What differentiates a top-performing advisory firm from others? It’s a crucial question not only for successful firms, which naturally want to maintain their leadership, but also for other firms that want to join the pantheon of industry leaders.

With that in mind, AssetMark, an independent provider of investment and consulting solutions for financial advisors, embarked on a year-long study of high-growth firms whose leaders interacted with each other in order to reach a consensus on best practices to drive growth. Included in the study was an investigation of personality types within firms to see if there were a specific set of characteristics or behaviors among advisors that contributed to their firm’s success.

Altogether, the heads of 41 advisory firms across the country with sustained annual growth rates above 20% and a minimum $25 million in assets under management participated in the study.

No single personality style dominated

Among the study’s key findings: no single personality style dominated in the leading firms. “There wasn’t any consistency in [personality] profiles,” says Matt Matrisian, senior vice president of practice management and strategic initiatives at AssetMark. “Personality didn’t dictate [success].”