Speaking to the Adviser Innovation Summit in Sydney on Thursday, Mr Ferrier said its impossible for a business to ignore its weaknesses, and that recognising where the industry is lacking can be advantageous if done correctly.
“You have to embrace your weaknesses, and at least acknowledge them and talk about them,” he said.
“There’s a great saying in Batman, ‘the brighter the picture, the darker the negative’, so you cannot escape your shadow, you have to embrace it.”
Mr Ferrier pointed to a psychological study conducted in the 1960s, which found that when someone who is perceived to be competent makes a mistake, they are seen as more likeable; this is called the pratfall effect.
“If somebody fucks up, you’ll like them more if you previously saw them as competent in anyway; you’ll like them much more than you did before you saw them screw up,” he said.
“Unfortunately, if you saw them as incompetent their rating might go down even further.”
Mr Ferrier added that there were further caveats to this however, noting that advisers should be “embracing your shadow around the periphery” rather than directly flaunting their own mistakes.
“You don’t want to compromise [clients’] trust with your core expertise, so you don’t want to start talking about the mistakes you’ve made as an individual where you’ve abused someone else’s trust or you’ve made really bad decisions yourself,” he said.
Im all for opinions, however the world is a different place to the 1960’s you cant base the modern world of instant communication and information and 2 day news cycles to the 1960’s once a day news and newspaper.
Who’s still talking about the FP part of the royal commission???? No one but us
Killian, I don’t think your article does Adam Ferrier justice.
Those who did not attend Adam’s presentation should not comment.
Mr Ferrier is academically gifted.
There are very few people in Australia, who possess Adam’s combination of intellect and charisma.
Ha ha speak for yourself!
Thanks Adam.
If you’re going to quote Batman, surely “Why do we fall over? So we can pick ourselves back up again” is the one you want?
I’m surprised by some of the comments here. Perhaps it might be time for IFA to rename itself AMP weekly me thinks. Is it possible that a lot of advisers are living in the 80’s with a nothing to see here attitude? ..the type attitudes that screams [i]”since 2013 we’ve not got 2 companies that paid to be on my APL now, so I’m independent, and also my Certificate IV in Advanced Financial Planning is sufficient and grandfathered orphaned commission income is perfectly fine…nothing needs changing, nothing to see, please move on people”.[/i] Not the right attitude IMO. The model is not broken folks, but it sure needs attention…especially at the big end of town.
If you ever want this occupation, and you by inference, to be seen as professional its time you (we) stop blaming others for the failings of individuals within our midst.
[i]Professionals are governed by codes of ethics and profess a commitment to competence, integrity and morality, altruism, and the promotion of the public good within their expert domain. Professionals are accountable to those served and to society. [/i]
Tell me about it. Perhaps the IFA needs to split itself into the “Been in the industry 20+ years publication” and then “I’m here for the future publication”.
For the record I saw Ferrier at the conference and thought he made some great points. His outsider view of the industry was spot on (when you see the comments below)… get your heads out of the sand people, the rest of the world has changed.
Lol, exactly…. ‘Experience’ in the time the industry was 100% sales driven to make maximum $$$ isnt worth much.. Post FOFA is what matters and all the grandfathering has always been a joke and holding actual change back… “how dare they question my experience and expect me to pass and exam and be educated to advise people on their life savings?!?”
So Gen Y,….. is ALL change good ?
If you answer YES, then it is representative of the very shallow nature of your commentary.
It appears that everyone who has been around for longer than 20 years just doesn’t get it…is that right?
Instead of telling those highly experienced and knowledgeable people to get their “heads out of the sand”, maybe it’s time you took off your over priced designer noise-cancelling headphones and actually listened to the voices of experience……you may just actually learn something you don’t already know !….now that would be new.
I think it’s actually the “Prat Fall” effect in this case.
Does Adam also wear his undies on the outside like his heroes because it just feels good or because it challenges convention?
I’m sorry but I cannot argue against anyone who quotes the logic of Batman. I’m not too sure whether it was Batman or the Joker that said… “Any so called professional association that gets payments from product manufacturers, like the ones appearing before the RC, and bundles them up and calls them members fees in the manner the FPA does, cannot be called a professional association Robin” … Maybe it was Catwoman. Anyway, we can’t skirt around the grey areas here, we need to own up to this massive elephant in the professionalism room.
The tone of the conversation by this brain fart has been brought down a notch . Who does he think he is addressing with his mumbo jumbo view of the world . IFA can do better .
Hahaha!!! So funny !! Brain fart !! Good one Chris !1
I need a laugh !!
Next this idiot will be extolling the virtues of self flagellation. The RC is an abortion of an attempt to rectify wrongs, it is blatantly and evidently biased against advisers, banks, AFSLs and anyone other than ISA or their associated entities. What a fiasco, along with ASIC who also refuse to investigate ISA funds and their advice. As far as both are concerned we should do as the unions did with their RC in 2015, totally ignore the findings and to quote this academic bozo, say ‘fuck ’em’.
Adam this may be good advice if the bank and AMP behaviour is a reflection of the whole industry but it isn’t. The challenge is that the banks entered wealth management and failed both ethically and commercially to execute a sustainable strategy. They are now in the process of exiting wealth management with their tail between their legs after causing the collateral damage we are now dealing with.
“Fucks up”, really? Quite the professional, totally someone worth listening to; not.