Ep 161: Cultivating The Right Firm Culture With A Reality-Based Leadership Approach with Tessa Felix
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2020
⏱️ 108 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tessa Felix is the HR and Operations Lead for PWL Capital, an advisory firm that oversees nearly $3.6 billion in assets under management. Tessa has focused on developing the culture of her advisory firm and has put systems in place to make everyone accountable for their work, while still making it a fun environment. Today she joins the show to discuss how she is making her firm an enjoyable place to work in, as well as the leadership system she has incorporated into her management approach.
Listen in as we talk about the weekly team meetings, internal podcast, and monthly one-on-ones Tessa uses to maintain the culture of the firm. She shares how she transitioned from being a peer of her co-workers to their manager and how she came to be the culture lead for her firm. If you’re ready to cultivate a growth mindset within your own business, this is the episode for you!
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/161
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with |
| 0:07.2 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading financial |
| 0:13.1 | advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success and get insight |
| 0:18.7 | from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the |
| 0:22.1 | next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:28.5 | Welcome to the 161 episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest in today's podcast |
| 0:34.2 | is Tessa Felix. Tessa is the HR and operations lead for PWL Capital, an advisory firm based in Montreal |
| 0:40.5 | and Ottawa that oversees nearly 3.6 billion in assets under management. |
| 0:45.5 | What's unique about Tessa, though, is her particular focus on developing the culture of her |
| 0:49.8 | advisory firm and the systems and structure that she's put in place to help hold everyone |
| 0:54.0 | on the team accountable for their work in addition to making the firm an enjoyable environment |
| 0:58.2 | to work in. In this episode, we talk in depth about the reality-based leadership system that |
| 1:04.1 | Tessa has incorporated into her management approach in the firm, why the emotional expensiveness |
| 1:09.1 | of employee drama is such an important cost to manage |
| 1:11.7 | and save for the firm. Tessa's routine of weekly team meetings and internal team podcast and monthly |
| 1:17.3 | one-on-ones that she uses to maintain the culture of the firm. And why in the end, culture is not |
| 1:22.1 | just about creating a fun workplace, but about the actions and behaviors that are expressed in the workplace. |
| 1:29.3 | We also talk about Tesla's own career journey, from joining her advisory firm in an operations role, |
| 1:34.4 | earning her advisor licenses to shift into a client-facing advisory role, to sign that she actually |
| 1:39.2 | enjoys the work of managing people and building culture more than working directly with |
| 1:43.2 | clients and shifting back into an internal operations role, the way she navigated the challenging transition from being |
| 1:49.1 | a peer of her coworkers to their manager instead, and how she ultimately became not just the HR |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Kitces, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Kitces and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.