Banking & Finance
Valorie Seyfert
Co-Founder, President and CEO, CUSO Financial Services LP
By Mark Scott
Smart Business San Diego | November 2007
"The only way you can be on the same page is if you talk about it and put it in writing." - Valorie Seyfert, CEO, CUSO Financial Services
Valorie Seyfert is quite comfortable facilitating discussions about difficult issues and moving her management team toward consensus.
But the co-founder, president and CEO of CUSO Financial Services LP recognizes the value of helping others develop those skills, as
well. By encouraging the mentoring process, Seyfert is building a base of new talent to help lead the investment services company into
the future. The 105-employee firm achieved 2006 revenue of $79.2 million and expects to top $80 million in 2007. Smart Business
spoke with Seyfert about how to develop leaders and the importance of not playing the blame game when you make a mistake.
Listen to people. Respect what they have to
say and their ideas. What you find is that
there are a lot of great ideas out there from
people at all levels. The organization will be
much stronger, and you will be held in higher esteem if people feel they have a voice.
Reinforce it frequently by asking for their
input and their ideas. When we have
received feedback or ideas, we’ve implemented those ideas, and then we’ve given
recognition as those ideas have come to
fruition and contributed to success.
The more you feel you have a say, the
more ownership you take and pride you
take in the work you do.
Make planning a priority. We have, since the
very beginning, had an extensive strategic
planning process that we go through on an
annual basis. It’s not just a once-a-year meeting. We have regular and frequent sessions
where everybody participates. Not only do
they throw out their ideas, we set our goals,
and we have a lot of spirited discussions. We
really do flesh out the issues and try to find
the best path. We’ve developed our goals,
objectives and strategies. We’ve been able to
look back and say, ‘Here’s what we did right.
Here’s what we did wrong.’
Set clear goals. Be able to take that goal and
then break it out. In order to achieve this,
what are the projects we need to get done?
Get back into an actual timeline, and then
revisit that timeline on a frequent basis. We
do it every two to three months. We say, ‘Are
we making the progress toward completing
the projects that we need to achieve the goals
that we have set for this period of time?’
Put it on the board. When we have trouble
reaching consensus, we kind of go back to
basics. Put up the whiteboard or put up the big
white pad and put the pros and cons and really try to analyze all of the issues in such a way
that we can see the risks and rewards, the benefits long term and short term, and really
weigh things out as objectively as possible.
By putting up a tally, you can persuade
people that perhaps they’re holding on to
something too strongly if everything else is
outweighing it on the other side.
Give others the chance to lead. One of the
areas that I feel is so important for an
organization is that everybody feels as
though they have clear, or at least optional,
career paths. Mentoring is certainly an
important concept that we promote, support and encourage. In mentoring our senior management team, we want them to
experience the responsibility of driving the
organization toward a goal.
It’s absolutely critical that they learn how
to step into those shoes and work with all
the varying departments and see more of
an organizational view.
The benefit to the company is you are
grooming people toward a succession
plan. As you move your senior managers
up a continuum and as people look to
retire or move on, they are going to be prepared to take on those leadership roles in
the future.
Don’t play the blame game. When we fail, we
try to acknowledge it and analyze it. We
bring it up and we talk about it. We bring it
out in the open. We tell everybody we
failed, and we try to say why we failed and
what we’re doing to avoid it in the future or
change it so it doesn’t happen again.
If you have a customer and you screw up
something for that customer, the customer
doesn’t want you to be defensive about it
or blame somebody else for it. What they
want is to hear you say you’re sorry.
Acknowledge you made a mistake and
that you’re going to fix it. Here’s what
you’re going to do, and it’s not going to happen again. That customer will remain with
you and remain loyal or be much more
inclined to than if you act defensive about
it or blame somebody else for it.
Bridge the differences. The biggest challenge
in any employee/employer situation is that
gap between perception and reality. So
many people think they may be doing a
great job of communicating or a great job
of something else. When it comes down to
it, somebody else that is working with
them may have the opposite reaction. It’s
important for everybody to know why do
you think this and why do I think that.
Figure out why there is that difference and
bring them back together again.
Get on the same page. The only way you can
be on the same page is if you talk about it
and put it in writing. Oftentimes, even
when you give someone verbal feedback as
to what they are doing or not doing, they
won’t hear you.
It’s only when you see it in writing that
they understand. We have the employee
write their own review, and then their supervisor writes a review, and they get together
and compare. From that process, they talk
about where there may be differences and
come up with a plan for addressing any
areas of underperformance and acknowledging and rewarding any areas of superior
performance. They set goals for the future
and identify the appropriate career path.
Don’t get complacent. Once a year, we revisit
what the communication looks like. It’s a
topic that we have at our annual planning
session. Are we getting this communication right? Does everybody feel they are
getting the information they need? Is it too
much? Is it too little?
We don’t want to be an organization that
is bogged down in meetings. We will
always go back and ask ourselves those
questions at least once a year.
HOW TO REACH: CUSO Financial Services LP, (877) 287-6638
or www.cusonet.com
