Is it weak to ask for help?

When you have a business challenge is your first thought, ‘How can I fix it?’ or ‘Who can help me fix it?’

I’ll bet you generally go into the solve-it mode, I used to do that too…and being totally transparent sometimes I still do!

As an entrepreneur, it can be difficult to release the reins and allow others to work on your ‘business baby’. You’ve put so much into building up your business you want everything to be perfect.

Both in my corporate and entrepreneurial life, I have struggled with delegating the time consuming administrative and technical tasks to others, as I was SURE they couldn’t do it as well and/or as quickly as me, and if I was going to have to teach them and then check it afterwards, I may as well have done it myself!

But I wasn’t doing myself any favours, I was busy being busy, my business wasn’t growing as quickly as it should have been because I was trying to do ALL THE THINGS, and my team wasn’t learning or developing.

The whole idea of recruiting and building a team is to free you up to do the high-value stuff, like speaking with potential clients and delivering excellence to your paying clients, it should also mean that you can go on holiday WITHOUT your laptop, iPad and iPhone, take the afternoon off to relax in the spa, or go to your children’s school play without worrying about what’s happening in the office.

When I’ve broken down the reason why most business owners lack trust in their team, it’s because they fear they’ll get things wrong, that they’ll change the winning formula that has gotten them this far.

Like my client Alice, who was struggling to focus on building her business because she was caught up trying to get the day-to-day things completed.

Her company mobile phone would not stop ringing, as her managers referred any difficult customers to her rather than dealing with them themselves.

This meant that the majority of her customers had her number and would just call, rather than talk to the manager for the relevant store (even though they’d be seeing them face to face regularly). The head office line hardly rang, so Alice’s assistant wasn’t inundated with calls. Alice felt trapped.

After spending some time with Alice it became apparent that her caring and maternal nature had meant that her managers didn’t even attempt to solve tricky problems, they just called Alice for the answer.

My first suggestion was to change her mobile number and remove it from all the business literature. Each store and store manager had a telephone number and there was a number for head office too.

We delivered our signature management training programme to the managers and their deputies, created a peer coaching group and created a crib sheet for the managers to be sure they understood the policies and processes so that they took ownership for managing issues and didn’t need to disrupt Alice, except for emergencies.

A month after the phone was disconnected Alice said “I feel like a weight has been lifted, I don’t know why I didn’t do that sooner, thank you”

Delegating is always a major subject in our Management and Leadership Coaching Programmes, so I thought I’d share a few tips to help:

Play to your strengths

Know what you are good at and stick to it. When you started your business you were a team of one and had to get everything done (sales, products, accounts, marketing, logistics). Now you can buy in support, either through outsourced providers (accountants, VA, social media, contractors) or employees.

Get the right support in and give them the autonomy to deliver. Getting support doesn’t mean that you have to lock yourself into a full-time permanent contract. If you are concerned that your business might experience a downturn (or you know the support you need is seasonal), you can hire casual staff or offer a contract on a fixed-term and/or part-time basis.

Take the time to train your team

Have you ever said, “By the time I teach them how to do it, I could have done it myself!” Ten years ago this would have definitely been me, but by the time I’d had to complete that task three or four times, I was wishing that I had trained someone, ANYONE else in my team to do it.

As annoying as it sounds, you have to invest time to free up time, whether it is setting up a system, process or training an individual and this is the same thing I say to clients who are too busy to find time the hire the staff they need – it’s chicken and egg! A fully trained and empowered employee means more freedom for you.

Train your team and have them document the process and keep it up to date, then whenever you have a new joiner or promote a team member you have a process manual ready!

Block out your time

It is really easy to get distracted by the admin needed to run a business even with an administrator or VA on staff, so block your time for specific tasks.

I do write down my Must-Dos for each day and the time that I am dedicating to them. Then at the allocated time I close down my emails and put my phone on airplane mode so that I keep focused.

I use a variation of the Pomodoro method. Instead of working for 25-minute sprints with a 5-minute break, I work for an hour or 90 minutes and then take a longer break.

This helps me to focus on a particular project as I find that it can take a while to get into the zone and once I get there it can be difficult to stop (and I like to complete tasks in one hit if I can).

Change your location

When I first started my business, I worked from home and would spend the first couple of hours in the day, cleaning and tidying before I started working and then would be carrying out other chores too. Have you ever popped into the supermarket to come out two hours later?

It didn’t take long to realise that being at home wasn’t helping my focus and so I found a co-working space to work from. The change of location was just what I needed, there were no dirty dishes or laundry to distract me but lots of businesses to connect with.

Once you have a team (working alongside you or remotely) it can be easy to be constantly distracted with their tasks and challenges. I used to struggle when I overheard a conversation that I wanted to chip in on; my ears would switch on and the focus on my task would go flying out of the window.

If you are constantly being interrupted by your team asking for your help (for outcomes that they are capable of delivering) or you can’t resist ‘offering’ assistance and keeping all the real decision making for yourself, it’s time for you to find somewhere else to work from at least one day a week, to give you and your team some space to be great.

The saying that, what you don’t know can’t hurt you, was definitely true in this circumstance. If there is truly an emergency your team will get in touch, don’t worry it will be fine.

Try these tips and you’ll get the help you need to take your business to the next level.

Need help hiring the help you need or developing the leadership skills you or your team need, schedule a call to see how we can help you.

Do you dread managing staff?

There are two distinct types of business owners, those who strive to build a business large enough to support or team and those who never want to manage a team ever. Like EVER.

Sometimes it is down to a traumatic past management experience or other times it’s the belief that no one will be able to do it as well as you.

Can you relate …

It happens in the corporate world too.

Simon was an IT genius, so when his boss left and the role was opened up for internal candidates, we were all waiting in anticipation for his application to hit our inboxes, but when he hadn’t expressed an interest in the role 24 hours before deadline I thought I’d have a chat and check everything was ok. Simon told me he loved his role and had no interest in managing a team, taking on their issues and spending less time working on the systems he loved.

I could understand where he was coming from, I went through the same challenge with my first large scale senior HR role and so I was able to share that as a manager it is your responsibility to get things done but that doesn’t mean you have to do it. It is in your gift to develop others by delegating tasks and using your skills and knowledge to improve the department. I also promised to ensure he received the management training he needed should he be successful in obtaining the role.

After our talk Simon did apply for the role and was successful, he was recognised for his outstanding contribution and with coaching and an awesome mentor is now Head of Department.

Do you feel fearful that managing a team will dilute your fun and control?

The truth is, the power is in YOUR hands.

Management is a skill like any other, you have to learn the theory and then apply it practically to hone your skills. Everybody makes mistakes, you haven’t gotten to where you are with your business without making mistakes, so you have to accept that your team will make them too. The important thing is that you give them the feedback needed to improve.

If you are wary about adding to your team or delegating more responsibility, here are three tips to help you:

1. Be clear about the outcome, you need to clearly demonstrate what good looks like. Don’t get bogged down in the detail your team may well have a more efficient way to reach the goal

2. Allow extra time, give a deadline with some wriggle room so that if things need to be tweaked you have time to give feedback and get your team member to action rather than do it yourself.

3. Give positive feedback, everybody likes to hear ‘Well Done’ and it motivates them to continue striving for excellence

If you need some help with getting the Managment Fundamentals right, contact us here to see how we can assist you.

Are you always getting excuses?

“She always comes in with an excuse. Traffic, overslept, ran out of time, the client said …. It’s exhausting … I can’t rely on her and it’s costing me business”

It’s amazing the amount of business owners that struggle with getting some members of their team to take ownership and deliver what they need consistently.

Being able to trust your team to get on with things, while you get on with the CEO tasks that you have is vital. If you don’t have time to plan for growth, it won’t happen. And keeping track of what everybody is supposed to be working on, is time consuming and exhausting, not to mention the fact that most people don’t react well to micro management.

And then the next thing you know you are doing EVERYTHIING, despite having a team to support you. Have you experienced this? I know I have!

Its two sides of the same coin …

You need to trust your staff and your staff need to feel empowered and supported in their decision making and that happens over time, because you don’t want a renegade who just makes decisions without understanding the consequences.

So how to get your staff to take ownership, so you have freedom to focus on the things you need to do:

Lead by example

You have to demonstrate the behaviour that you want to see in your team. Let them shadow you when you deal with client issues. Let them see how you prioritise and sacrifice to get things done.

Give them the outcome not the blueprint

Let you team know the end goal and let them find their own path, you never know they might find a quicker, cheaper alternative path.

Ask for the solution to the problem / Issue

When your team come to you with an issue or problem, try asking them for solutions, rather than offering the answer.

Allow them to fail

This is a hard one, but failures teach goo lessons. Sometimes you have to let things slip and observe how an individual fixes the issue without you being there as a safety net.

The only way to stop receiving excuses, is to refuse to accept them. This means that there will be difficult conversations and there may be individuals that are unable to withstand the pressure or additional responsibility. However if you set the standard and demonstrate the behaviours you expect, you will have a responsible, motivated team; which will enable you to take your business to higher heights.

If you need help developing the right behaviours in your team our Management Essentials Training course is available for online self-study or we can tailor it to your policies and procedures and deliver it in-house, contact us to discuss your needs here

Trying to find some extra hours in the day?

Have you heard this amazing statistic?

Small business CEO’s spend an average of 20% of their day on HR tasks

That's a day a week!

A lot of clients that I speak with cite being too busy as a reason why some essential HR things don’t get done, and the reason why they need Eden Mayers HR to whip them into shape!

The majority of their battles can be put down to one thing …

DELEGATING

Now HR is my business so I spend a lot of time on and with it, however I can relate when it comes to other elements of my business. I like numbers and data analysis but it’s the job of Daniel in my team! I do have a tendency to start some analysis and take a bunch of time working on it, then get frustrated and get shown how it’s really done (sometimes in moments) with fancy excel formulae and macros. The same applies to making changes to the website!

My business is my baby so I sometimes struggle to hand things over and then complain about a lack of time. Delegating is always a big thing in our Management and Leadership coaching programmes, so I thought I’d share a few tips to help you find those extra 4 hours in the day:

Play to your strengths

Know what you are good at and stick to it. When you started your business you were a team of one and had to get everything done, now you have the ability to buy in support either though outsourced providers (accountants, VA, social media, contractors) or employees. Get the right support in and give them the autonomy to deliver.

Take the time to train

“By the time I tell them how to do it, I could have done it myself!” You have to invest time to free up time, this is the same thing I say to clients who are too busy to find time the hire the staff they need – chicken and egg! A full trained empowered employee, means freedom for you.

Block out your time

It is really easy to get distracted by the admin needed to run a business. Block your time, unless there is an emergency (or holiday) I do my admin on Fridays. I schedule in time to write blogs, call clients, record vlogs, do Facebook lives, as well as delivering to clients. It means my team know when I’m available and I know what I need to achieve during the day.

Change your location

People can’t asking you things if they can’t find you. I have a few local coffee shops and restaurants that I can escape to, put my phone on airplane mode and hook onto their wifi! I can get a days work completed in half the time, when I have no interruptions. I’m on a train for 3 hours tomorrow and I already have a work plan.

Try these time saving hacks and see if you find some extra time in your day to focus on the things that really matter.