Yet, old-school academic philosophy can stifle individual exploration. It tries to fit every round peg into a square hole – presenting information the same way for all learners.

I don’t believe it’s The American College of Financial Services’ place to push one learning concept in a world of many. Instead, The College is focused on driving impact and delivering outcomes – goals best suited to flexibility and optionality with an experience that puts the student in charge.

This is especially needed in today’s current financial climate. Roughly 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day – and have you noticed the storm they must now weather? Millennials are navigating their second recession, and many have significant student loan debt – yet they must plan for the future in the haze of the present.

Financial advice is more important than ever before. It’s no longer enough to pick stocks and bonds – technology can do that. True financial planners must provide tremendous value through their knowledge.

It’s The College’s responsibility to present that knowledge in a format that not only supports classroom success, but professional success years down the line. We don’t want you to memorize content, but retain it through text, video, audio, animation, course discussion, and instructor support – whatever you need to succeed.

That’s the impetus behind Personal Pathway®, The College’s new learning model now available through most of our Chartered Financial Consultant® (ChFC®) and Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) education programs, as well as select courses in our Charted Life Underwriter® (CLU®) program.

I’m not here to discuss the what – you can visit our Personal Pathway® page or the ChFC®, CFP®, or CLU® program pages to understand the benefits. I’m here to explain the why – those reasons for a dramatic shift in our course development and delivery. Eventually, The College will offer every designation program course through Personal Pathway®, which demonstrates our belief in the theory and practical application behind its implementation.

The College should not micromanage when, where, and how you learn. Yet, self-study does not fit the learning needs of every student. That’s why we’ve taken the best of our self-study courses and included live and on-demand webinars, new digital textbooks integrated directly into each lesson with enhanced search capabilities and flashcard study tools, rich multimedia lesson reviews, greater instructor support, and engaging discussion forums that allow you to start or join conversations with your peers. And to show our commitment to financial professionals’ education, we’ve eliminated tiered programs within Personal Pathway® and have included all these program enhancements for the same tuition cost.

I invite you to chart your own learning path inside an inclusive learning experience with modality and flexibility, yet also the structure you may crave. Finish 10 weeks of coursework on schedule, while attending every weekly webinar, push through the coursework in seven weeks to finish faster, or put your studies on hold during a two-week crunch at work, catch up with the on-demand webinars, and finish on time.

The goal is to get you through a program faster, while providing you the tools to retain even more of the knowledge you need. We don’t lean into this goal through subjectivity – but rather through copious research, the expertise of a highly-accomplished faculty, and the best-in-practice learning concepts studied and applied for decades by our senior academic leaders. This is just another marker on our mission to becoming one of the nation’s top e-learning institutions, the educational provider for financial professionals across America focused on enhancing their expertise and making a difference in society.

Join us on your Personal Pathway®.

Scott and I have become close confidants during my 18 months leading The American College of Financial Services. As OneAmerica’s Chief Executive Officer, I lean on Scott’s perspective as the leader of a respected financial services company. As The College’s Trustee Board Chair, Scott also helps level set my thinking and serves as a valuable advisor as I make decisions that impact The College community.

We talked that evening about the fog of the present and ran through crisis planning scenarios for what was looking more and more like a global pandemic. In the weeks that followed, we checked in each Tuesday to share, strategize, and strengthen our resolve to arrive at organizational solutions.

In late April, with both of our communities staying home, we talked about ways we could share our thoughts with leaders across the financial services industry. We both know from experience that no two leaders process and navigate crises the same way, but perhaps our perspectives could make an impact as the industry navigates this great unknown.

Then, after deciding to publish a joint white paper on our leadership philosophies, racial unrest swept across the streets of our biggest cities and smallest towns. We were now seeing two crises attack our nation’s moral fabric. During times like these, leaders must fill the vacuum of panic and protest. Across all industries, we must stand up to protect our people and our organizations, while effecting sustainable, generational change where we can.

Our white paper, Leadership in Crisis, is an unfiltered look at how Scott and I view these crises, as well as the paths we must take to safely traverse today while sustaining our organizations for the future.

You can view some of our thoughts on several topics below. Thank you to Scott and his team at OneAmerica for their devotion and dedication to this project and to The College’s mission to benefit society.

On Leading With Values

“Values guide me and our organization every day, serving as a guiding light through every situation,” Davison said. “A clear understanding of our mission answers, ‘What are we doing here every day?’ It level sets expectations and frames what success looks like.”

“Each day I get up, I am providing a service to folks who are following me, and they have to know we are there to serve them, not the other way around. And that allows us to make mission-critical decisions around values,” Nichols said.

On Board Governance Helping Improve Leadership

“I have learned to say ‘no’ to a lot of Board opportunities,” said Nichols, who serves on the Board of City Year, a national service program focused on helping children and young adults become civic leaders in their communities. “I want to make an impact and share my wisdom, and that effectiveness leads to more opportunities, but executive leaders must be mindful of their time and narrow in on areas of synergy with their values.”

“I think a Board chair serves three roles: about five percent is managing the CEO, performance feedback and pay levels; ten percent is managing Board relationships and delivering certain messages to other Board members; and the final 85 percent is being a trusted advisor,” said Davison.

On Living a Life Rooted in Giving Back

“OneAmerica looks for two-for-ones that link causes, help more people, and align with our organizational priorities. It’s a win-win,” said Davison.

Nichols ties his idea of philanthropy to today’s racial injustice. As organizations chart a path forward, many should be wary to repeat the past. Charitable dollars are needed, but money is just one part of the equation. As Nichols points out, “A philanthropic initiative centered on dollars will eventually end when the next crisis hits. True philanthropy is marrying the funds with knowledge and know-how to create something that lasts.”

On Leading Organizations During Crises

“We accept what we cannot control and try to maximize what we can as long as it connects back to The College’s mission to benefit society,” said Nichols.

"If we step back, we see the higher purpose. It is time for us to be who we say we are. And that means making sure our service levels are outstanding,” Davison said.

On The One Piece of Advice They Want to Give

“Operate as a person first, not a CEO,” Nichols said. “I am a husband and father, so I self-reflect and think first how a person, not an executive, feels. I let all of those feelings – fear, confusion, misunderstanding, even hope – wash over me. Then I step back into the arena with my team and say, ‘Let us recognize these emotions, take them to heart, and make decisions.’ If an executive had been doing their job, absorbing the gravity of the moment should allow them to move past it long enough to execute.”

“Once I started having these consistent chats with our leaders and associates during COVID-19, it became apparent how necessary they were. We all started moving as one again. I believe clear, consistent communication will only allow organizations to move faster in the months and years ahead,” Davison said.

On August 19, we unveiled Four Steps Forward to publicly put our stake in the ground, and we sent out a press release that also announced The College's new Center for Economic Empowerment and Equality.

I grappled with these stark truths in the days following George Floyd’s tragic death, and I wrote about them in this blog post. I was interviewed about my experiences as a Black man in corporate America, and offered my immediate response to centuries-old racial inequality.

Those platforms advanced ideas around the need to act, and in the weeks since, The College has taken meaningful steps to discuss what an action plan might look like.

After many drafts incorporating the perspectives of College colleagues and industry veterans, I penned an op-ed in Barron’s about The College’s Four Steps Forward plan for upward mobility and wealth building in Black America.

Then, this week, The College unveiled the pillars of this plan to over 1,300 Black financial professionals at the Conference of African American Financial Professionals, held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can watch my keynote address and closing remarks in the videos below. This year has been fraught with many challenges, but beyond an immense wave of initial sadness, I believe the circumstances surrounding George Floyd’s death, and those that followed, have put this nation at an inflection point. The financial services industry must stand on the frontlines now to harness this moment for lasting change.

As an industry, we can repeat the efforts of the past and achieve the same insufficient outcomes, or we can find common ground around a generational cause. Please watch my remarks below, and subscribe to my blog in the upper right corner for email notifications on our progress with this plan for change that’s sustainable and generational – real impact that goes beyond nice data points to erode systemic inequalities in the Black community.