I’m sure you’ve heard that being able to delegate is critical for the growth and success of your fitness business. After all, if your goal is to grow your business, make more money and impact more people, you can’t do everything yourself.
We find that it’s common for gym owners to think of delegation as simply handing over checklists and tasks that you no longer have time for or don’t need to be spending your time doing. However, if you’re looking to build a team of strong leaders who can think and act in the best interest of the business, you’re going to need to empower others to make some decisions.
In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of delegating decision-making authority, and how to use the Tree Model (which we’ll tell you more about below) to guide you in doing that successfully.
What is Decision-Making Authority, and Why Does it Matter?
If you want to grow your business without having to do everything yourself, you need other people to be able to make some decisions. Otherwise they’ll be knocking on your door every single time something doesn’t go perfectly according to script.
Giving your team the power to make important decisions is what we call delegating decision-making authority, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll just call it delegating decisions. It’s about teaching and trusting your team to think and act in the best interest of the business. It takes some effort up front because it’s obviously more complex than just teaching them how to follow a checklist, but it’s worth it because it will help you build a strong team, replace yourself and ultimately grow your business.
Introducing the Tree Model
The Tree Model is a really simple tool that you can use to guide you in determining what decisions to delegate and who to delegate them to. This model breaks down decisions into four levels: leaf, branch, trunk, and root decisions. The analogy of a tree here represents the potential harm or good to the organization as decisions are made at each level. If a poor decision is made on the leaf level, it’s not necessarily detrimental to the health of the business (just like if a tree loses a leaf, it’s not going to die). Alternatively, if a poor decision is made on the trunk or root level, it has the potential to have more significant consequences to the business. While all decisions are important, poor decisions with higher stakes can have a more significant impact (both positive and negative) on the business so they need to be delegated more carefully.
Leaf Decisions:
Leaf decisions are day-to-day decisions that don’t require approval or reporting back on. These decisions are the most common and routine decisions and do not have a significant impact on the business. Examples include selecting the playlist for group training, purchasing cleaning supplies or suggesting modifications for training clients.
Branch Decisions:
Branch decisions are also routine decisions, but are bigger than leaf decisions. These decisions are more impactful so they require that the responsible person makes the decision, acts on it and then reports in to their manager on the action taken. Examples include resolving a client complaint, making a marketing decision, or scheduling a workshop.
Trunk Decisions:
Trunk decisions are significant decisions that require discussion with a manager or higher level decision-maker before being made. These decisions can have a high level of risk and could potentially cause significant harm or impact to the business. Examples include changing the pricing structure, hiring new staff, or launching a new program.
Root Decisions:
Root decisions are mission-critical decisions that should never be delegated. These decisions have the potential to kill the business if they are made incorrectly. Examples include signing a new lease, taking on significant debt, or making a major business pivot.
How to Use the Tree Model
The best way to get started using the Tree Model is by choosing ONE decision that you make that you’d love for someone else to be making. For this example, let’s use this decision: deciding if a client can cancel their agreement outside of their terms. (I want to use this one because for a lot of fitness business owners, that decision is one that can pull you back into the weeds, can be emotionally draining and can be a distraction when you’re trying to work ON the business.) Next, determine who you want to be making that decision instead of you. Talk to them about the kind of decision it is (a branch decision using the Tree Model language), what information they need to know to be able to make the decision and then share a few examples of how you’ve made the decision in the past. Then let them know that it will be their responsibility to make that decision going forward.
Once you’ve delegated that decision, it’s really important to let them do it, while providing guidance and support as needed. Hold them accountable to report on the decisions they make and help them to learn from any mistakes. This will help them become more independent and confident decision-makers and will also build your confidence in their ability to make good decisions. Then you just repeat that process over and over.
Communication is key to effectively delegating decisions. Use the Tree Model language with your team so everyone knows what communication is needed for each decision. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and that decisions are made consistently.
Benefits of Delegating Decisions
Delegating decisions has many benefits, but one of the biggest is that it allows you as the business owner to let go of decisions that other people are equipped to make so that you can focus on higher-level things that only you can do. It also empowers your team to think, learn, and grow their autonomy. That can lead to increased job satisfaction for them and employee retention for you. Another big win-win.
Creating a strong team of leaders is essential to growing your business, and delegating decisions is the way to achieve it.
If you’re ready to create a team of good decision makers but you’re not quite sure where to start, schedule a Strategy Session with one of our coaches. They will help you prioritize the right decisions to start delegating and create a plan that will allow you to confidently hand off decision-making so that you can free up more of your time and bandwidth to grow your business.
