Is Reverse Delegation Killing Your Productivity?

Is your time used up with “reverse delegation”—taking back tasks and projects you’ve delegated to your team? How can you develop your people so they manage their own departments with a minimum supervision from you?

My team used to drive me crazy. Yours too? They repeatedly returned to me with so many questions that I ended up spending more time than if I had done it myself. That’s reverse delegation.

In this post I share strategies to stamp out reverse delegation and have more time to grow your business. Read this post and share your wins and challenges with reverse delegation. I’ll reply!

Why You Should Be a Great Boss

If you’re running an independent financial advisory practice or an RIA, you have special needs. To provide the highest level of care for your clients, you need efficient and effective support staff. You must delegate effectively, stamp out reverse delegation, and develop your people so they can do their duties with minimum supervision. And you must be super-efficient so you can enjoy your family and life.

If you do not have the skills to do this, your dream practice will start turning into a nightmare—maybe it already has.

Highly successful advisors, whose practice supports their desired lifestyle, know how to be a great boss. First and foremost, they decided which activities only they can do. Everything else is delegated.  If you fear nobody else can do it right, you have to overcome that notion. Otherwise, you will doom yourself to be chained to routine details or micromanaging.

Next you must hire the right people for your team. Choosing people who have the right attitude is more important than training or experience. If you have the right person, training is easy.

Start delegating by choosing people whom you think you can trust to do the job. Start out by delegating less important duties.  Take the time to train them to perform higher-level tasks. Monitor their work. As you gain confidence in them, give them more responsibility.

You might complain that this takes too much time.  This is minute wise and hour foolish. And the time is money. Investing time to develop new people will save you huge amounts of time in the future.

Be sure your orders are understood. One advisor told his receptionist, “Call our inactive clients and tell them they are overdue for a review.”

The advisor went home to enjoy his family that evening. When he returned to his office, he expected to hear from these clients. He was disappointed when only a few made appointments.

Then he got a very distressing call. One of his clients whom he hadn’t seen in a long while called him. She was very upset because she felt his receptionist had scolded her and tried to make her feel guilty for not coming in.

Upon investigating, he discovered his receptionist had called everyone and tersely said they were overdue and they’d better come in. The advisor was shocked.

He had neglected the cardinal rule of delegation.  He hadn’t taken the time to coach the receptionist. What was she going to say and how she going to say it? What tone would she use?

Always ask for a description of what your subordinate will do. Again this takes more time, but gives you far superior results. It also saves you tons of time in the long run.

Another key to helping your people grow into being efficient, helpful and loyal is to get their input. Engage them in the problem solving process.  Ask for their suggestions.  How do they see themselves fulfilling the job?  You will be helping them to stretch and think better. They will become more self-reliant. Also, if they have ownership in the process, they’ll be much more motivated to make it work.

A wise boss will listen to his worker’s suggestions. The whole idea is to co-create solutions with then.  He will allow the worker to do things the worker’s way if feasible.

You might have a way of accomplishing the job that is better.  Share this with the worker and let him decide what he will do.

Your worker will have a bigger investment in his own ideas. He’ll work harder to prove he is right. Sometimes, you’ll be delightfully surprised when your worker will come up with ideas that are better than yours. This is exactly what you want! Workers who can think for themselves, be creative and self-reliant.

Follow these strategies and you’ll maximize your people’s talents. They’ll become highly motivated and more productive.  You’ll be freeing up lots of time.

You’ll be on your way to becoming a great boss who has more time to get out there and get more assets under management, enjoy your family, and live your life.

Don’t forget to share your wins and challenges with reverse delegation. I’ll reply!