Have you ever come across behaviour that makes no sense?.
Of course you have. We are often baffled by other people’s behaviour.
When it comes to money behaviour, we often hear words like irrational, crazy, dumb – or worse – used to describe what other people do, or don’t do, with money.
But all behaviours are learned, and they all serve a purpose.
Rational or irrational are simply judgements based on our world view or money beliefs.
And when we call something irrational, what that really means is that we haven’t understood enough about the other person to understand why they do what they do. And sometimes, maybe they don’t know either.
One of the joys of coaching is that you get to explore that puzzling behaviour with another person and learn about how they see money and themselves.
And you also get to learn something about yourself and how you see the world.
I had a conversation last week with a client who didn’t like to invoice her clients. This behaviour is actually quite common and is often based in discomfort about asking for money.
But for this client it was different. For them, they felt that the money was safer when it was sitting in someone’s else’s account. When it was in their account, it was in danger. Most of us would think it was the other way round. It’s not safe if I don’t have it.
But for this client, not invoicing until they really needed the money was totally rational. Not best practice, and not good for cashflow, but rational nonetheless.
I find the process of suspending my own thoughts to explore a client’s view endlessly challenging and fascinating.
And you don’t need to be a coach to do this – all you need is curiosity and compassion. If you’re a planner or adviser and you have clients whose behaviour makes no sense to you, then try exploring it with them.
After all, if you don’t know what’s driving their behaviour, how can you advise them?
If you’d like to explore money behaviour with your clients, we can teach you how.
If you’d like to explore your money behaviour, let’s start with a chat.
