10 tips to improve your wellbeing - for Financial Advisers

Between 2021 and 2023, the e-lab (research arm of our business) conducted 3 studies on the wellbeing and mental health of Financial Advisers in Australia and New Zealand. Based on survey responses, as well as information shared by Advisers during their interviews, we have put together a list of tips on how to improve your wellbeing.

1. Invest in your Psychological capital

Psychological capital is a construct made up of four elements: hope, optimism, resilience and confidence. With the colossal challenges that Advisers sometimes face, you need to develop some very specific psychological skills that will enable you to not only cope, but also to improve and grow. Our research conclusively showed that Advisers who have these skills have not only better wellbeing and mental health but also better business performance. Start this skill building by increasing your awareness. Throughout the day, try to be aware of whether or not you are:

• being optimistic about the work you are doing,

• hopeful for the future,

• confident in your abilities and skills, or

• letting yourself get knocked down easily by challenges that arise as part of your work.

2. Seek help and engage in industry support services

Industry support is one of the factors that helps Advisers cope with the strains of work. However, many Advisers are not accessing the support that is available. It is recommended that you seek help from the various industry support service such as FAPs, Financial Service Council and product providers.

3. Be an active member of an industry association or local network

Advisers interviewed discussed the value and importance of networks and peer support. Advisers that get the most out of these networks are those that are active within them. Find out about conferences and events and attend them.

4. Find a good mentor and/or coach.

Mentoring and coaching can make a big difference in taking constructive action to improve your situation. Sometimes, Advisers may get bogged down in the demands of the work and not realise that there are alternative approaches to coping with the workload or managing the business. This is where a mentor and/or coach (either industry, business or personal) can help you focus on what is possible and approach challenges with a different perspective.

5. Step up your recovery activity

We encourage you to engage in regular recovery activities, including physical exercise, mindfulness or meditation, hobbies, debriefing with others and social activities. In our research, we found that Advisers who were looking after themselves and doing regular exercise and other forms of recovery had more energy for work and their health and wellbeing was better overall.

6. Seek administrative help and systems support

We have seen in the data that a lot of administration and compliance work is undertaken by Advisers. However, highly successful Advisers had systems and staff in place to dramatically lighten their load. Interviewees who indicated that they had employed administrative support or had a shared admin support arrangement with another adviser business appreciated the release of their time to focus on client work. This is also where networks can help by finding other Advisers who may be able to share administrative support. There are also some companies that provide this support and systems that can automate processes. A number of advisers interviewed indicated they have significantly automated their processes to save time. 

7. Seek counselling and psychological support

Advisers have expressed the mental strain of their work and business operations, plus the perceived threats related to regulatory actions and audits. It is important for your mental health that you seek help including the support of counsellors and/or psychologists when experiencing mental stress.

8. Focus on wellbeing and boundaries

Many Advisers reported integrating work and home, blurring the relationship between work responsibilities and home life. Other Advisers reported clear boundaries between work and home and had higher wellbeing and work-life balance scores and lower mental health risk. It is recommended that you carefully consider what is work and what is home and minimise the crossover between them to ensure focus both at work and at home, especially when working from a home office. We recommend techniques outlined in Dr Adam Fraser’s book The Third Space, where the space between work and home is deliberate. Even when working from home, the psychological practice of Reflecting, Resting and Resetting is an important approach to be fully present and productive in each role in your life.

9. Seek professional development / self-development

To succeed in business and understand the changing context of work, professional development is essential. Often, we get complacent and we stop challenging ourselves to grow and evolve. The world is moving and evolving at a really fast pace, and as a result so are industries, companies and even people. So, making sure you are keeping up with what is changing in your industry, as well as looking at ways to improve yourself personally and professionally, is key.

10. If you are a business owner, focus on the business

The most successful advisers had plans to build their businesses and change their approaches according to opportunities or threats. It is recommended that advisers who run their own business consider the long-term, look for future opportunities and threats and work on a future strategy for long-term success.