Culture: The Catalyst To Next-Level Success
A winning company culture prioritises employees and their relationship to the entire organisation and its strategic goals – and this is absolutely vital in attracting and retaining talent. Consisting of shared values and beliefs established by its leaders, a progressive culture should be encompassing, enriching and empowering.
In this exclusive feature and video by Asia Advisers Network, Assistant Vice President, Financial Services Sarah Lee and Director of Sales, Financial Services Mandar Padhye expound on the unique cultural advantages of the premier advisory platform provided by Manulife Financial Advisers.
With both of them coming from a tied-agency background, the most discernible difference was the shift in focus; from that of selling insurance products to a more holistic and client-centric advisory role, where consultants could access and offer a curated selection of insurance providers and investment options to their clients.
For Mandar, it was the training process that placed him in an advantageous position. “When you come to a financial advisory platform, you need to understand different insurance and investment products. Therefore, we were put through an intensive and rigorous training programme during the onboarding process and it brings a lot of value to our clients,” he said.
Sarah also spoke fondly of the very welcoming family culture in Manulife FA and how they maintain an open-door policy.
“Whenever we go on convention trips, our CEO will be mingling with the rest of us. It’s really like talking to a friend – you don’t notice the hierarchy levels and differentiation,” she said. “That’s the culture we embrace. It’s not so much an employee-employer relationship, but more of a partnership.”
Agreeing with Sarah, Mandar echoed it is very important to have the right culture in place as it is a crucial source of motivation for employees to feel recognised and inspired to keep making a difference.
Leveraging on the growth mindset, the leaders of Manulife Financial Advisers encourages their team members to move beyond the comfort zone and take on new challenges. Sarah recalls how she achieved the agency’s first Court Of The Table (COT) qualification in its first year of establishment. Fast forward to today - many others have gone on to achieve similar and greater successes including the prestigious Top Of The Table (TOT) qualification.
Similarly, Mandar spoke of how his boss identified his potential and gave him the coaching and support he needed to take his career to the next level. This catapulted him from being a Million Dollar Round Table achiever, to COT and eventually consecutive TOTs in 2020 and 2021.
Having been invited by other agencies as well as Manulife Vietnam to share his experience and knowledge, he feels this culture of mutual learning is another important and positive aspect of Manulife Financial Advisers.
Read more at https://www.asiaadvisersnetwork.com/Article/aid/79795/Embracing-a-new-culture