Your Team and Technology is it a Fit?

Building the team to support your practice is no quick and easy task. Team-building experts say a good way to begin to implement change is simply to work on one issue or task each month.

“If I were to say to you and your staff: ‘Here are six issues, I want you to fix them by Friday,’ none of them would get fixed,” says McClocklin. “We all go to these ‘feel good’ courses and come back to tear up the world on Monday morning, and by 11 a.m. you’re back to where you were on Friday at three.”

Even groups that undergo major practice reviews can find themselves in the same place afterward, with little noticeable improvement.

“It amazes me how many teams don’t spend the amount of time required to build a comprehensive, all-engaging business plan that allows the entire team to focus on what’s important — the clients and building their business,” he says.

Among struggling teams, McClocklin says, lack of communication, lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities, and no clearly defined business plan are all common themes. These issues, he says, can be tackled by working on a business plan and identifying focused and disciplined performance goals.

“There are probably three things that good teams have in common,” he says. “First, they have clear performance goals. They know exactly what they’re doing and where they’re going.

Second, they have really great processes in place from the minute a prospect steps off the elevator to the minute the prospect steps back on and becomes a client. Their processes are clearly defined. Third, they have excellent communication.”

Improving communications, he says, is as simple as implementing a daily meeting. “One of the things that we know works very well is the five-minute meeting every morning,” he says. “It’s a little thing like that, but it’s a major change in the process.”

It takes time to make sustainable changes and entrench good practices. Draft a business plan that includes clearly defined roles and detailed job descriptions, and lay out processes right down to who gets the coffee when a prospect walks through the door. Once a month, implement a new idea or policy.

Also, figure out what each of your staff likes to do. It could be one assistant would jump at the chance to do research, while the other finds data-entry relaxing.

“Just generally doing research is not an effective use of an advisor’s time,” says St. Pierre. “It’s a great opportunity to pass that off to a staff member.” IE