The humility, open-heartedness, and bureaucratic badassery Pope Francis brought to his work offers sage lessons for advisors.
We could start with the premise that in our modern world we might consider our role as somewhat - yes - sacred. At our very best, we are sometimes a proxy, partially fulfilling the role of contemporary capitalists’ priest / imam / rabbi / pastor.
For example, we often hear confession: “I can’t really afford the Lamborghini but I had to have it,” “I don’t have six months savings on hand, but we take three fancy vacays every year,” “I’m ashamed of my credit card debt,” etc. etc. etc.
In donning a moral mantle, Pope Francis would first advise that we listen and then listen better.
Pope Francis said we should "listen with the ear of the heart." Yes, the old two-ears-one-mouth maxim you learned in kindergarten was also a papal fave. Pope Francis called listening “the most precious and life-giving gift we can offer each other.”
When we listen to our clients with “the ear of the heart” – rather than with the half-cocked concurrently formulating brilliant retort ear – we can tune into the unspoken emotional undertones.
Not unlike a parishioner, often our clients are not fully aware of the unconscious fears and ontological beliefs provoking anxiety or engendering unproductive habits.
In our active and present listening, we can tune into the breadth and subtly of our client’s needs. When we listen fully, our responses are not just the tidy technical resolutions Anthropic can drum up but rather empathic human engagement.
Not unrelated to deep listening, Pope Francis encouraged us to have an “open heart.” Pope Francis suggested having an open heart generates “acceptance and humility.” Along with deep listening, these traits are cardinal for the excellent advisor. When clients witness our active humility and acceptance, they realize we are not here to judge.
In this safe space, clients begin to trust and open, knowing we are here to help them understand - and hopefully overcome - their unique barriers to financial flourishing.
When a client experiences compassion in concurrence with deep knowledge and expertise, the client/advisor relationship thrives and the advisors’ role becomes nonpareil. It is a relationship wholly supported - but not replaceable - by fintech solutions or AI.
Less well known than his limitless compassions was Pope Francis’ bureaucratic ferocity.
When Pope Benedict resigned in 2013, Pope Francis inherited a fiscal mess. The paramount problem was an opaque Vatican Bank stymied by its reputation for money laundering, corruption, and Mafia connections.
Within months of ascending to the papacy, Francis introduced third party audits, consolidation, and other measures fostering financial transparency.
While Francis had to deal with reorganizing a $1B+ two-thousand-year-old institution, how many of us can relate to on-boarding families with myriad accounts, byzantine statements, and a general level of inexplicable complexity?
Like Francis, the first order of the day is creating structures and practices, fostering transparency and simplicity so clients can understand and well-manage their resources.
Toward the end of his life, Pope Francis defined prosperity not just in terms of material wealth. He said true wealth is also “making our lives a gift for others.”
As advisors we make our lives “a gift for others” when we bolster our rich technical skill set with the earnest virtues Pope Francis espoused: true listening, open-hearted compassion, and transparency.
