Leading with honesty

‘Honesty and openness is always the foundation of insightful dialogue’

-Bell Hooks

We are at a reflective part of the year at JMFP. We have taken the time to check in with everyone individually and have huddled together as a team to reflect on the year so far. We have reflected on the good - ‘wow this is going so well!’ -  and the stuff we could have done better - each equally important to take us forward.

Personally, I had four weeks or so off after what I now recognise to be a fairly major operation. This has given me plenty of time to rest and even more time to reflect on what we have done as a team and what I have done individually to impact and influence our people and our clients.

Honesty is something we really focus on here to make sure we are all on the same page. We encourage the people in our team, including Pete and I, to challenge our own thinking and be reflective on our year so far.

We also do this regarding the business, and I thought perhaps sharing some of these thoughts might be interesting to get an inside perspective on the way we think here at Jacksons. Being transparent with our team is so important, so it makes sense to be transparent with our clients and anyone who kindly takes the time to read any of our stuff.

Below are the constant themes that underpin my thinking when it comes to team wellbeing and internal growth and that ultimately influence how we work with clients.

Self-awareness and Authenticity

Self-awareness is a life changing skill. It is this learned behaviour that has given me the confidence in being able to allow others to see the greatness in themselves. I haven’t always been so aware of my thoughts and feelings and how that impacts my actions. Most would say it comes from maturity/age, but I think it comes from wanting to understand yourself better, so you can be better. Being highly conscious of an emotion, whether it is happiness or sadness, elation or frustration, helps me to manage my own expectations of myself. This is ever-evolving; I am not sure there is a time where any of us has this cracked! 

So how does this translate to our workspace? I believe that as humans we want to work in an environment where we are able to be our true selves, to see our core values reflected and represented. We also want to feel connected to the place where we work and to the people we work with. It’s hard out there in the working world - do we know what we want to do and in what setting, when we are leaving education and beyond that? Rather than pick a career, maybe we should pick an environment that we know will bring out the best in us, truly allow us to be in our own skin because surely this is where we will be at our most creative and fulfilled?

We need to connect with each other and our clients. To encourage a great atmosphere, we constantly work on being more and more aware, learning to trust in ourselves and our own abilities.  I believe this is one of our greatest strengths.

Showing empathy and nurturing emotional intelligence

Connecting with others runs through every part of our business. We want to have real and engaging connections with our clients, to educate and empower them and have a fun experience along the way. To be able to do this well, we need to have a connection.

Understanding the team and the complexities of each person’s life can be tricky. What helps me perceive others’ emotions is acknowledging, understanding and continuing to learn about my own emotions. We cannot expect our people to leave their emotions at the door whatever they are, we want to help work with them to better understand what they need which in turn helps them understand others. It’s a pass the baton kind of learning, which ultimately ends with a kinder working environment.

My room in the hub is called the ‘Zen Den’. I feel it’s important to speak to the team throughout the days and weeks, encouraging them to talk about how they are doing and how they are feeling on a regular basis. It’s okay to not feel yourself, to feel happy, sad, angry or all the above and it’s important to take the time to work through those emotions and voice them if it helps. 

Feeling understood is such an important part of being seen in life.

Keeping your team motivated by empowering and sharing your vision

We are blessed to have a group of individuals that have soaring potential and capability. Some skills are fully on show, some are still untapped. I am looking for the people I work with to grow in confidence, to feel inspired and to flourish.

Part of keeping in constant contact with your team members is to really get to know them, let them get to know you and what you want for the company and how they fit into that.

We constantly share client and company feedback within the team. We share goals and vison and celebrate key milestones and wins. We lift each other up and we reflect on what has gone before to see what we might do differently. We create goals and stop to see how we are doing. We focus and reflect to make sure we are all on the same page. We trust the people in our team to make good decisions for themselves and for us!

We intentionally give our team freedom to think creatively and work to their own schedule, we can do this because everyone is on the ‘Jacksons train’ - we are on the same journey and we all know what we are working toward.

Having curiosity and courage

How do we start out when we are trying to change a process here? We literally go back to the beginning. We look at what others do and take any positives while ridding ourselves of any existing traditions. We think about how our clients want to work with us and what is most efficient when it comes to how we work through the process. We are always trying to push the boundaries to challenge ourselves, to be creative and be curious about the unknown.

As humans we are naturally curious, especially as young people. Somehow, we begin to lose this curiosity as we venture into the workplace. Maybe we think there is an expectation that we should follow rules or formality? We need to reintroduce this curiosity into the workplace - what if we just did something in a radically different way? What if we weren’t afraid to follow our own path? Could we create something that everyone wanted to be a part of? What would that look like?

We nurture shared ideas. Drawing from everyone’s thoughts, experience and passion brings a varied perspective. Harnessing these ideas and putting them into practice means we have tackled a change from every aspect of the business. Doing so may take us a little longer but building strong foundations give a solid platform to allow us freedom to try new things in the future.

I want our people to never stop asking questions of what we do and how we do it and always be curious enough to challenge the norm. I always want us to have the courage to do something different if that’s what we believe will give our clients the best experience.

Having trust, respect and recognizing value (psychological safety)

Trust is such a simple thing, isn’t it? We are generally guarded based on previous experience whether it be a friendship, relationship or a previous job role where perhaps we didn’t feel trusted or respected for what we bought to the team.  Feeling trusted and valued is the key to working in what we feel is a team with a vibe!

This is an ongoing process for us, as we cultivate mutual respect to help shape dynamics in the team. We ask our people to think about their reactions and behaviours as well as empowering them to communicate openly and honestly with each other. We have great individuals in our business but we need them to work effectively as a team - none of us can carry a full workload alone.

Something I read recently kind of sums this up:

Psychological safety, what does this mean? That people feel safe enough to share ideas, challenge process and contribute to helping the team develop.

This is something we want for our team members and something we will continue to always work on. 

Great communication with the team

You may have had a taste of Fursday Feels if you follow us on Instagram? Each week I communicate what we have done for the week, highlight any learnings, feedback and look to the week ahead communicating who is in and out of the hub and share my ‘thoughts for the week.’ These thoughts are generally triggered by something that has happened, something I read that resonates with me or is a feeling in the team that needs to be recognised. Yes, it’s a feel-good thing but it’s also a focal point for the team.

Open communication is really important to us and is what makes us able to adapt and evolve together. We want a culture of transparency; the team get to see where we are at as a business and what we are working toward collectively. Verbalising our expectations is important. I think this garners true engagement and allows everyone to feel a part of something special. Trusted communication leads to better decision-making and problem-solving.

Do we really do all of the above?

100% yes!  

As you can see, there are so many things to consider when leading a team and a business. Keeping all of this on the agenda is not a tick list thing, this is culture!

Cynicism is insidious: Does this stuff matter, do we really do what we say we are going to do, are we really that flexible? This stuff is our day to day and constantly on the agenda for the Jacksons team. We have a vision, and we are prepared to make adjustments and work really hard for our clients and each other.

The summary so far for this year is that it’s been a wild ride, it’s tough and we ask a lot from our team. We are helping clients achieve their dreams and are constantly challenging everything we know about financial planning. We know that together we are stronger. We thrive off inclusive decision-making and we all take responsibility for the impact we have on our clients, each other and Jacksons.

I hope this gives a sense of who we are and what we are working toward. I feel very grateful to have the privilege of leading this incredible team.

This article was written by Sharon Bray, Practice Manager

You can learn more about Sharon by visiting her profile - Sharon Bray