Prepared for Dorothea Accetta · Group Director, Client Services

The Director's
Playbook

Four operating rhythms to move you from the work itself to leading the team that does the work — and why that shift matters for every level of the business.

Prepared by Todd Herman
Version Draft for review
Implementation target Immediate · phased in over 30 days

The core idea

The skills that made you exceptional as an operator are real and earned. What this playbook asks is not that you stop caring about quality — but that you change the method. A director's job is to build the conditions for others to deliver the quality. That's a different game, and it requires a different set of daily moves.

Why this matters at every level

These rhythms aren't overhead — they're the mechanism that connects your daily work to outcomes the whole firm is trying to reach.

Company goal

Transition to a team-based, scalable firm

Scott's growth strategy requires the business to run on team capability — not his personal attention. A high-performing CS operation that you direct is a foundational piece of that model working in practice.

Department goal

World-class service that doesn't depend on any one person

The CS team's purpose is fast, accurate, white-glove execution. When you're running structured rhythms, service levels become consistent and visible — not dependent on who happens to catch the ball that day.

Your goal

Work differently at 65 than you did at 45

You said it yourself: this isn't how you want to be working at 65. These rhythms aren't more work — they're the path to doing less of the grinding work and more of the meaningful leadership work. Your energy and experience deserve that.

The four rhythms

Each rhythm has a clear format, cadence, and purpose. None of them require more than 20 minutes. Together, they give you the visibility and leverage of a true Group Director.

1
The Weekly CS Pulse
Every Monday · 20 minutes · whole service team
Weekly anchor

What happens in the room

  • Completions (3 min) — each person names one thing they finished last week. No discussion. Just declaration.
  • Priorities (5 min) — what is each person focused on this week? Surface conflicts before they become fires.
  • Blockers (5 min) — anything that needs a decision, a resource, or a push? This is where you coach, not fix.
  • Game film (7 min) — one process, one workflow, one way of doing something — looked at together and made slightly better.

Why this serves every goal

Company Creates the team-owned operating cadence that the transition to a branded firm requires. Scott can't scale if everything routes through him — this is how it routes through you instead.
Dept Surfaces problems at the start of the week instead of mid-crisis. Fewer fire drills. Better service consistency across the team.
You Moves you from the work to above the work. You're leading from a 10,000-foot view once a week — which gives you the visibility to make better calls all week.
2
The Daily Close Protocol
Every day · 5 minutes per person · end of day standard
Daily standard

Three things confirmed before anyone leaves

  • Client tracker updated for the day — every interaction logged, every task status current.
  • Teams messages acknowledged — a thumbs up, a check, a single emoji. Not a reply. Just confirmation the message landed.
  • Any same-day deadline flagged — if something won't make it today, you know before 5 PM, not at 7 AM tomorrow.

This isn't a check-in. It's a shared standard. It applies to everyone — including you.

Why this serves every goal

Company Costa's call cycle tracker and other shared visibility tools only work if the data is accurate and current. This protocol is the input that makes every dashboard meaningful.
Dept Directly improves the 24-hour resolution rate — your primary KPI. Problems that get flagged by 5 PM get solved. Problems discovered at 9 AM the next day are already late.
You Solves the follow-up problem structurally instead of personally. You're not chasing Mark — the standard is chasing Mark. That's the difference between babysitting and managing.
3
The Project Sprint Lead
First target: Recurring cash system · April 15 · 15 min / week
Immediate win

How to run it as a director, not a doer

  • Assign ownership — each service team member pulls the recurring withdrawal data for the clients they cover. You don't pull the data. You own the outcome.
  • Define done — the report format, the non-managed account routing, the quarterly generation schedule. Clear, written, agreed before work starts.
  • One question per weekly check-in — "What's the next step and who owns it?" That's your whole job in the 15 minutes. You're not the doer. You're the driver.
  • April 15 completion — a system that eliminates a significant portion of daily escalations to the investment team. A result you led.

Why this serves every goal

Company Reduces friction between the CS team and investment team — which is a systemic bottleneck in scaling the firm model. Less daily noise for everyone means more time on high-value work.
Dept Directly reduces escalations — your secondary KPI. A working recurring cash system could eliminate a meaningful % of daily investment team hand-offs within the first quarter of use.
You This is a project you surfaced, you designed the shape of, and you can own the result of. That's a director's win — and it's the kind of visible impact that earns expanded authority and trust.
4
The KPI Visibility Board
Weekly snapshot · shared · 10 minutes to update
Your scoreboard

Three numbers. Updated weekly. Always visible.

  • Total client requests received — how much is actually coming in. Context for every capacity conversation.
  • % resolved within 24 hours — your primary KPI. The number that speaks for your team's performance at the firm level.
  • Escalations to investment team — the number to watch as the recurring cash system goes live. When it drops, you have a story to tell.

Start simple — a shared Teams table or a basic tracker. The goal is visibility, not sophistication.

Why this serves every goal

Company Makes the CS team's contribution legible to leadership. Invisible good work doesn't get resourced. Visible good work — and visible load — builds the case for the staffing and tools the team actually needs.
Dept Shifts decisions from instinct to data. When you know the numbers, you can push back on new projects during peak load with facts — not just feelings. That's how a director manages up.
You Gives you the confidence that comes from knowing your numbers. You stop feeling reactive and start feeling like someone running a function — because you are. The scoreboard changes how you carry yourself.

The director's in-the-moment question

Is this mine to do — or mine to direct?

Ask this every time you feel the pull to jump in, research something that belongs to someone else, or solve a problem that's not yours to solve. Not as a restraint — as a re-orientation. The director's job is to direct. Everything else is a distraction from that job.

Your starting point

You don't have to install all four rhythms at once. Pick one to start this week — imperfect and running is worth more than perfect and waiting. The question to sit with:

Which one of these, if it were running consistently four weeks from now, would make the biggest difference to how your week feels?

That's the one to start with.

Your first rhythm — the one you own from day one.

Weekly CS Pulse Daily Close Protocol Project Sprint Lead KPI Visibility Board