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.