Coming into this role with Quiver Management from a background in financial advice, I am aware that the product-focused tradition of what many of my fellow advisers do may seem at variance with the principles of coaching.

After all, even the best advisers are trained to head straight to a solution. For commission or fixed fee-based advisers there is a set amount of income, and so the quicker the solution can be found the better. Coaching, however, is a more deliberative exercise which takes time to enable coachees, ideally, to come to their own conclusions.

Now, having joined Quiver Management, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the concepts of successfully advising and coaching are not necessarily polar opposites. Indeed the need and benefits for financial advisers to take on-board some of the coaching profession’s mind set and skills is starting to be recognised by their profession.

Last month Quiver Management delivered a first of its kind one-day pilot training course specifically designed for financial advisers about how they can successfully use coaching skills to improve the quality of their advice, their relationships with clients and the long-term success of their businesses in an increasingly challenging business environment. The course was a big success with 100% positive feedback and plans to make this part of the standard CPD training programme for financial advisers in England.

The differences between advising and coaching

As I have implied already, coaching and advising traditionally require almost opposing skill sets:

• A skilled adviser will identify clients’ issues and provide clear advice in order to provide a solution
• A coach helps the client to identify their own solution by focussing on their issues. The adviser’s own views should not influence the conversation.

Unsurprisingly, not giving advice does not come naturally to many advisers. What attracts many people to being an adviser in the first place is the desire to help people, to do some good. And we inevitably think the best way to do good is to tell people what they should be doing (I’m sure this isn’t just me…).

Coaching helps people in a different way. A good coach helps them work out their own problems. It can even seem like the coach has done nothing, the coachee has done it all themselves. This can actually be a good outcome, as long as the coachee has a good result they feel ownership for, then that is what matters most.

So what are the advantages that coaching principles can bring to financial advice?

Even in financial advice there can be advantages to allowing a client to explore their motivations and dreams. Coaching can bring a huge amount to the client relationship.

Adding this as a stage on the advice process is hugely powerful as it enables the client to really stretch their thinking, in many cases to consider issues and possibilities no one has ever allowed them to think about before. And then the adviser side of our role steps in and helps devise a financial plan to help bring these dreams to reality – or maybe, if necessary, to bring a bit of reality to the dreaming!

Imagine a business model where there are no complaints, all clients are retained for the long term, and client file checking is a mere formality. Applying business coaching techniques can genuinely help achieve this (although there are a few other changes to the business that would help a lot too!).

I’ve been using coaching skills in our practice for many years now. We haven’t had a complaint for as long as I can remember. This isn’t about developing ‘soft skills’ (although that does play a part). This is about a fundamental change in the approach to dealing with clients, and can brings with it huge advantages to the adviser and the firm.

Do you have any views on how coaching principles can be used in financial advice, or in any other business? If so, please share them with us.