One of the fundamental changes the industry is currently experiencing is that many people think it is their job to do things to people, said Matt Church to an audience of 500 delegates at Financial Advice NZ’s Ignite conference.
“One of the big shifts is the idea of inclusive permission, and the crossing of sovereign boundaries of individuals,” he said. “What I am saying is, I have agency, I have control – don’t take it away from me.
“In fact, what we often think as advisers, is that it is our job to do things for people. We think it is our job to facilitate. And you can see that an expert will do things to you.
“But what I am going to suggest is that what a partner does, is do things with you. And what we are seeing with compliance is simple – don’t do things to me, don’t do things for me (yet), but do things with me.”
Church, a thought leader and one of only eight speakers inducted into the Australian Speaker Hall of Fame, says advisers need to be less instructional [with clients] and more invitational.
“It’s all about control,” he said. “Who has the control in the relationship? We have to go from ‘telling’ to ‘asking’ and the difference is ‘showing’.”
In referencing American car maker Henry Ford, Church said if he had asked customers what they wanted, they would have demanded faster horses.
Domination, where I tell you what to do, isn’t going to work…
“Because his customers didn’t know what they wanted,” said Church. “Apple, under Steve Jobs, gave us things we didn’t even know we wanted.
“Domination, where I tell you what to do, isn’t going to work. Facilitation, where I ask you what you want is fine, but in the areas where you have the subject matter expertise, the thing that sits in the middle, is the showing.”
“We know that ‘telling’ is the old dynamic, but there’s something about advice, and being a trusted adviser, that means you need to be really good at showing.
“Not everybody is the same as you, and so you need to give them agency and sovereignty to make their own decisions. The future of advice is going to be very different to the way it has been.”