Be Present, Not Preoccupied | How Plan Advisors Can Stop Multitasking in Meetings and Bring More Client Value
The modern workplace is filled with distractions: phones lighting up, laptops open, messages pinging in the background. Even at the highest levels of leadership, this has become a problem. Recent reports from The Wall Street Journal highlight CEOs’ growing frustration with employees (and even peers) scrolling, texting, and emailing during meetings. J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has called it “disrespectful,” while others have gone so far as to hide Wi-Fi passwords or fine distracted team members.
Multitasking, especially in meetings with plan sponsor clients or internal teams alike, quietly erodes trust, clarity, and ultimately, could impact the retirement outcomes of your plan sponsors’ participants.
However, the solution isn’t to police devices or ban technology altogether. Instead, it’s about designing meetings that are purposeful, structured, and worthy of attention. In other words: the antidote to distraction is not restriction, but relevance.
Effective client service starts with human connection, and that begins with how we communicate internally and externally. To achieve that, advisors can rely on what workplace strategist Erica Keswin calls the Three P’s of Meetings: Purpose, Protocols, and Presence.
- Purpose: Why Are We Meeting?
Meetings should never be habitual; they should be intentional. Before scheduling time on anyone’s calendar, ask: What do we need to accomplish together that cannot be done more efficiently another way?
If the answer isn’t clear, the meeting might not be necessary. Consider replacing it with a well-crafted email, a shared document, or a quick message. This small discipline saves time and communicates respect for others’ priorities: two qualities that define excellent client service.
Another key protocol is to share meeting materials, agendas, and any relevant background information with all attendees ahead of time. Consider sharing a proposed time block before a 30-minute call to align topics with desired timing. This allows participants to review content, formulate questions, and arrive ready to contribute meaningfully to the discussion. When everyone comes prepared, meetings are more focused, productive, and valuable for clients and advisors alike.
For plan advisors, this is especially critical. Plan sponsors expect their advisor teams to use their time wisely. When every interaction has a clear purpose, whether it’s reviewing plan health, quarterly plan reviews, educating participants, or solving operational challenges, sponsors perceive value. Purposeful meetings help advisors demonstrate thought leadership, not just deliver data. In its “Redefining Client Service: From Transactional to Transformational” client services primer , our affiliate Great Gray Trust Company reinforces this principle: clarity and consistency in communication are hallmarks of high-performing advisory teams. Every client touchpoint should be designed to advance understanding and decision-making, not just fill a slot on the calendar. - Protocols: How Do We Meet?
Once the purpose is defined, the how matters just as much. Protocols are the “rules of the road” that keep meetings efficient, engaging, and respectful.
- Establish no-screen zones. For internal strategy sessions or sensitive client discussions, designate meetings where phones and laptops stay closed unless needed for presentation or note-taking.
- Be intentional about format. Use video strategically for remote meetings to foster connection and accountability. Try stand-up or walk-and-talk sessions for shorter updates to maintain energy and focus.
- Respect time boundaries. Many of the best conversations happen within 30 minutes. If a topic consistently exceeds that, it may need restructuring rather than more time.
These small cultural norms reinforce the professionalism clients expect. They also make meetings more dynamic, ensuring that every participant contributes rather than multitasks. Advisors who model disciplined meeting behavior send a subtle but powerful message: We value your time as our clients as much as our own. This discipline scales outward to client relationships, reinforcing trust and credibility.
3. Presence: Be Where You Are
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, comes Presence.
Attention is one of the rarest resources today. Attention is truly the new currency. When advisors give clients and colleagues their full focus, they signal respect, care, and competence. Presence builds relationships faster than any marketing collateral can.
This aligns closely with the themes explored in our affiliate’s “Gray to Great” Humanizing Sales in Financial Services podcast featuring Sean Kelly. Authentic connection and deep listening aren’t soft skills; rather, they’re strategic advantages. Clients can tell when an advisor is distracted versus when they’re genuinely engaged.
Similarly, during last year’s National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA) Conference, Great Gray Group Board Member Dan Dal Degan led a standing-room-only session on how empathy transforms your sales conversations. This recap underscores that empathy begins with attentiveness. Advisors who are fully present can perceive not only what clients say but what they mean, inclusive of their unspoken concerns, priorities, and physical and emotional cues.
Leaders play a crucial role in modeling this behavior. When advisors, team leads, or firm executives consistently show up with undivided attention, others take note. It creates a culture where presence is not optional, it’s expected. As Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky put it, he’s striving “not to look at his phone unless it’s an emergency.” That’s not about control; it’s about commitment from the top down.
And people know when you’re really listening.
The Last Word
Distraction is easy. Presence is rare.
The next time you step into a meeting, whether it’s with your internal team, plan participant, or a plan sponsor client, leave the phone face down, close the laptop, and bring your full self to the conversation. You may find that what seemed like a routine meeting becomes an opportunity to build deeper trust and deliver greater impact.
As Redefining Client Service: From Transactional to Transformational reminds us: Client service excellence starts with intention and thrives on attention.
For more practice management articles, bookmark Insights for Advisors here.
Retirement Plan Advisory Group, LLC (“RPAG”) provides technology, solutions and services for a fee to its customers, who are primarily retirement plan advisors and associated institutions. The services include ratings of various third-party investment vehicles based on RPAG’s proprietary quantitative and qualitative scoring methodology. The investment vehicles do not pay to be evaluated and scored; nor do the companies that provide services to the investment vehicles pay for them to be evaluated and scored, but those companies may have commercial relationships and affiliations with RPAG.
Great Gray Trust Company, LLC (“Great Gray”) serves as trustee and provides administrative services for collective investment trust funds (“Great Gray Funds”) that are scored by RPAG. Great Gray and RPAG are wholly owned by Great Gray Group, LLC. Great Gray has a commercial relationship with RPAG that does not involve the evaluation and scoring of Great Gray Funds.
