Bullish Thinking: The Advisor's Guide to Surviving and Thriving on Wall Street

The Bullish Thinking Guide for Managers: How to Save Your Advisors and Grow Your Bottom Line

By Alden Cass, Brian F. Shaw and Sydney LeBlanc
(Wiley, March 2008)

In a perfect world, brokers and managers are steadily engaged in what this trio of authors call "bullish thinking." That "allows one to achieve emotional discipline regardless of the stressor, and is an easy, practical, palatable way of teaching cognitive therapy skills," says co-author Dr. Alden Cass, who devised the concept. Its polar opposite is, no surprise, "bearish thinking." That is when an advisor engages in "irrational, self-defeating, and catastrophic thoughts that streamed through his mind throughout the course of this downtown in his performance and lifestyle," the authors write.

At times, advisors may attempt to quash pressures and feelings of depression, worthlessness and burnout, by overindulging in drugs and alcohol, committing domestic violence, having extramarital (including office) affairs, eating poorly and not getting enough exercise, contend the writers. That behavior can result in even worse performance, thereby continuing the downward spiral, or illness, or death, (sometimes through suicide).

These companion books offer invaluable information to its target audiences. But the key question is: Does a hyper-agitated advisor or a harried manager running on empty have the time and wherewithal to read one of these books? Maybe yes, but probably no. A more likely scenario is that a spouse or loved one or even a boss may pick up the book first and spoon-feed the information to the suffering advisor or manager. Then, through regular psychotherapy sessions combined with the reading and digestion of its tenets and tips, the "patient" may catch on and improve his or her life. The co-authors naturally recommend psychotherapy. Both Cass, a columnist for On Wall Street and a performance coach, and Brian F. Shaw, a professor of psychiatry and public health science and one of the originators of applied cognitive-behavioral therapy, are clinical psychologists. The third author, Sydney LeBlanc, spent 35 years in the financial services industry, in addition to being a journalist, publisher and author.

Both books include an Appendix A and B and a suggested reading list. Appendix A, "Casualties of Wall Street: An Assessment of the Walking Wounded," lays out Cass's research study of 26 males stockbrokers from seven prestigious brokerage houses to determine their mental health, coping skills and lifestyle habits. In Appendix B, "Alcohol Use and Other Abuse Trends During the War and Other Catastrophic Events," Cass studied 155 men and women drawing correlations between alcohol abuse and job performance and the Iraq war.

In the book for advisors, no one needs to tell brokers in how many directions they are pulled—professionally and personally. But using effective coping strategies increases their chances of longevity in their business life and happiness at work and home. The book starts its 11chapters giving the reader the lay of the land on Wall Street and answers some of "What is driving you to destruction?" Then it delves into specifics, such as the advisor mindset, personality types of investors in "The 10 Investor Styles," family therapy for advisors and where women should go for help in a male-dominated field. Throughout, the authors serve up realistic situations and suggestions on how to create positive outcomes.

Of the two books, the companion book for managers delivers a smoother, more enjoyable, read. The 12 chapters address such topics as how to understand your advisors, assess when a broker needs psychotherapy, motivate your team and deal with superstars and others, who can be narcissists and, in some rare instances, psychopaths. "The first rule in managing these difficult characters is to make sure that you don't take their actions and attitudes personally," the authors write.

Yet, in spite of all the solid information, the authors slip in two instances. One is that in trying to streamline their concepts, the authors create a confusing alphabet soup of designations and initials to signify different personality types and performance levels. The other lapse is in including a sexist remark, on page 33. In the example used, a male manager at first attributes advisor Susie's erratic behavior to "Must be that time of the month."