From the Back Cover
The success of any firm is based on the decisions made by its employees. Nowhere is that more evident than in the high-stakes arena of investment management. But it is a firm's culture and leadership, and the resulting behaviors they promote, which dictate the creativity, effectiveness, and success of those decisions.
High Performing Investment Teams shows you how today's leading investment firms create "positive/high energy" at each level, increasing the decision-making skills of their employees while dramatically reducing the politics, bureaucracy, and hand-wringing that breed only negativity and failure. Written by a team of today's leading authorities on investment industry leadership, culture, and teambuilding, this results-focused book explores the seven behaviors evident in some form in virtually every top performing organization and provides you with hands-on actions you can take to rebuild your organization around those behaviors.
Those behaviors include:
- Curiosity--Knowing when you are becoming defensive and shifting back to an open and receptive attitude of learning
- Accountability--Taking 100 percent responsibility for the results created as opposed to expending energy searching for scapegoats
- Candor--Engaging in courageous truth-telling to increase power and speed in decision making
- Authenticity--Discarding facades, then addressing actual conflicts to eliminate needless intrigue
- Awareness--Understanding, and tapping into, every emotional and intuitional resource for decision making
- Genius--Discovering and allowing people to do what they do best, thereby leveraging their natural areas of genius
- Appreciation--Expressing gratitude and fostering an across-the-board culture of sincere cooperation
While decades of research into psychology and organizational development have identified dozens of factors that contribute to organizational excellence, it is these seven behaviors that are consistently demonstrated in top performing cultures--and, conversely, are often absent or disregarded in struggling firms. Adopt at least some of them, and your long-term opportunities will expand and grow exponentially.
Ignore them? Your results will be just as striking, and more than likely permanent.
All of the innovative theorems and approaches in the world will do little to support an unhealthy internal culture. High Performing Investment Teams shows you what you must do now to build success in your firm by first improving the fundamentals that make up its most important assets--its employees.
JIM WARE, CFA, is the founder of Focus Consulting Group, a specialized firm dedicated to helping investment leaders understand, articulate, and shape their firm's investment culture. A frequent keynote speaker at the CFA Institute, Mutual Fund Education Alliance, Investment Advisors Association, and U.S. Institute among others, Ware is recognized for his insightful presentations. He has twenty years' experience as a research analyst, portfolio manager, and director of buy-side operations. He earned his MBA in finance from the University of Chicago.
JIM DETHMER designs and delivers leadership training and coaching to investment professionals around the world. He has delivered speeches on this topic for the CFA Institute, Investment Advisors Association, and many leading investment firms.
JAMIE ZIEGLER has over twenty years' experience as a marketing consultant, specializing in branding and communications for investment management firms. She holds a BA in English from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in finance from DePaul University.
FRAN SKINNER, CFA, CPA, has over twenty years' experience in the investment industry, specializing in measuring and incenting performance of investment industry employees. She earned her MBA in finance and marketing from the University of Illinois-Chicago
