Elite teams aren't built on talent alone. They're built on trust, accountability, and a shared sense of purpose. James Fleming shares lessons that can help any growing team perform at a higher level.

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James Fleming is not affiliated with Hartford Funds.

Hi! I'm John.

And I'm Julie.

We're the hosts of the Hartford Fund's human-centric investing podcast.

Every other week, we're talking with inspiring thought leaders to hear their best ideas for how you can transform your relationships with your clients.

Let's go!

James, welcome to the Human Centric Investing Podcast. We're so excited to be here with you today.

Thank you, Julie. Good to see you again.

So James, you and I have known one another for quite a while now and I'm familiar with your background and have always been impressed by not only your military record, which thank you from my family and I, but also what you've been able to achieve with corporate partners around the country, so on and so forth. And I know we've talked an awful lot about leadership and that's what today's podcast is going to be about. We're thinking about financial professionals and their teams which are growing and expanding. And find that there's occasion to add team members, maybe some team members are transitioning off, others are coming on. But I know, James, you believe that leadership is a key to everything. And maybe where we should start is through all the experiences that you've had, what can you tell us would define quality leadership in your mind?

Yeah, well. John, I'll be honest, I find that my experiences are so broad from the military and then getting into the corporate workspace. But it all still is applicable. Leadership is leadership. I've experienced both good and bad. But for me, leadership is really about just identifying your, your, um, your true objectives and and leading from the front. Purpose, people, performance. Those are the three categories that I kind of throw into a bucket as a leader and the things that I focus on in terms of leadership.

James, it's interesting. And first of all, I would like to echo what John said. Thank you so much for your service on behalf of myself and my family. But I'm thinking about financial professional teams. And I hear this very often in the conversations that I'm having with especially the lead financial professional on the team, something along the lines of, you know, Julie, I got into this business to build portfolios and help clients retire. And as my team has grown and my practice has grown, and things have become more complicated because I have all of these humans that I'm leading on my team, I feel like I'm the head of HR. And these are skills that I don't feel that I have in my toolkit or it's not necessarily a passion of mine. And so it's really interesting. I think this is such an important topic, sort of that advisor to leader mindset shift, if you will. And so I would love to dig in, maybe we start with the people, because I think that's really the core of what any of us are doing. What are some thoughts on that? If you're a financial professional listening to this today saying, wow, I have these five people, I want to do the best job for them. Of course, I'm delivering my client experience and I want you to continue to do that well. But I also believe in all of these individuals on my team, how do I put this group of people together in a way that makes sense.

Yeah, um So for me, I look at your hiring process and your acquisition of talent. Unfortunately, as a leader of your own professional financial firm, that's just the necessary laundry that needs to be done. And I feel that those folks specifically should be looking at this as this is an investment in your team, and you should be taking the time and the patience needed for executing a really defined talent acquisition process. I think one of the greatest mistakes organizations make is just rushing into the hiring process based solely on credentials, right? Or industry experience. I mean, impressive resumes are great, but I think they really need to start looking at the true character, integrity, and coachability within the recruitment process, that really is key. From my experience, I've got business in the Middle East and it's a very niche product and service. These folks are former CIA operatives, former FBI, and these folks aren't something that just grow on trees. To find them and harvest them and organically bring them into the team. Really takes a concentrated effort. So my first goal is I wanna look at folks organically and look under the hood, so to speak, not just so much the resume. That's very key and I get it. You get so run down with doing HR type functions, but this is a necessary evil if you truly wanna build that great team.

James, I know when I opened, I said that I know you've been a part of really elite teams within the military and in other aspects of your life. Have you ever been a a part a team that didn't work because of the people? And if you had to look back on it, was that the main reason it didn't work? It was just the wrong type of person or what could you tell us about?

Yeah, great question, John. Actually, twofold. Sometimes we had all the right people, but we had lack of leadership. We had lack leadership that could actually direct and build a direction with clarity and transparent honesty. That's a huge factor in communication. Leadership, But we, I think oftentimes we. We avoid hurting feelings, but some of the after action reports or sessions, they are brutal, right? So we have all these alphas. They're technically savvy. They're physically fit. They've done everything in that realm, but we had leadership that just couldn't support it. And then opposite of that, my experience, we had great leadership, but they made wrong hires. And I say not always the case, but it always became one or two folks that they had everything, but they just lacked character. They lacked the integrity and coachability. They had work ethic, they had skills, but those real intangibles that matter most, because eventually what we're trying to see here is building the culture within the team. And that's... That's where I saw, and it's frustrating being a team member. And you were looking for that direction. You're looking for that advice and mentorship and leadership development. And it's absent and it is frustrating.

James, how do you find that coachability and character? Do you have some favorite questions to ask or how do you uncover that? Because feedback that I hear quite often is we're looking at the resume and as you mentioned earlier, the experiences there, the licenses, the credentials, it all looks really great on paper. How do you start to peel back the layers and find out. Who is that human behind this resume?

Yeah, that's a great question. From my experiences, certainly in the military, they're going to peel back the onion and lift the hood through decision making, problem solving, scenario based questions, demonstrated, you know, showing or being able to ask questions that really show how well providing concrete, excuse me, concrete examples of going beyond expectations, concrete examples of supporting teammates in adversity, because we're trying to carve out where that character line is and where team-first mentality truly exists or doesn't exist at all, because those are the things I'm focused on. Character first, integrity, adaptability. How you can structure those questions, how do you recover from setbacks? Taking responsibility for outcomes, whether good or bad, those things are important. And so as you structure those interviews, make them very engaging and ask those deeper questions instead of, oh, I see here, you know, example. Oh, I see here, you went to Cornell and you've done this, this and this. I want to know more about you. And so don't be afraid as a leader to, to dig deeper into those topics to really extract what you're looking for.

So James, as I hear what you say, I think it's always easy to focus on the positives. Like you just mentioned, oh, you went here and you did this and you were this and you are this. Did you ever, or were you ever asked about specific failures? Like, could you name a time when things didn't work out right and tell me what you did? Would that be a way to kind of dig deeper if you would to see if there's humility or coachability or a willingness to learn?

Well, I think accountability is first and foremost and understanding that within. And so this goes back to culture, John. Like true leadership develops the culture and the culture will carry the team through adversity because communication is clear and transparent. Expectations are set. And taking accountability, responsibility, that's a culture-driven event. And it's nonstop, it's consistent. It's not some quarterly, hey, let's get together and do a huddle. This is a constant leadership behavior to create that culture. And so I will give you some examples of complete failure and knowing that your leadership is carrying and consistently behind you and demonstrating these things. It opens up this ability to talk freely and openly and have trust. We know we're not perfect. We know, we're not gonna get it right every single time. But the first thing that should be coming out of your mouth is, listen, I made a mistake. I didn't do this right. Everybody knows it, but owning it and accountability, that speaks volumes about the character of the person. And we find... Folks that try to avoid it or put blame on others, they do really last that long on the teams that I've been on.

How do leaders, especially in financial services, how would you guide them to help develop the next generation of leaders, right? When, you know, obviously we have a lot of detailed activities that need to happen, that need to happen within compliance and timelines and structure. But how do you find that the best leaders start to develop that next generation of talent. And really bring them along and show them that this is not just a job, it's truly a career, and there's a path for development, even if maybe there isn't the title to go along with that. Right? That's another challenge we have in financial services is there isn't this title level one, two, three, four, and then the next title level, one, two, three four, a little bit more limited in terms of the actual roles. But You know, obviously we are able to see individuals that can grow and develop within that role. How would you guide someone to go about that for their team so they can ultimately retain talent and bring people along in a great development path?

And legacy, right? You want to turn over, right. I think the biggest thing for leadership is to create stability during uncertainty, right, and they do that by establishing clear and concise standards within the team, within your space. Communicate this intently and clearly. Transparent honesty, I wish people would adopt this. Um It's so healthy, it's so, it creates freedom because you know exactly what's coming. There's no secret, there's no hidden intent. It's clear and concise. Empower ownership. This is like when you create a team and you give them ownership, that's a level of trust. Their standards are clearly like developed and communicated. Those things right there are probably the biggest things for us when we see leadership. These are the things I want to know what my role and responsibilities are. I want my left and right limits. I wanna know I'm gonna be supported and I'm going to be rewarded. And if I believe into this culture that I've created as like the tier one unit that I want become men. There is nothing that that that team, you will see that these folks will buy in. They're not looking for jumping ship to go somewhere else. I call that fragmentation. They're, they might not be happy. They're they're not really clear on what their role is. But leadership, if they focus on those things of establishing standards that are clear and concise, ownership that that really sets the tone for Folks to jump on board and dig in and start building, right? I hope that was helpful, Julie.

Absolutely. Thank you.

Yeah,.

James, you know you mentioned three factors at the top of the podcast you talked about Purpose people performance, right? So just a little bit about purpose So how do you establish purpose? Do you do invite team input on creating that purpose or should the leader? Establish the purpose and then challenge others to come on board like what and how often should that purpose be communicated?

Yeah, I, I've kind of used those three as kind of like my guiding principles, but you know, purpose really is what, what is your job? What, why are you, why aren't you on this team? I think that's a clear question, right? That's my purpose. I'm a professional financial advisor or whatever that role is. I think when... You're communicating this as a leader of that team, you need to carve that out and really get into what that really is. And it's not just the processes associated with the job. From my perspective, on the outside looking in to all the professional financial folks out there, they have such a great, great responsibility to really give families financial security, right? So that needs to be woven into what you are truly doing your job. Um, know how your role contributes to the broader strategy of the, of the company or your team. These things, these are your purposes and they can be clearly outlined. And it kind of goes hand in hand, John, as you build this, it goes hand in, hand and has woven into the culture of the team. It's not slogans. It's, not big marketing efforts. It comes from the heart and it's about caring and leadership from the front.

James, do you guide teams to come together and have conversations about this and make sure that everyone really understands that purpose and not only understands it, but can articulate it and maybe creates a value proposition or a mission or a vision or something like that for the team. Will you talk a little bit about the coming together process and making sure that everyone is on the same page.

Yeah, well, I think the first part is always like coming on board, the welcoming piece, the onboarding process, that is so critical to really set the tone for what the team environment is, what the culture is all about, what our focus is as a team, having the talent as a leader to really talk from the heart and welcome you because I want to I want my team to know Our absolutes are way different from the financial space. We've got some, should I say, responsibilities that go pretty severe, accountabilities, right? I want my folks to know that I will peel the skin off my bones to take care of them. And that type of leadership is so rare, but if you can find it within yourself to work on these things and build your team. Grab them as a whole and share what your feelings are about. You're building something special and you're gonna become part of that. That starts from the very beginning and it's a consistent process. It's not just a one and done or a quarterly all hands. It's messaging throughout. It's a constant delivery of leadership behavior. And I hope that answered your question, Julie.

It did. Thank you.

So, James, let's say that I've been a successful member of a team for quite a while, but now the opportunity presents itself and I'm being asked to become a leader. Right. So the difference between I did my job, I knew my job. I knew my role. I was awesome at what I did, but now I'm asked to do something else. What advice would you give to someone who's being elevated into a leadership position? Because I know I've seen all types. Sometimes some leaders can detach from what they used to do and they kind of fall out of sorts because the team doesn't feel like they understand them anymore. Other times, leaders will want to go back to what they're really good at. So I know, I'm not in a. Financial professional anymore, I'm leading this team, but I still like to call clients, I still do. What advice would you give people who are making that transition? Do you have to kind of set a new identity for yourself?

Well, I think you have to redefine what your role and responsibility is, first and foremost. And settle with the fact that because I worked really hard, I've been recognized to take the lead. And what a great compliment. And then absorb that and then start plotting your game plan to improve yourself as a leader and find those things that are most important. Those tasks conditions and standards Of what my role is. And if those are clearly outlined one by one, if this person is being elevated, it's not because he's lazy, he's gonna do the work. He just needs a pathway to figure out, hey, this is where I'm going? How can I be the best leader at giving my team the best advantage to become better at their role? Um, I think that's a internal thing. Um, some are natural, some work for it. Some, yeah. So some are blended, you know? So, yeah,

James, if I'm a financial professional listening to this and I'm soaking up all of your ideas and I am thinking, we have bits and pieces of this, but it's probably not as solidified as it could be. We probably have opportunity to strengthen the culture. I probably have the opportunity to be a stronger leader. What would be the first step to think about taking? If you wanted to move towards a team that really is the most high performing it can be and have that culture that is sort of the pinnacle of when you think about a great financial services team.

Yeah, I think John had mentioned this before and, and being surrounded with you, John, um, over the years and seeing the financial industry. I mean, you folks are already alpha. They're already performers. They're smart, educated, agile, nimble, you name it. I think the first step really from a leadership perspective is take a pause. Do a little internal introspection of the team itself. How are we performing? Do your rubrics, gather some, don't just jump in and say, all right, I got to fix this now. Let's be very deliberate. I personally would look at my culture within the team first and foremost, and I wouldn't jump in and just say, all right all hands, I need to have a talk about this. Take a moment and see where you're at and where you want to go. And I always take a slice of the pie. Don't try to carve out the entire pie. Just take a slice that matters most to you and execute that piece right there. Whether it's your communication, whether it's your messaging, whatever it is within your team that's really gnawing at you when you're asleep, you know, end of the day and it's just not sitting right with you, focus on how your team is within itself, like the culture of it. That would be my first step. You've already hired the folks, you're already leading them, but maybe it's a shift of is everybody accountable? Do they know that? Are my standards really clear? Those are the things I would be focusing on first.

So James, I have a question for you regarding, you mentioned post-action reports, kind of reviewing what's been happening, right? Or reviewing an objective that we set, how are we coming along with it? Were those, are those reports typically structured? Like, my question is, are you reviewing things you did well? Or are you examining things that didn't go the way you planned? And are then, like, is there a structure to what that review should look like that kind of comes to mind for you? That maybe I should be employing with my team.

Yeah, so throughout the various Organizations and military use I was associated with it was pretty standard across the board, but There was nothing that was left off in terms of what we discussed. So Whether good or bad it was like chronologically from start to finish Okay phase one of this What was good what was bad and it was listed like verbally and written like the final report and was verbal and written um and it covered everything and i and i think we've gotten to this point where we don't want to hurt feelings and i understand that um but being transparently honest during these after post action reports or post quarterly reviews or I'm not familiar with what the financial professionals are doing out there, but wherever it is, make sure you're covering not just the good and wiping it clean. Make sure you dig under the hood a little bit and really highlight those failures and discuss how are we going to fix this? What's our remedy for this?

I assume if you don't, you keep repeating it, right?

Well, this is true, and the consequences, right? Say if we don't want to put effort on the things that we did wrong, I mean, what's the outcome from that? I mean. So. We take on this role of, you know, this is exercising that very same thing. Accountability is a must, a complete buy-in of the team. I want to own my mistakes and I will own my successes. And that comes through time and maturity.

James, one of the conversations that I often have with financial professionals that are maybe struggling with when things aren't going right, maybe a deadline is missed or something slips through the cracks is instead of focusing on the thing that went wrong, which obviously is very important, but let's find out the why, right? Why really, and to your point, how do we not replicate this in the future? Why did it go wrong? Was it someone didn't, someone strayed from their roles and responsibilities? Did they stray from the The process or procedure that we laid out, was there miscommunication and why? And just really trying to get to that point to say, our goal is to not have this happen again. It happened. We can't change that. We've fixed it and dealt with it. But let's get back to the root cause of this. And I think sometimes that can be a helpful perspective because you're right. It's hard to you don't necessarily want to point fingers at one individual on the team. However Our industry is so detail oriented and so deadline oriented that every person, every process matters. And if something is missed, it can have very significant consequences, either to the firm, to the client, to, the team, et cetera.

Yeah, and I would offer up probably Another variable that is weighed in is compliance in the industry, right? So Yeah you know, as a team, our assumption is we are process driven. I would offer up, we should be performance driven. The processes are just the steps we take to make sure we are doing it right. Right. So how do we evaluate performance, our metrics, our rubrics? Is it, you know your return is it I don't know what that is for you but take a look at what that is and you know remedying mistakes it just needs to be identified review the processes that are in place so we understand what those are and there's got to be penalty sometimes too unfortunately um if it becomes a repeated problem right we we have to cut that out so And that's where that transparent honesty comes in. I think it's factive.

But I also think James said, you know, look, financial professionals know, we try to communicate to our clients that. We want to buy in down times, right? If we find something wrong in the process, to me, that's the most profitable time to invest. Invest in terms of guidance, invest in terms of paying attention and calling out the mistake and working together to remedy it, because I think the return potential is the highest at that point, right, because we can correct something early that's really going wrong. Not only is it better for the person, but it's better for all their colleagues on the team and better for us as a firm. So, couldn't agree with you more. It's, they're tough conversations to have. But I think necessary on a high-performing team.

Yeah, I see, like. Strong culture, it just really creates this ability to have these transparent conversations and it increases your trust. Once the curtains open and communication is taking place, I look to my left, I look my right, I got John Diehl to my left. I ain't going to work my tail off to make sure he is good to go. And the same for Julie and that's ownership And that's That's team first mentality and it starts with that culture.

Well, James, we talked a lot about culture, we talked about teams, but this is the part of our podcast where we wanna talk about you, James Fleming. So if you're willing to play our game with us, we like to participate in what we call the lightning round, where if you game, I'll ask Julie to start our questioning, but we're gonna fire some questions at you just to help our audience get to know James Fleming a little bit better. Promise we'll try not to stump you, but we just want top of the mind answers Listen. Maybe a couple of thoughts about why you answered that way, if you don't mind. So Julie, James, are you okay with that?

I am so good for it. Let's go.

Julie, go ahead, let it rip.

Okay, so we talked a lot today about skills and abilities. If you could instantly master one skill, what would it be?

Oh, goodness, how to hunt elk better.

Love it.

James, I know you-

With a bow and arrow.

I know you're located in the San Diego, California area, which is one of my favorite places in the United States, but if you could travel anywhere in the US or around the world on a vacation, let's say there's no elk around, even though you may want to go hunt elk, where would you want to go or what's one of the most beautiful places you've ever been?

It's a tie between Sun River, Oregon, which I just returned with my daughters. We were fly fishing, hiking, no elk hunting, but it was amazing. And then Coeur d'Alene, which, um, something about the mountains and outdoors just appeal to me.

That's beautiful. Awesome.

Both gorgeous places. What is your superpower in one word?

Energy.

Oh, I love that.

James, what's the first concert you ever went to?

Rush.

Oh, there you go, man, after my own heart.

What's one thing you always pack when you travel?

Oh, I have to be careful with that. No, kidding. Toothbrush.

Mine is a carbon monoxide detector. And Clorox wipes.

Toothbrush and floss?

James, do you have any favorite sayings or mantras that you carry with you, like that you find yourself thinking about quite often?

Yeah, actually just probably not related to this at all. But for me, it's just leave it better than you found it. Leave it better than you found it. And be kind.

Yep.

That's kind of my daily thing. I found over the last year and a half, I had some loss and I'll be honest, I know it became one word question and answer thing, but finding an opportunity to help others is kind of new bucket, so that's my thing.

That's terrific.

That is. What's your favorite app on your phone?

I hate apps.

Then that's probably the answer right there.

What, James, I got one. What's your favorite way to unwind? Let's say to relax on a, it's a Sunday morning, nothing's on the calendar. What do you like to do?

Exercise and then go to Sunset Cliffs and look at the ocean or jump in it.

What's a hobby you've always wanted to try.

Painting?

I love that. Well, James, we can't thank you enough for joining us today on the human centric investing podcast and sharing your insight on leadership and building an amazing culture on your team. And thank you so much for your time and wisdom.

No, Julie, it was a pleasure. It was so fun. Thank you so much. And hopefully some of my words were helpful.

Absolutely.

Thanks a lot, James. Appreciate it.

Thank you, John.

All right, take care.

Appreciate it, thank you.

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