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February 26, 2015 at 10:13 PM
Can you recall the last major initiative that died in your office? Did it crash and burn or did it slowly suffocate from competing priorities? Most often the whirlwind of pressing day-to-day activities devour all the time and energy needed to properly execute strategies for activities that could lead to future growth.
In our 20 years of experience working with highly successful advisors at Peak Advisor Alliance, we have found top achievers are exceptionally well organized. In the article, Busy? Yes! But Are You Good Busy?, I discussed the importance of tracking your productivity and reviewing your job description as means for organizing your time.
If you took my advice, you spent some time tracking exactly what you do each day and how much time is spent on each task. You should also have created a list of vital activities that you need to accomplish each day based on your job description, eliminating or delegating the rest to your team.
Execution Error
So now you know the right things that need to be done, but execution error is causing challenges. The next step in your productivity makeover is to ensure you are getting the right things done and you are doing them the right way. It’s not about working harder or smarter or more efficiently. Top producers work more effectively. It means staying focused on the vital few activities and completing them the right way.
In fact, some of the biggest growth years we’ve witnessed occurred in practices that did nothing special. They simply stuck to the fundamentals and executed the basics extremely well.
Advisory Councils are a great example. When well executed, periodic council meetings with your top clients can yield an abundance of insight and experience to help improve services and grow your business. It’s a vital activity for advisors but too often it’s the case that too little thought, preparation, and follow-through result in poorly executed meetings, and with very little value achieved.
Here are three tactics to avoid execution error:
Tactic 1. Document Systems and Processes
By having written systems in place for day-to-day as well as special initiatives, there should be no more excuses for errors. Your stakeholders will have a guide to follow that clearly explains how to do each task in your office. Written systems will also help new team members train faster and allow someone to easily fill in for an absent co-worker. What are the systems and processes you’ve incorporated into your business to minimize or eliminate execution error? Continue to fine tune what you have because even small improvements can make a big difference.
