhelpful baggage.

When people talk about the Olympic legacy, perhaps it resonates in more than just the sporting world. The lessons we can learn from Olympians and Paralympians and in particular from their coaches can help us define new standards of management and coaching professionalism in our industry and that is surely about more than just “supervision”.

In summary, team work is without doubt the critical success factor. The athlete or in our world, the adviser, must own responsibility and be accountable for their own performance and success. The coach, supervisor or manager, shows them the way to achieve that performance to put them ahead of the pack and burst through the tape first.