by Matthew Asser, The Covenant Group

Finan­cial advi­sors who decide to start work­ing inde­pen­dently often try to do every­thing required in run­ning a busi­ness. They are their own admin­is­tra­tive assis­tants, as well as the chiefs of mar­ket­ing, the heads of oper­a­tions and the lead salespeople.A cen­tral aspect of finan­cial ser­vices train­ing is learn­ing how to del­e­gate, how to allow some­one else to man­age the details so you can focus on build­ing the busi­ness. Norm Trainor empha­sizes the impor­tance of del­e­ga­tion in his book The 8 Best Prac­tices of High-Performing Sales­peo­ple. This is a three-step process: Not only do you have to del­e­gate to other peo­ple as well as tech­nol­ogy, it’s also vital that you develop an orga­ni­za­tion in which every­one has a role rel­a­tive to their col­leagues’ responsibilities.

Bring­ing on addi­tional team mem­bers to ful­fill spe­cific roles and invest­ing in tech­nol­ogy that will enable you and your employ­ees to be more effi­cient and effec­tive are the first two steps. Then you must orga­nize how those peo­ple and tech­no­log­i­cal tools will work together to improve oper­a­tions. Clearly define how each indi­vid­ual will col­lab­o­rate with oth­ers in the com­pany and build a hier­ar­chy that explains work­flow and responsibilities.

What processes have you devel­oped to make sure every aspect of the busi­ness is man­aged and addressed? Have you defined everyone’s rela­tion­ship to every­one else, and dis­cussed their roles in terms of how they sup­port and advance not only their own objec­tives, but those of their team mem­bers? Do you adjust this orga­ni­za­tional map every time you adopt new soft­ware or bring on an addi­tional employee?

As you define your orga­ni­za­tion, also make sure that you are com­mu­ni­cat­ing this struc­ture to cur­rent and incom­ing employ­ees. In par­tic­u­lar, it is vital to clearly explain to new­com­ers how they fit into the exist­ing orga­ni­za­tion and what is expected of them.

To do so, finan­cial advi­sors may want to con­sider devel­op­ing an onboard­ing process that helps recent hires become accus­tomed to the busi­ness. Rand­stad Canada, a recruit­ing com­pany, recently issued a few tips for busi­nesses that are bring­ing in addi­tional workers.

“By prop­erly plan­ning and exe­cut­ing an onboard­ing pro­gram, it will help you retain the exist­ing tal­ent you’ve worked so hard to recruit, and pave the way towards devel­op­ing moti­vated and engaged employ­ees,” notes Lean­dra Har­ris, Randstad’s exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent of human resources.

It’s wise to assign one per­son who can be a men­tor and guide new mem­bers through your company’s cul­ture and poli­cies. In past posts, I’ve explained the lengthy, time-consuming process of hir­ing new work­ers, so make sure you don’t dam­age the return on invest­ment by not explain­ing to new and long-time employ­ees exactly where they stand in the organization.

Matthew Asser has spent the last few decades gain­ing exper­tise in how finan­cial ser­vices firms can opti­mize their oper­a­tions, mar­ket­ing, new prod­ucts, busi­ness devel­op­ment and client rela­tion­ship man­age­ment prac­tices. He’s well-versed in the chal­lenges that an entre­pre­neur may strug­gle with, and as a Senior Coach and Facil­i­ta­tor, helps clients achieve busi­ness change through The Covenant Group’s exten­sive finan­cial advi­sor train­ing programs.

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Norm Trainor is the Founder and CEO of The Covenant Group, a company that specializes in educating and coaching financial advisors and entrepreneurs and providing them with business tools to enhance their performance. He can be reached at norm@covenantgroup.com or 1-877-903-3878 X333. Read more from the author/contributor here.

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