A global strategy for a compelling future

 5 C’s: First-choice advisor behaviours

We are caring, curious, collaborative, courageous, critical thinkers.

We believe the five key characteristics we call the 5 C's are core to our culture and essential to successfully deliver the power of being understood.

Caring

We build strong, long-term relationships by understanding others and their aspirations, and remaining empathetic to their unique challenges, needs and preferences.

We show that we care by:

• Being interested in and concerned about others
• Understanding their goals, challenges and aspirations
• Showing empathy

When we demonstrate how much we care, we build trust, deepen relationships and are given the opportunity to do more for others.

Curious

We ask probing questions and seek diverse perspectives to gain understanding, challenge thinking and generate new ideas.

We show our curiosity when we:

• Ask questions
• Seek different perspectives to inform our work
• Spend time reading and learning
• Share our new ideas and insights

When we approach our work and our relationships with a sense of curiosity vs. a view that we know it all, we strengthen relationships and demonstrate our commitment to understanding. It also affords us a stronger platform to ultimately display our knowledge and share our ideas and insights.

Collaborative

We believe that collaboration leads to better outcomes, and we seek and share perspectives to encourage innovative thinking to solve problems and enable others to seize opportunities.

We demonstrate collaboration when we:

• Ask for people’s opinions or perspectives
• Cultivate an inclusive environment
• Reflect differing points of view in our questioning and recommendations
• Connect across all facets of the firm as we continue to grow in size and complexity

The challenges we tackle in our business and for our clients are tough, and no one person can have all the answers. By gathering diverse perspectives and collaborating, each of us will be stronger and better able to help others achieve their best.

Courageous

We demonstrate strength and confidence in challenging traditional ways of thinking—and we have the courage to look forward and prepare for tomorrow.

We demonstrate courage when we:

• Voice an alternative point of view
• Share new ideas and insights
• Have courageous conversations about issues or opportunities
• Stay in the tension because we know it will lead to better results

The work we do is high-stakes and requires courage to confront issues, help others improve and spark the exploration of new opportunities. Our foundation of caring, curiosity and collaboration can help us be courageous without being confrontational.

Critical thinkers

We synthesize, apply and communicate complex information and concepts with clarity, objectivity and depth, and bring our best thinking and advice to help others make confident decisions.

We demonstrate critical thinking when we:

• Spend time learning new things
• Think deeply about issues and opportunities
• Bring together multiple inputs into a cohesive perspective
• Share ideas and insights with others

The world is evolving rapidly and each of us has to evolve with it. By committing to lifelong learning and applying that learning to our work and our relationships, we will think and communicate as true first-choice advisors.