Читать книгу Communication Essentials for Financial Planners - Grable John E. - Страница 9

The purpose of presenting a communication and counseling skills framework is to provide readers with a tool to help conceptualize the way in which a financial planner interacts with prospective and current clients. This book is primarily focused on helping financial planners encode, send, receive, and decode messages. While some attention is given to the channel of communication, the real emphasis of the book is devoted to exploring the inner workings of the framework shown in Figure P.3.

FIGURE P.3 Financial Planning Communication and Counseling Framework

The following example provides a step-by-step review of the financial planning communication and counseling process.

Step 1

At Step 1, a financial planner formulates an idea to communicate with or to a client. For illustrative purposes, assume a financial planner intends to assess a client’s risk tolerance. Issues related to explaining what risk tolerance means, the reason for the assessment, and the best technique to evaluate the client’s risk tolerance need to be addressed. It is possible that some of this work will have been completed before the point of initial client communication.

Step 2

At Step 2, the financial planner needs to choose a channel for delivering her message about risk tolerance to the client. Assuming the client and financial planner are meeting together, the delivery channel may be a combination of verbal – using a question – and tactile – having the client complete a brief questionnaire. It is important to note that this step in the process differs from other communication models. Typically, message development is the second step in the communication process. In practice, Steps 2 and 3 (channel and message) are somewhat fluid. Consider a situation in which a financial planner wants to provide an immediate market update to her clients. Choosing the channel first is appropriate as a way to edit the content of the message. For example, using a group email will require different message content than a decision to call each client separately. There is flexibility built into the framework, however, for situations that require content to precede channel selection.

Step 3

At Step 3, the financial planner then needs to formalize the content and context of the message. Using the risk tolerance example, the content will include information about risk tolerance and the need to accurately assess the client’s risk attitude in the context of the financial planning engagement. Issues related to language, cultural sensitivity, and client skills also need to be incorporated into the message. Given the choice of channel, appropriate context needs to be considered. Consider how the word risk can be interpreted differently by people based on their values, preferences, beliefs, and cultural background. For some, risk can be perceived as an opportunity. For others, risk is considered to be just a softer word to describe a loss. The financial planner may decide to ask the following question: “Tell me, how would your best friend describe you as a risk taker?” After the client responds, the financial planner could then present the risk questionnaire.

Step 4

Sending the message – Step 4 – is of particular importance. The financial planner needs to mix the elements of delivery to most effectively communicate what is being asked and needed. Elements include words, tones, gestures, expressions, images, and body language. In this example, the financial planner may simply use her voice and encouraging facial expressions to reassure the client when answering a question. This can be followed by physically handing the risk questionnaire to the client and then leaning away from the client to provide space for a response.

Steps 5 and 6

Once the message has been sent, it is up to the client to receive and decode the message – Steps 5 and 6. These steps in the process happen quickly and are usually based on the type of question asked and the client’s personal beliefs, values, cultural background, preferences, and expectations, in addition to other factors. While it is easy to think about these steps theoretically, it is important to remain grounded in practice. Everyone uses eye contact, body position, and other forms of nonverbal communication during a conversation. Being able to identify and use these forms of communication is an essential element in the process of building client trust and commitment.

While the client is receiving and decoding the message, there will be opportunities for the planner to observe nonverbal cues. These are essentially unspoken signals sent back to the financial planner. It is important to note that very rarely are the cues purposeful or intentional. These cues, however, can serve as important clues about the message’s success or failure. Consider, for example, sending an email to a client. If a client responds immediately, this might indicate that the client is interested in the message. It might, on the other hand, simply mean that the client was online when the message was delivered. A delayed response could indicate a lukewarm interest in the message. It could also indicate that the client does not read his or her email often, and as such, a different channel of delivery is needed. Identifying and interpreting these nonverbal cues is an important financial planning communication skill.

In addition to nonverbal cues, financial planners need to be aware of a phenomenon called transference. Sometimes a client’s attitude, mood, fear, or other emotional disposition is communicated nonverbally back to the financial planner during the client’s decoding process. If unaddressed, the client’s disposition can be absorbed or taken on by the financial planner. It is important for financial planners to understand when this occurs and how to handle this possibility. The arrow running from nonverbal cue evaluation and transference to the box called “decode response” represents the ongoing continuous feedback dynamic that is active in nearly every client–financial planner communication and counseling situation.

Steps 7 and 8

Whenever dialog occurs, the client (or receiver of a message) automatically engages in an assessment and evaluation of the message. As shown in Figure 3, at Step 7 the client formulates his or her own idea in response to the message. Within a financial planning engagement, this step in the process will hopefully be engaging and productive. There may be times, however, when no response is given. The client then moves to Step 8. This involves selecting a channel for response. The client then sends his or her response message back to the financial planner at Step 9.

Step 9

Although Step 9 represents the last stage in the process, the actual communication and counseling framework is continuous, as shown with the arrow from Step 9 back to the financial planner decode response box. Stated another way, the framework is built on multiple levels of feedback. This is illustrated with the arrow coming from the financial planner’s decode response box back to the client at Step 6. This represents the client’s own interpretation and evaluation of nonverbal cues being sent by the financial planner. For example, imagine what the client would think if, during the evaluation of risk tolerance discussion, the financial planner started talking to someone else on her cell phone? It is likely that the client’s trust and commitment would be harmed.