As those who follow my blog know well, I talk a lot about self-awareness is a critical part of personal and leadership development. Understanding what you stand for, and how you strive to align your behaviors and actions against that is an important part of how we bring all of us to the table, all the time. Self awareness of our value system creates an environment of openness, transparency and finally trust; So it comes as no surprise that, when I was in the market for a new financial advisor, I wanted to make sure that the successful candidate hit the mark across several dimensions, and alignment with my value system and priorities was high on the list.
Steve Kaufman hit the mark. When I met Steve, his pitch to me was not only about his track record on delivering results for his clients, but it was as much about how he goes about doing that. A big piece of Steve’s commitment to his clients is presenting his value system and making sure that there is alignment with his clients. Steve has been my financial advisor for several years now and it comes as no surprise that we have an open, trusting relationship. I can count on him to have my interests front and center – my financial interests, and how i like to go about my business and pursuing my objectives.
Once we have an awareness of ourselves, what we stand for and what values we want to guide us, we align with stakeholders, team-members and friends. That alignment creates transparency and trust. That transparency and trust delivers results.
Steve Kaufman’s Management Philosophy is a central part of his product, and he has it posted on a big board in his office – not only for his clients to see, but as he tells me, so that it is right there for him to see when he talks to his clients. His Management philosophy embeds his management beliefs and his values beliefs:
My Management Philosophy
- Be a great listener
- Have alignment of goals
- Respect one’s privacy
- Be positive at all times
- Walk the walk, talk the talk
- Have clear measurable goals – and measure them
- Praise publicly, admonish in private
- Settle only for the best
- Trust in excellence
- You can’t manage what you can’t trust
- Get to know your people
- Be consistent
- Be a winner-reward Excellence
- Do the right thing
- Admit when you are wrong
- Balance in everything is essential for true success
- Believe in your people – believe in yourself
- Don’t take yourself too seriously
- Learn – from mistakes, from others, from books
- Little things matter
- Act honestly with integrity
Steve is aware of what he stands for, and has earned his clients’ trust by striving to live by that