Leverage through Supporting

We’ve been focusing the last few newsletters on the Internal Drive matrix and the when to use delegation to get more leverage as an agency owner. 

Today we’re going to cover how to do work through, “Support”.

I’m Nick Avaria, agency owner, and founder of Agency Acquisitions. As an agency owner and consultant, every week I share what’s working in my own agency and my clients to increase profits - without increasing the hours spent at your desk. If you were forwarded this email to your inbox, you can subscribe for weekly updates here.

We need to use the Support style of leverage when people have high internal drive (motivation) but their skills to do that particular task are not where they need to be to delegate to them fully. (diagram below)

This may be the case for new hires, or someone who has been on your team for a while, but it’s a new type of task they are being assigned.

The hardest thing to do is get started (similar to the coach style but for different reasons), because they may not know where to start.

For this I like to use the 1-3-1 method:

Step 1: Challenge = Problem Statement

• Both parties need to be clear of the problem statement before solution finding

• Once the problem statement has been clarified move to the next step

Step 2: 3 Viable Options

• The expectation is that the options will be discussed before implementation

• The discussion on the 2 non-recommended solutions includes:

  • What were the considerations/variables that contributed to this being a potential solution

  • What are the strengths of this solution? What are the weaknesses?

  • If the underlying variables/assumptions changed on the solution, would it still be the best solution?

  • What are the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th order consequences to the solution?

Step 3: 1 Suggestion / Recommendation

• Use the same discussion as with the other solutions but at the end ask the following:

  • What made this solution stand out vs the other two?

  • After discussing the other two solutions are they still leaning towards this as the recommendation?

• The outcome is either:

  • Do exercise again as the solution was not sufficient or person is not happy with it

  • Ask qualifying questions until the recommended solution is viable

• Once a viable solution is present the employee needs to execute against it

Remember: the whole point of using this technique is to enable the person to learn as much as possible. 

This way you will be able to delegate to them the second time around.

May your next week be filled with more leverage than the previous!

Need support with getting more leverage out of your team through delegation? Book a time in my calendar now to connect before to walk through the process in more detail.

Nick