3 strategies of great delegators

We’ve all heard about advisors who take extended vacations while still managing to have a successful practice. How? They’re great delegators.

Here are the 3 strategies they practice:

Proper preparation

Think through what you want to achieve before providing guidance to your team.

Read: Sharing, delegating that work load

Take the example of client acquisition. Most advisors only want to work with wealthy clients. If everyone on the team knows your minimum account size, it empowers them to determine if a potential client is a right fit, instead of just taking orders.

Communication

Too often advisors spend a considerable amount of time with a client in person, or on the phone, and then emerge from the meeting and quickly pass on the key tasks to an associate or assistant. That can result in missed deadlines and improper client service.

Read: How to build a million-dollar practice

It’s better to include the associate in the meeting or provide him or her with a written summary of the discussion.

Autonomy

Successful advisors let their team members have greater levels of autonomy. In his book Drive, author Daniel Pink shows that once a person takes care of his basic needs, financial incentives don’t work. Instead, what people really want are autonomy, mastery, and purpose: like they are doing good work and have input into how the task gets done.

Read: Outsourcing your HR department

I once sat down with an advisor who thought he was capped out in his level of production. But in the past 15 years, he’s learned to give up more control to his team and have them take on more responsibility. Now, his book is three times the size it was, and he has room to grow.

If you want less stress and a more profitable business, you need to learn to delegate effectively.

Keith Pangretitsch is director, national sales at Russell Investments Canada Limited, who has a passion for helping advisors grow more efficient and profitable businesses. He is an active member of Russell’s Practice Management program which has worked with more than 1,200 advisory teams across North America and Europe.