Contributed by: Andrew O’Laughlin, CFP®, MBA
Here at The Center, we focus a lot on our Values! Most commonly, you’ll hear us talk about the Core Values that are near and dear to us as a company, and you’re probably already familiar with them if you’ve seen our CENTER acronym, which helps us easily remember them.
Commitment to the Financial Planning Process
Education & Personal Growth
Nice & Kind
Teamwork & Collaboration
Energy & Enthusiasm
Real & Down to Earth
These Values are central to our company’s culture and a big part of why The Center is such a special place to work.
Less commonly discussed but also essential to the day-to-day work we do for our clients is a set of guiding commitments and values we refer to as our Service Values. Our Service Values guide how we provide service, The Center Way, and are designed so that everyone who comes into contact with The Center sees, feels, and hears the difference in working with us.
Without delving too deeply into all of our Service Values, the purpose of this short blog is to highlight one of the Service Values that I believe makes a very positive difference for our work environment, and therefore for the clients we serve as a team.
I present to you our Service Value #11: “Building areas of expertise for the benefit of both internal and external clients.”
A previous installment of this blog highlighted another service value: treating our colleagues as “internal clients,” and that theme carries over to Service Value #11 as well. We seek to continuously build expertise that benefits both the clients we serve and our internal team members. Not everyone can be an expert on everything, so we’ll often pursue areas of specialty or subject-matter expertise as individuals that ultimately enhance the team’s knowledge in our collaborative approach to the work we do.
What does this Service Value mean for our clients?
With our deeply collaborative culture at The Center and our focus on continuously building areas of expertise, our clients have access to a wide range of expertise from our Center Team. We serve one another as internal resources, sharing knowledge regularly in team meetings or in one-on-one conversations. Our clients don’t just have access to the knowledge and expertise of the individuals they work with; they have access to the knowledge and expertise of the entire Center Team.
Andrew O’Laughlin, CFP®, MBA; is the Director of Client Services at Center for Financial Planning, Inc.® He has the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification.
The foregoing information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that it is accurate or complete, it is not a statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision, and it does not constitute a recommendation. Any opinions are those of the author and not necessarily those of Raymond James.
Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Center for Financial Planning, Inc. Center for Financial Planning, Inc.® is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services.