Today's blog is dedicated to the dreadful disease of micro-management...that all too common condition where a business owner mistakenly thinks he/she needs to do everything in a business. That disease may not kill you but it will surely exhaust you on a perpetual basis and have you become a prisoner to your business. As your virtual business coach, I am here to say that doesn't need to be the case and there is a cure.
Some quick reminders...as a strategic business owner, your primary aim should be to develop a self-managing and systems-oriented business that still runs consistently, predictably, smoothly, and profitably while you are not even there. You should shape and own the "business system" and employ competent and caring employees to operate the system. However, YOU should NOT be the business system.
Here is a simple four-step business coaching process to help you battle micro-management. Step one, you should document the work of your business so that you can effectively train others to execute the work. Create an operations manual for your business. After all, you want to make yourself replaceable in the technical trenches of your business. To repeat, define and document the specific work to be done and then train and delegate. Don’t suffocate the talents and growth of your employees.
Step two is to change your mindset. Don’t be content to be a super-worker, strive to be a supervisor! Stop the “I’ll do it myself” and “No one does it as well as I do” attitudes. Learn to delegate. If someone else can do something 80-90% as well as you, give it up! Don't spend a dollar’s worth of time on a dime task. Know your areas of brilliance, your leadership responsibilities, and delegate most everything else. However, be sure to delegate, not abdicate or dump. Stay in touch with the person and their progress.
For step three, you must believe that your time is very valuable and learn to discriminate between various activities. Here are a few delegation strategies. Before doing a task, ask, “Does this task lead directly to increased profits, significantly reduced costs, improved customer satisfaction, or to me building a better business”? If it doesn’t, dismiss the task or delegate it. Or ask, “Is this task worth worth AT LEAST $100-$200 per hour?” If not, find someone else internally or externally to do this task at a cheaper rate. You must realize that your leadership thoughts and actions (building systems, leading, planning, holding people accountable, coaching other leaders, etc.) are worth at least $200 per hour. If you don't highly value your time and talents, will never learn to be effective at delegation.
And finally, step four, by all means, get out of the way of your managers and workers. You pay them to do their work, so LET THEM DO THEIR WORK. Don’t meddle on an hourly or even daily basis. Instead of you doing their jobs or micro-managing them, help them to clarify their roles, responsibilities, goals, and tasks and then simply hold them accountable for getting things done and for results. Of course, be sure to monitor your employees’ performance on a regular basis but don’t try to control them. Once they demonstrate competency and character, give your employees even more authority to make things happen. Let them tackle stuff on their own and come to you only when they need further guidance. Instead of micro-managing, manage by results. Without having to do everything yourself, you will grow to love some free time and your business once again.
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