Root Ready
A podcast for growth-minded financial advisors
Root Ready
The #1 Way to Be a Standout Team Member
Becoming an extraordinary financial advisor takes more than technical skill—it requires mastering teamwork.
This episode breaks down the five pillars of collaboration: trust, listening, influence, respect, and care. These qualities shape how you show up for colleagues and clients and determine the impact you make as a team member.
Strategies for remote communication, real-world examples of advisors going above and beyond, and the importance of consistent follow-through all reveal how trust is built through actions, not words. Being a great teammate isn’t about personality—it’s about behaviors that lift others up.
For anyone looking to grow into not just a skilled advisor but an invaluable collaborator, this conversation offers the roadmap.
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The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.
Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements
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Welcome back to another episode of the Root Ready podcast. I'm your host, james Canole. Today's topic is about how you, as an advisor, can also be an incredible teammate. In this episode comes from a listener question. This question comes from Rachel. She says I'd love to hear your thoughts on what it looks like to be a great team member. How can a new advisor make an immediate impact on their team? Thank you, rachel.
Speaker 1:So one of the things I think I want to get across, the message I want to get across, the message I wanna get across in this podcast is too often, especially for younger advisors or newer advisors to the industry, the thought is, the thing I can do to be the best is to be the most technically sound, and while that absolutely is a component of being the best, that's one component. There's a technical side of things, there's a financial, psychology side of things, there's the self-leadership side of things, and even within that I would include this question of how can I be a wonderful, how can I be an incredible teammate? What can I do as a new advisor to make a strong impact on my team and those around me? So I'm going to give some context here Three topics. We'll be going through with this. But to make it clear from the start, I'm talking about specifically at root. What does it look like to be a strong team member? I think in a lot of places and this isn't unique to the financial advising industry being a good team member if you wanna know is that person a good team member? It means they don't bother me, they don't rock the boat, they keep to themselves. I don't have to worry about them. That's fine if you just wanna go to work, do your job and go home and on with other things.
Speaker 1:But if you are trying to be excellent at what you do, trying to be the best at what you do, there's more to being a great team member than just staying out of everyone else's hair and not rocking the boat at all. So that's just some context here. This is my perspective of what would make a great team member here at Root. So there's three things we're going to go over in today's episode. Number one is, to me, what is the most important thing you need to do to be a great team member? Number two is kind of a common pitfall to watch out for, especially if you are in a remote work environment. And then number three. The third thing we're going to talk about is actually specific examples of just things that I've seen here internally at root, even just the past one to two weeks. Examples of things that people have done that I would say that is a great quality that makes that specific individual a great team member.
Speaker 1:So, jumping right in number one and by far the best thing you can do to be a great team member is prioritize building relationships. Sometimes people think if I wanna be a great team member, I have to be a know-it-all, I have to understand everything, I have to be able to not go to others for questions. I need to show that I have all that it takes to be excellent at my job. Get rid of that thought. If you are a newer advisor somewhere, if you're a newer team member somewhere, that's not what people are looking for to say that's a great team member.
Speaker 1:The thing you really need to do is you need to prioritize developing relationships. So what does that mean? Does that mean you need to be great friends with everybody? You need to go to happy hour whenever work offers it. You need to be the one that's calling people on their birthdays and checking. All those things are fine if you want to do that.
Speaker 1:But that's not it. That's not the foundation of what makes a great team member, of what builds strong relationships. And to me, this actually comes from Jocko Willink, from some of his books, some of his podcasts. If you want to build great relationships with people, there's five components trust, listen, influence, respect and care. Do those five things trust, listen, influence, respect and care. Do those five things Trust, listen, influence, respect and care. So what are practical examples of that? Well, if I want you to listen to me, I first have to listen to you. So if you're a new team member trying to prioritize building strong relationships, listen. Don't come into the new work environment. Don't come into the new place and feel like you have to know everything. You have to tell people how to do things. You have to be the one that has to offer the information needed for whatever project you are working on. Listen, seek first to understand before being understood. Seek to listen, seek to understand Really. Make sure you are listening to others. If you listen to others, they will listen to you.
Speaker 1:Care if you want people to care about you, you must care about them. There's a Dr Seuss quote people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. That is one of those quotes that I had heard so often. I almost dismissed it, and now, as I've gotten older, I realize how crucially important that is. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. If you want to build great relationships, show people you care about them. Go out of your way to help them. Go out of your way to check in on them when you know they're going through something. Go out of your way to make sure you are there for them, that you care about them, and as you do that, you're going to be building the foundation for a solid relationship.
Speaker 1:Influence this is a big one, because we all have our idea of how things should be done, oftentimes our egos involved. But if you want to be able to influence others, you must first be influenced yourself. So how can you do this? We all want people to do things our way. Guess what that means. They probably want everyone to do things their way. If you want to influence, if you want to have a relationship, you must first be influenced. And, by the way, these things aren't just applicable to being a great team member. This applies to your spouse, to your children, to your team members, to your friends. How often do you let your spouse influence you? How often do you let your children influence you? When you let others influence you, it shows them you care, it shows them there's a relationship that this isn't just something where it's your way all the time, but you are influenced by them and they are then, in turn, going to be more likely to be influenced by you. So when was the last time you let someone influence you?
Speaker 1:You know Rachel's asking this question, the question that kind of kicked off this whole episode. If I'm working with Rachel on something and I think something should be done this way, and she thinks something should be done that way, well, can I take a big step back and say how crucially important is this project that we're working on? If this is mission critical and I know for certain that my way is the way it should be done that's different. Maybe I have more experience than her. I've been here longer than her. I kind of see the vision of where this needs to be. There's a time to say, yes, this thing needs to be done this way. But if it's not, that Rachel and I are working on something, and you know she's got a good idea. I see where she's coming from. I think my ideas may be a bit better, but who cares? Rachel, you know that's a great idea.
Speaker 1:I didn't see things the way you saw that. Why don't we go ahead and do this your way? How can I be influenced by you? How can I start to see that? Because here's the thing you have so much to learn from everyone around you. We think that this is the best way to do it, and of course we do. We already have this preconceived notion in our mind of the beliefs that we hold, or the way things should be done, or whatever that might look like. Expect that you are going to learn things. Expect that there are blind spots that you have and by nature, by definition of those being blind spots, you don't realize that they are that, so let others influence you. Let don't realize that they are that, so let others influence you. Let others be the one that take the lead on how things should be done, even if it's not exactly the way you think it should be done. Obviously, there's nuance to that. I'm not going to be influenced by you if you're doing something that I don't believe is morally right or that it's going to violate some ethical thing that I don't want to violate. I'm also, as I mentioned at the very beginning, if this is a mission critical thing and I know for certain that it needs to be done this way or there will be disastrous consequences, that's different. But when it's not that and, by the way, most things aren't that they feel like they're of greater importance. But that's kind of our ego stepping in and saying it feels like it's important because it's the way I think it should be done. Take a step back If there's something that can be done a different way. And if Rachel, going back to the individual who submitted the question, if she feels confident in that, let me be influenced by her. It's going to give her more ownership of this. It's going to show her that I care about her and I'm willing to be influenced by her. That's going to help to build a strong relationship.
Speaker 1:The next one is trust. If we are going to build a strong relationship, you need to trust me and I need to trust you. How does that happen? I'm not going to go to you and say, rachel, listen, you need to trust me. Look how long I've been doing this. Look at my results, look at what I've done, trust me. It's a horrible way to do it. If I want Rachel to trust me, I first need to show Rachel that I trust her. Let's assume, for example, she was coming on. She was an associate advisor, I was a lead advisor.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say, rachel, I trust you. I'm not just going to say that. I'm going to say, rachel, do you mind writing the follow-up email to the client after our meeting? What is that showing? It's showing I think highly enough of her to say you do this, you do this thing. That is going to be a reflection of me. Now I'm going to proofread it. I'm need some guidance here, but I'm going to trust you with that. Now, that might be a little thing, but as our relationship grows, I've trusted you with a little. You really did great with it. I'm going to trust you with more. I'm going to trust you with more. I'm going to trust you with more and as I continue trusting you more, you are also going to trust me in return, and that, in turn, is going to build a better relationship. You might be thinking well, what are other examples of that? Sure, it's a follow-up email. Is it doing specific tasks. Yes, it's all of that, but I think a great way to build trust and to show you that I trust you is to actually give you feedback. If I don't trust you, if we don't have a good relationship, I'm not going to give you feedback.
Speaker 1:Feedback is something that is very difficult to do. I think most people would say they want feedback, they want to know how they're doing, but those same people, for the most part, are scared to give it, and that's natural. We don't want to ruffle feathers. We don't want to do anything that we might perceive to ruin the relationship or sour the relationship. We want people to like us. We want to be liked in our perception, as giving feedback diminishes that. But that's not how things actually work. When someone gives me feedback and I know it's coming from a place of they love me and care about me and want to see my actions better align with the company's missions, or want my actions to better align with what they know I have the potential to be, that does nothing but build trust. So if I want Rachel to trust me, I'm gonna give her my trust, and one way I'm gonna give her my trust is giving her my feedback and, as I mentioned, a lot of people don't love giving feedback. And the people that do love giving feedback, sometimes that's a symptom of a bigger problem. Maybe they like being in charge, they like hearing themselves talk, they like being the one that feels in control. That's not the reason to give feedback. The feedback.
Speaker 1:If I'm giving feedback to Rachel, rachel, you delivered that plan so incredibly well. I loved how you touched upon this. You knew that this was their specific concern and you spent extra time going over that. You really did an amazing job there. I could tell how impactful that was. Do you mind if I give you a little bit of feedback on where I think you could do even better next time? Now better next time? Now Rachel's going to say, yes, of course I want that. You know you. You rushed through this section here. I think if you slow that down just a little bit, I could tell the client was a little bit starting to glaze over. They weren't really comprehending what you're saying. If you slow down just here, your message is going to be so much more impactful next time, whatever the feedback is.
Speaker 1:But when I give that to Rachel, what I'm really doing isn't just giving her feedback, I'm giving her trust. I'm showing that I trust her enough to be vulnerable enough to give feedback, because I recognize that feedback can be uncomfortable, feedback can be difficult, and it's showing that I see something in her that she's willing to accept it. That requires mutual trust. So if I want Rachel to trust me, I first need to trust Rachel, and that could be things like giving her an email to send, giving her a project to do, giving her a problem to solve, giving her feedback to receive. All of those things communicate, I trust you and in doing so it's going to build a stronger relationship.
Speaker 1:And the fifth one is respect. Now, when I say respect, that doesn't mean you need to say, oh man, I respect that person so much. Look what they've done, they're my hero. Now, respect can have that connotation, but I'm just talking about the basic human dignity respect. If you want to build a great relationship, treat people with dignity. Treat people how they deserve to be treated. Treat people how you would want to be treated. So if you can do these things trust, listen, respect, influence, care you don't have to be best friends with any of these people, you don't even have to like every single one of your team members. Chances are good. You're not gonna be best friends with all of your team members, but if you can do those things, you're gonna build strong relationships. If you have a strong relationship, that is the number one thing you can do to be a great team member.
Speaker 1:Now let's move on to the second point here Now. Before we do, if you're watching, if you have not already left a review, if you're listening on Apple podcasts, if you're listening on Spotify, please leave a review. I hope this becomes a podcast, a video that helps a ton of growth minded financial advisors be the best version of themselves that they can be. You leaving a review helps that tremendously. So thank you to all of you who have been listening, thank you to those of you who are willing to leave a review.
Speaker 1:On to number two. Number two is more specifically relevant in companies where it's a remote company, and this is more specifically relevant because communication can doesn't have to be, but it can be more challenging in a remote environment, and here's a quote that summarizes what I'm going to be talking about. This is from Stephen Covey. He says we judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior. We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior. How does this show up? What is this relevant to in terms of working in a remote environment?
Speaker 1:Well, have you ever received a Slack message or an email or a Teams message, whatever system you use, and you sent someone maybe a long thoughtful email, slack message, whatever it was, and you got a sounds good, okay, maybe even just a thumbs up emoji, and you maybe took that as wow, that feels a little chippy, that feels a little passive, aggressive, that feels a little unwarranted or I deserved a better response than that. And all I got was a sounds good or an okay. And here's what's happening there you are judging their response by how it made you feel. You're judging by the action and the way the action made you feel, which is maybe wronged in some slight way, or a slighted, or maybe not treated the way you should have been treated, because you felt like you deserved a better level of communication. Now, this is just, maybe just a silly example. There's millions of these examples, but I'm just using this one because it's top of mind.
Speaker 1:Now, on the other person's end, we have no idea what their intent was. They might've been in between meetings, they might've been doing something for a client, they might've been thinking man, I really want to get back to James because I have all these things on my plate, but I don't want him to think I haven't seen his message, I'm going to shoot something off real quick. So that might be their intention. I'm judging it based on how it made me feel and that can lead to tension in a remote team. So how do we build better relationships? How can we be better team members? Well, number one I need to understand that the person sending, the person doing the action they're judging themselves by their intentions. I'm judging the results of their action. I'm judging the action itself.
Speaker 1:What that can turn into if we're not careful is okay. If you're going to chat with me like that, I'm going to be a bit passive, aggressive to you. I'm going to be short with you on the response. Oh, that thing that you needed from me. I'm going to make that the last thing that I do today.
Speaker 1:And all of a sudden, you have this failure to communicate Because, on the one hand, you have a teammate that sent something with the best of intentions, but the action, the actual action itself, and the way that that was perceived. There was a disconnect there and if that continually happens. It maybe leads to okay. Well, maybe in our next team huddle I'm not going to be as warm with you, I'm not going to be as chatty with you. I feel like maybe we don't have a relationship here. It's two different stories. On the one hand, the other person thought I had fine intentions. On this hand, I'm thinking I was wronged by that action. So maybe this is a small thing, but it can become a big thing.
Speaker 1:And back to Rachel's question of how can I be a great teammate? Well, it's understand that this dynamic is going to exist, especially if you're in a work environment. So what can you do? We'll start by recognizing that communication in digital realm, unless you're on a Zoom call or a huddle, there's not tone that you're going to see, there's no body language, there's no nuance, there's no ability to elaborate once you've sent that, unless you're sending another follow-up text message or a Slack message. So recognize that. And, number one, be very slow to judge.
Speaker 1:If you want to be a great teammate, you might be coming in and saying man, I'm prioritizing relationships, I'm building trust, I'm giving trust, I'm giving influence, I'm giving care, and then I get this. I get this message, I get this action. I'm feeling a little slighted here. I'm a little discouraged. Now, recognize the fact that our ego is involved in everything. Try to take our ego out. What was their intent of intentions here? Because I've made an effort to build a good relationship with that person, I'm going to assume this thing they did was maybe an oversight on their part, maybe they were rushed, maybe they didn't fully recognize, maybe I didn't fully communicate to them what I needed. And so their response to me I took it as, oh, you didn't put time into this. They took it as, oh, I was unaware that I needed this type of response or that this project was of that importance.
Speaker 1:So if you want to be a great team member, try to not be overly judgmental. Try not to ascribe negative intent or ill intent when, on the other hand, that person probably didn't actually have any negative intent. Keep that in mind. And number two, don't just assume that they don't have negative intent. Assume the best intent. Assume that they were doing something. Assume they were busy. Assume they maybe didn't fully understand the details of the project, whatever it was. Assume the best of others, because chances are that's actually a more realistic depiction of what's actually happening.
Speaker 1:And then the next thing is reverse it. If we are judging anything that happened to us based on how it made us feel, but the person who did that action is judging themselves based upon their intent, how can we flip that? How can I assume the best of their intent? But also, if I'm doing something, if I'm sending a message, if I'm giving a brief, if I'm sending out a piece of communication, assume that people are going to only see how it made them feel. Don't assume they're going to say, oh, they knew what James's intent was here. They know what point I'm trying to get across. I can be a little sloppy with my communication. I can be late to this meeting because they know it's important to me. I can put off maybe getting them that piece of information that they really need. I can do that tomorrow. I can do it the next day. Don't assume any of that. Don't assume that your intent is going to be felt. Assume that they're only going to be judging you by your actions. So it's just a little way of flipping this. How can you hold yourself to a higher standard than you hold others to? You do that by assuming the best of intent and people, while simultaneously understanding that people aren't going to have any idea what the intent is behind your message. Put the thoughtfulness behind it, put the time behind it, put the effort behind it to make sure that your actions are supporting your team, are encouraging your team, are giving your team the things that they need from you. All right, so that's the second point. Now the third and final point.
Speaker 1:This is just some specific examples. Even here recently at Root, as I was writing out the outline for this episode, I just sat down and I looked at my calendar, my Slack messages, conversations I've had over the past couple weeks here at Root, and I said what are some specific examples of things that people have done that I say that is a great example of a person being a great team member that I could share here. Now, as I do this, I want to make one thing very clear Every team member at Root is exceptional. I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world to get to work with who I get to work with at Root. So I'm gonna just include five or six people here, but the reality is, I could give you 50, 55 examples of incredible team members and specific actions they've taken. This is really just some recent things that have come up.
Speaker 1:One is our client success manager, jay Withee. What I love about Jay why he is a great teammate one of the many reasons he's a great teammate is he is so hyper-focused on Root's mission how do we help as many people as we can? How do we pursue our mission, our vision and our purpose? And he has his job description. He has his responsibilities. He's our client success manager, which means he's the first person that a lot of our new prospects speak to when they come to Root to help them understand what our services are and help to connect them with an advisor that can work with them. But he is always going above and beyond, whether that's saying how can I do things that contribute to the awesome culture we have here, whether it's doing things to recognize others. Whether it's doing things to say how can I proactively try to elevate other advisors so that when new prospects come in, they immediately get connected on a personal level to this advisor that they're going to work with. So why is that an example of a great team member? Because he's going above and beyond. He's trying to say I know what the mission is, I know what we're trying to do here. I also know what my job description is, but I'm going to go outside of that. I'm going to do more than that because I care so deeply about the team that I'm with Great example of a wonderful thing you can do to solidify yourself as a great team member. Another example this happened just a couple of days ago is Trevor Buggs. Trevor is a new associate advisor here, and the advisor that Trevor supports is Chris Reboli. I was talking to Chris and he just said Trevor has been so incredible.
Speaker 1:He is actively looking to say where can I take work off your plate? I am hungry to learn. I'm hungry to get better. I'm hungry to develop. Chris, what can I take off your plate to help you and also help me be the best I can, so that, in turn, I can keep helping you. So what's there? What's the lesson there? People love to be around hungry, dedicated, driven people, not selfishly ambitious people, not people that. It's me above all else, my growth above all else. But I'm hungry. I have a desire to elevate others around me and I want to do that by taking things off your plate. I want to support you, I want to serve you. So if you want to be a great team member, be hungry. Be hungry to be excellent. Don't do so in a selfishly ambitious way, but do so in a way that elevates those around you and actually helps to take work off their plate. Take things from them. That's a great way to build relationships. The next example and this is two people this is Carly and Alex. Carly is our VP of advisor experience and Alex is our COO and chief compliance officer as well. What I love about Carly and Alex if something gets said, if I ask for something, if they say they're going to do something, I don't even need to check back in. It's going to get done.
Speaker 1:If you want to be a great team member, be someone that people can rely on. If you say you're going to do something, even if it's a little thing, do it. People see that. People recognize that. That builds a pattern. It builds trust. I don't care if this is something tiny and you say you know what? This isn't even that important. If you said you're going to do it, do it. Other people around you see that. People recognize that. Even if you think no one remembered I said I was going to do that thing. Or you know, james asked that thing, but I don't think he really cares that much. I think he probably even forgot about it. People remember that stuff. People see that stuff.
Speaker 1:If you want to be a great team member, do. If you want to be a great team member, do what you say you're going to do. Another great example I saw just in the past week here is from Chelsea English. Now Chelsea is having a ton of success as an advisor here. She's a newer advisor to the team. She's doing tremendously well. But what I love is she is a big cheerleader for everyone else. She's having a lot of success herself, but where I see her most active in Slack channels is giving praise to others. Giving praise to others, recognizing other people's accomplishments, elevating the team, showing off her team members, doing what she can just to elevate those around her. So if you want to be a great team member, yes, have success. Do the things you're supposed to do, but go above and beyond that. Elevate others. People love to be recognized. People love to be celebrated. When people are putting tons of their time and effort and energy into doing what they're doing, make sure that they are being recognized because they deserve it. Chelsea does an excellent job of that. And if you want to be a great team member, you can do the same.
Speaker 1:The final example here is from Brandon Brandon Woods. He's one of our senior advisors. One thing that I think makes Brandon an excellent team member is he comes to me with problems. He comes to me with challenges, which is great. It shows that he trusts me and I trust him. But he takes it a step further. Whenever he comes to me and says, hey, james, here's an issue or here's a challenge or here's one thing that I think needs to be done better, it's not just here's a problem, deal with it. He always comes with potential solutions. It's hey, james, here's a problem that I'm noticing, here's a few potential solutions. It's showing me that he's not just committed to tell me what the problem is. That's easy enough. We all can recognize the problem.
Speaker 1:The harder part is putting some actual thought and work into what are the potential solutions to those challenges. So whenever he comes to me with something it's never just here's a problem you take it and dumping it on my plate. It's here's a problem and here's some things I think we can do to alleviate that. Now, sometimes we use those solutions quite a bit. We use those solutions. Sometimes we don't, but it never deters him from if he's going to bring an issue.
Speaker 1:He also comes with a potential solution. And he doesn't just come with that solution. He often volunteers to be the one that sees that solution through to its completion. So, identify the problem, which is a huge help to me. Identify potential solutions which is a huge help to me and then, third and finally, implement that solution. So it's not just a problem, it's not even just a problem and a solution. It's here's a problem, here's a potential solutions, and you know what? Maybe you don't even need to worry about it, because I'm going to go ahead and take care of it, if it's okay with you.
Speaker 1:So, if you want to be a great team member, go above and beyond. Go the extra mile to helping to understand or helping to work through what's the solutions to the problems or challenges that I'm seeing here. Now. Here's the thing about all of those. All of those are things that are not personality-based. You don't have to be the most charismatic person in the room to do any of these things. You don't have to be the smartest person in the room to do any of these things. You don't have to have the most experience. You don't have to have the most longest tenure. You don't have to have any of that. You just need to do what you say you're going to do. You just need to recognize that there are things anybody can do to be a great team member. You just need to recognize what it takes to be a great team member and then see where are the areas in my company that I can take initiative and take steps to do that. So that is all we have for today's episode of the Root Ready podcast.
Speaker 1:Rachel, thank you again for asking that question. I think this is an excellent question and really maybe an underappreciated aspect of what it means to be a great advisor. You need to also be a great teammate, and these are some ways that you can focus on doing that. So, once again, if you have not already left a review for the show, please go ahead and do so. If you are listening on a podcast, you can also check this out on YouTube. This is on Root Financial's YouTube channel. Go there, subscribe. You can also see that there. Thank you for listening and I'll see you next time.