A daily huddle is one of the simplest yet most effective practices you can carry out with your team.

Ideally, a huddle is a stand up meeting where the team gathers up and talk about their agenda. In our case, since our clients are offshore, daily huddles are done online either through Skype or  Zoom.

This quarter, we have a theme in our office to increase the number of clients who are doing a daily huddle with their team.

Why? We know that those who do get much better results from the team members , have less dramas and build better relationships.

What are the advantages of daily huddles?

Using this 10-minute management tool does not only benefit us but also our clients. We always value the importance of building relationships with our clients and so we believe this is a quick step to achieving that.

Not only does it improve communication, (1) it also saves you time from a long thread of e-mails explaining how to do a single task; (2) it keeps everyone in sync and organised as to what is done and what needs to be done; (3) it allows you to align your goals and set expectations (4) gives a forum for FPA’s to ask a quick question or clarify a task.

Important Tip – If you need to go in to depth on an issue, don’t do it in this session. Schedule a specific time to cover this later in the day or at a time that suits you.

Why daily and not weekly?

A week is simple too long between interactions. You need to know what the challenges your team members have each day (most are related to waiting on information or clarification from advisers) and what they are prioritising. Doing the huddle daily allows you to reprioritise urgent tasks when they come up and keep the team on track.

Invest Blue is one of our clients that do daily huddles.

“The daily huddle brings cohesion in the team. It is a chance to updated everyone on what your day will look like and what priorities you will be addressing.  It allows you to address any issues/questions that may have been raised the previous day or coming day in one conversation” said Nicole Taylor, Invest Blue Project Manager.

One of our financial planning assistants, Dray, also pointed out how a daily huddle helps her work.

“Daily huddles help me a lot. I can do follow-ups and get answers real-time. I get the chance to explain why I’m stuck at a certain task which they generously help me with. More importantly, I am able to build a better connection with my client. Nothing beats a friendly conversation with someone that you work with. It makes me feel more comfortable and less intimidated by them” Dray said.

We have observed that for those clients who communicate with their team members more frequently, feedback scores are much higher. Apart from the FPAs feeling more engaged and connected, efficiency and accuracy rate is also higher when doing tasks.

Quick tips on doing a daily huddle

We call it a “huddle” because it is not ameeting. It is just a quick catch up to share the focus for the day, deal with any challenges and aligning objectives. It shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes of your time.

Here are some ways on how to keep your huddles short but effective:

Take this as an opportunity to communicate with your FPA—explain any complex tasks, clarify concerns and also, commend small wins. This will bring clarity, cohesiveness, consistency and motivation to your team. Commit to it for a month as a trial and we promise you, with the result and time you will save, you will wonder why you haven’t done it any sooner. Start today!