The 3 phases of delegation: Building a bridge

Before marketing and insurance, I worked in the unforgiving world of construction.

It showed me the power and danger of delegation.

If you ever feel spread thin as a broker/agent, this one is for you.

Read time: 3 min 25 sec

Before I was in marketing, I built and remodeled homes with my dad and brother.

My dad was the best builder in the area. He focused on quality over quantity and charged a premium for his work.

My brother and I joined him after college in hopes of “growing the business”.

We quickly realized that a 3-man-show construction business means we wear hundreds of hats.

Our goal was to start hiring laborers so we could focus on revenue-driving activities like sales and marketing.

However, we discovered a raging river between where we were and where we wanted to go.

You see, we needed to hire people, pay them, train them, and hope they wouldn’t quit in a few months.

This costs incredible amounts of time and money.

You need to double your workload to train them and halve your own income to pay them.

If you jump, you could fall in the river and be washed away.

If you don’t, you will be stuck in a perpetual state of backbreaking work with nobody to help.

The other side wasn’t very far away, but jumping across was risky.

Building a bridge

To safely cross the river, you need to build a bridge.

A bridge made of systems.

As an insurance broker, I’m proactively building my bridge of systems so, as I grow, I can safely cross to the other side of the river where:

• Growth is not limited by the number of hours I work

• My team has clearly defined roles and responsibilities

• I can confidently outsource tasks

“But Braden…” you say, “You just started… why would you start building these systems so early?”

One of the most dangerous things in sales and marketing is intentionally scaling back your inbound leads.

Once you turn the faucet off, it’s hard to turn it back on. You settle into complacency.

However, keeping the faucet on means leads will flow in faster and faster.

As leads come faster, your bridge will help you seamlessly outsource tasks and decisions so you can continue to focus on what you’re best at.

Your long-term growth will depend on your ability to move through the 3 phases of delegation 👇

The 3 phases of delegation

1. Delegate simple tasks

2. Delegate complex tasks

3. Delegate decisions

1. Delegate simple tasks

These are repetitive tasks that steal your time, but don’t require much skill or education.

These are easily outsourced with the help of clear and definitive standard operating procedures (SOPs)

2. Delegate complex tasks

These tasks often require training, education, and/or certifications.

They aren’t as “point-and-shoot” as simple tasks - they require critical thinking and skill.

These are outsourced effectively with:

1. Clear SOPs

2. Shadowing and training

3. Positive reinforcement

3. Delegate decisions

Finally, once you can delegate decisions, you gain a new level of freedom.

This allows your business to run smoothly without you.

You are no longer a cog in the machine.

This takes time.

It is usually best to delegate decisions to people who:

1. Have industry experience

2. Are bought-in or have some kind of skin-in-the-game

3. Enjoy the responsibility you grant them

You don’t want to fit a square peg in a round hole here.

If Allen has a knack for marketing, you may not want to delegate HR decisions to him.

Also, remember that micromanaging is Kryptonite to decision delegation.

Give a competent, driven person ownership over their decisions, and they will flourish.

Why delegate anyway?

If you grow your business for enough time, you’ll reach a point where you are spread thin.

You’ll feel like you’re running around like a chicken without a head, meeting with old clients, selling new ones, doing paperwork, too busy to squeeze in a lunch break…

You are dropping balls.

Your quality of work decreases.

You lose your attention to detail.

When this happens, the last thing you’ll want to do is sit down for a month trying to think through all your systems and processes and plan how to start outsourcing the mess.

So instead, build systems as you go.

A “Delegation” Mindset

Preparing to delegate tasks and decisions starts with an important question - one you should constantly ask yourself.

“How could I make this the last time I do this?”

Some things can be quickly outsourced or automated by:

• Creating an automation in Zapier

• Hiring a freelancer on Upwork

• Setting a thorough voicemail greeting

However, most delegation is a process.

Either way, that one important question will help you think of ways to run a smoother operation.

As I learn about the insurance industry, at every stage, I’m documenting my processes. I hope that, as I grow, delegation will feel more like walking over a well-constructed bridge than swimming frantically in the current of the raging river.

In the next newsletter, I’ll explain what these “systems” look like and how to implement them.

But for now, I wanted to get your gears turning with these questions:

• Am I ready to outsource tasks?

• Would I like to outsource decisions?

• What repetitive tasks do I do daily?

• What do I enjoy and what am I sick of?

• What would I focus on if I was able to delegate?

Hope that helps!

Talk soon.

— Braden