John Griffith Chaney died at the age of forty.
Better known in literary circles as Jack London, he was a novelist, journalist, and activist, and one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity, earning a large fortune from his writing.
By thirty he was internationally famous for books such as Call of the Wild and White Fang, which are still widely read today. He was quick to side with the underdog against injustice, including spending time living with the down and outs in the East End of London, in 1902, writing about his experiences in The People of the Abyss.
Indeed, he was committed to experiencing as much as he could in life, with adventure stories based on his experiences at sea, in the Yukon, and in the fields and factories of California. He also became an international war correspondent covering the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, where he was arrested on three occasions.
Once he had established himself, he set the target of writing one thousand words per day, which would then pay the bills. When this was accomplished, he could get on with everything else he wanted to do, and could afford to employ the people he needed, with skills he lacked, to see his various visions brought to successful conclusions.
An otherwise successful individual had thus been lost as an asset to the firm, because of too rigid an approach by those responsible for Training and Competence.
I was lucky enough recently to visit the Jack London State Park, in California, and was inspired by his approach to life, to success, and to failure, as well as to the enormous amount he crammed into his relatively short life.
He is quoted as saying, “I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
So, what has this got to do with Training and Competence, we are never going to have to deal with a Jack London character, surely? That may be right, but there will always be square pegs, trying to squeeze into the round holes of regulation, and the main places we will encounter them are at the bottom and at the top of the organisation.
Firstly, in a number of organisations in and around the financial services arena, are those who have founded companies, who had the vision, the commitment, and the courage to start out on their own, often without a safety net.
These are the visionaries in the firm, those who want to see it succeed, who want to see their team work as hard as they do and to surround themselves with likeminded people. However, also appreciating they need those who will, necessarily, curb their enthusiasm, providing enough realism to show the world as it is.
These are the Finance and the Compliance Directors, and sometimes the Head of IT, whose roles are to explain what is possible, what is practical, and what the financial, regulatory and reputational costs will be, in relation to some of the ideas and plans that these visionaries have for their firms.
Looking at it another way, they employ the people they need, with the skills that they lack, to see their vision brought to a successful conclusion.
At the other end of the spectrum are the new recruits, those who do not yet know what the restrictions are, who are looking to be a success in their chosen field. They have all of the enthusiasm of a Jack London and want to experience the various aspects of the role, and to see the wider picture.
In some ways, these keen new employees can be easier to manage than a visionary CEO, but to do so requires a bespoke approach, one that will maintain their interest and harness their enthusiasm, without constantly trying to turn them into another drone in the hive.
Indeed, there is a possibility that a number of otherwise successful individuals have been lost as an asset to a firm and who feel they had wasted their time there, because of too rigid an approach by those responsible for Training and Competence, at Senior Management or Board level, who take a purely risk averse stance.
I have had experience supervising such new recruits, and it is a more intense process. It is important that both the person responsible for T&C supervision, and their line manager, have the same opinions of the way forward, and of the activities required to keep the individual’s interest, and these are re-appraised regularly.
One such individual I was involved with had come to the firm via a series of other jobs, before joining as an administrator. They were good at this role but seemed to get easily frustrated with the apparent shortcomings of the advisers for which they provided the administration. It was no surprise therefore that, when the opportunity arose, they applied to be a trainee adviser, coming firmly into my orbit as their T&C supervisor.
It was interesting to see how this individual’s attitude changed when they were an adviser, but not in the way that you might think. They came up against the same situations, delays, and frustrations of other advisers, but rather than moaning about it, or tying to side-step the problems, they attacked them head on.
They collaborated with their administrator, with their manager and the various product providers to identify the issues and bottlenecks. They also managed client expectations, and you could say, they managed their own business in the wider organisation. They innovated, created new processes, improved communication, and planning. As much as they could, they surrounded themselves with the people they needed, with the skills they lacked, to see their vision brought to a successful conclusion.
While this approach did not bear fruit instantly, and tweaks were made along the way, the subsequent effect on business levels, and the wider office as their processes were more widely introduced, were very noticeable.
It was not surprising then that they did eventually start their own successful firm, although this was in part due to the company they worked for being taken over by a larger organisation, which had much more prescriptive processes. An otherwise successful individual had thus been lost as an asset to the firm, because of too rigid an approach by those responsible for Training and Competence.
I’m sure that other T&C supervisors have had similar experiences, and that attempts have been made in various firms to allow for flexibility in approach, to accommodate these square pegs. Indeed, perhaps this piece will inspire other firms to reassess their current T&C Scheme, to consider whether more options for talented individuals could be introduced, to allow them to flourish, without increasing the associated risks.
On that note, I think it is appropriate to leave the last words to Jack London “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
