Leader/Follower Relationships
Because the Richmond branch of Sagepoint is such a small organization, people work mostly independent of each other, yet it still feels like one big team because everyone wants what is best for the company. However, there is one office manager who leads everyone in the office, with two main advisors, one of which has four other financial advisors who are a lot younger and work for themselves, but follow his leadership and advice directly, so that they are basically working under him.
In the office, the employees’ approach to work is mostly autonomous and self-directed. Because everyone is meeting their own personal goals, there is not a standard procedure for how they are to complete the work since they all have different work goals to complete.
For the organization as a whole, the office manager makes the decisions, however many of the decisions are for the independent advisors and there are not as many office-wide decisions. Additionally, since it is a branch office, a lot of the decisions about changes to the broader organization come from the Sagepoint headquarters and are simply communicated to those working in the Richmond branch office.
The office manager is clearly the most respected, yet he has a calm, laid-back approach to leadership so you can tell that people listen to him because they respect him, not because he is forceful in his leadership style. One of the two higher-up financial advisors, who is in charge of the newer advisors, also takes a laid-back approach to leadership and likes to joke around with those he leads, creating friendly relationships. However, when it comes down to it, he can be very serious and authoritative in making sure they get done what they need to. He also creates a lot of friendly competition between them and with himself which I have noticed helps motivate everyone in the office. His followers, who are not in formal leadership roles, have little influence on those who are higher up, but definitely influence each other in terms of motivation and healthy competition.
A big strength in regards to the leader/follower dynamics is the duality of respect and comfort. While the employees all seem comfortable talking to each other and those above them about a problem they are having, there is also a high degree of respect that everyone has for each other. I think this is very important as too much of either of these aspects of a relationship can be bad, so it is definitely a strength of the organization that the employees have both of these things.
The organization is also very lucky that the pandemic has not changed the nature of their work very much. The employees were only out of the office for a short time, able to work remotely with few problems since most of their work is done over the phone. It is clear, however, that the financial advising business has a strong face-to-face nature. And specifically for this office, the employees thrive off of interactions and friendly competition with each other, as well as being surrounded by other hard-working individuals to motivate themselves. So, being back in the office definitely was needed as the relationships between employees is a huge part of what motivates each person and what leads them to success in their work.