You did not start your business to do nothing but work. You started your business to have more freedom and money, but you may now have less of both. It does not have to be that way! Your business demands your attention, but you want to have the time and space to enjoy activities that do not involve budgets and deadlines. There are parts of your life that have been put on hold for months or even years to build your business.
The problem is that you feel like your business needs you every day to succeed. The balls that you juggle cannot be dropped and need to be treated with your highest focus. From start to finish your day takes every bit of your energy as you jump from one activity to the other. To drop one of these balls feels like it would ruin your business. You have tried to give your people a few of these responsibilities but it failed. Your clients were upset and your people were annoyed with you. Everyone lost.
If you continue to delegate responsibilities like you have in the past, your freedom will never increase. You will always have another task to accomplish, never a moment to breathe or even think of taking time away from your business. Eventually, you are going to start dropping some of these responsibilities yourself and you will have no one to support you. Everyone will lose again.
What if your people were trained and prepared to take on new responsibilities each time you need to hand a few off? What if you had the ability to take time away from your business with full confidence that your people will bet taken care of? What if you COULD get your business to provide more time and money for you and your family? How would that change your life?
Here are four steps to start getting stuff off your to-do list:
1. Shift Your Mindset
You will always be the best at a task, UNTIL you train someone. If you continue to believe that ONLY you can complete a task, YOU will be the thing holding your business back.
2. Identify the Simplest Responsibilities to Delegate
What can someone else do 80% as well as you? If they can complete it that well, you can hand it off. That last 20% can be taught to them by you.
3. Hand It Off
Be 100% clear that someone else is now responsible for this. A newly assigned responsibility needs to be explicitly written or stated that it has officially been handed over.
4. Accountability
They will make mistakes and you will have to train them again. Do not expect perfection but expect patience from yourself.
Your first step is focusing on your mindset. The past experiences with handing over responsibilities needs to be remembered, but not allowed to control your actions. You cannot hesitate when you hand over these responsibilities. You need to have a full level of commitment to help your people accept their new role. Avoiding the delegation of tasks will only restrict the amount of freedom that you are able to enjoy. Invest in your people now. Your future self will thank you for all the time you saved.
