In my experience, most agency owners’ attempts at delegation break at the first exception.
Your account manager sends the report, but when the client questions the results, you inherit the investigation, the response, and the follow-up.
Before you know it, the bulk of that work is right back on your plate.
When we’re working with agency founders in our program, I always recommend defining four “agreements” with the teammate they’re delegating to:
The outcome: For client reporting, “send the report” leaves too much unresolved. A fuller responsibility is: “The client understands performance, knows what we’re doing next, and receives the follow-up we promised.”
The authority: Specify what they can decide without permission. For example, they can coordinate corrective work within the agreed scope, while changes to fees or contractual commitments require your approval.
The escalation: Agree that when they need your input, they bring the situation, their recommendation, and the decision they need from you. After you decide, they still communicate with the client and coordinate the work.
The follow-through: Every unresolved issue has an owner, a next action, and a review date recorded somewhere you can both see. Review those commitments in your weekly 1:1 instead of relying on your memory to chase them.
An escalation can transfer a decision while leaving responsibility for the outcome with the account manager.
If you’re looking for a good way to implement this system, take the last piece of work that landed back on your desk and identify which of those four agreements was missing.
And, if you want more hands-on help defining these responsibilities, delegating to your team, and putting an effective weekly review in place, check out the work we’re doing in the Agency Uplift coaching group.