The Trusted Advisor Process-Driven Culture
The importance and benefits of building a process-driven culture
Imagine that your office ran consistently with a high level of service to your Ideal Clients whether you are present in the office or not. Imagine that your practice ran just as smoothly when any member of your team was out on vacation, out sick, taking care of personal issues, or even out to lunch? The metaphor here is a “Swiss watch.” In this way, you’ll create a business that runs like the proverbial “Swiss watch.”
A "process-dependent" office is the smartest business model and creates the only foundation upon which you can build a growing Deliverables Team of Best-in-Class Subject Matter Experts.
Michael Gerber, author of the classic book for small business owners, The E-Myth, calls this a "process dependent" business rather than a "people dependent" business. Most financial services practices are "people dependent." Of those, most could even be described as "person dependent" (with the business dependent upon the Trusted Advisor), leaving Ideal Clients wondering, What happens to me if something were to happen to you? (The clear implication being that everything would fall apart if the Trusted Advisor wasn't in the office running things). If the Trusted Advisor or their administrative support person is out to lunch or takes a day off, the client request for service often has to wait.
This sounds almost silly, but clients immediately notice businesses that exhibit these qualities:
- Consistent
- On-time, every time
- Thorough
- Fast with high quality
- Dependable (can always be counted upon without follow up)
- Everyone knows what to do and when (or where to find out)
- Errors don't happen twice
You see in a process-driven culture, whenever something doesn’t go as expected, there are only three possibilities:
- A documented process did not work in this situation - needs to be reviewed and possibly fixed
- A documented process has not yet been created
- A documented process exists, but was not followed
This process-driven culture will be refreshing to your growing Deliverables Team. They will embrace it and see the benefits to all involved. It’s smart, things run more smoothly, and the clarity created for the team calms any chaos (or worry of the potential for chaos) previously experienced.
