If you’re running a high-growth business, you probably find yourself from time-to-time having more on your plate than you want to, and it’s slowing you down.
If that’s the case with you, I’m going to share a technique to help you fire yourself from some of the things that you don’t want to do, shouldn’t be doing, to free your time up so you can get back on the growth track.
Well, fire yourself from the non-strategic in your business.
I find often that business owners, and particularly founders, still hang on to some of the tasks that they used to do when they started the business, whether it’s sales or some level of service delivery, they’ve always done it, and they enjoy it, but it might be slowing them down.
It’s probably slowing them down because they’re not focusing on the strategic.
There’s only so much time in the day, and we need to make sure that we’re focusing on the things that truly matter in the business, and not doing things that we actually have team members on board to do right?
I’ll give you a three-step process of how to fire yourself:
The number one thing is we want to identify what are the non-strategic things that you’re still engaged in that are slowing you down.
It could be service delivery. It could be doing some sales. Maybe it’s doing some of the estimating.
Which one do I need to get off my plate first?
And it could be the one that’s taking up the most time or the one that’s the least valuable for you to be doing.
The next thing is we want to engage with our teams. This is step number two.
Talk to your team, explain to them what you’re doing. “Hey guys, I need to get this and this and this off my plate. I think this is the number one priority, and I need your help to get this done.”
Maybe you need to adjust some job descriptions or expected outcomes.
Identify who is going to take that off of your plate for you, and get a training plan in place for them. (You can’t just chuck it to them and expect them to run with it.)
Now, the third thing is to make it official.
Draw up a little document to say, “Hey, I’m never doing estimates again. I’ll be there to guide you through them, but I’m not going to do the estimates.” And officially have your team fire you from that role.
And I’m only somewhat kidding here.
I actually had a client recently that was determined to get out of a few different tasks in their business, and their team had a little fun with it at one of their Strategic Planning Days. They drew up a proclamation, and fired their boss from those two or three things that were not strategic, to have a bit of fun with it.
And when you do that little firing, now you’ve got accountability to your team to not do that activity anymore, right?
So, you’re going to print off a little proclamation, sign it off, put it on the wall, and if someone catches you doing the non-strategic work, then they’ve got permission to call you out and say, “Hey, weren’t you fired from that? Go do your real job.”
Anyways, it’s a bit of a fun concept, but it’s an important one because it keeps you from spinning your wheels, and doing things that aren’t value add, and helping the business grow.
If you’re not sure how to get unstuck or determine where you need to be fired in your business, give me a call. Let’s have a chat. I’m always happy to help.
In the meantime, have yourself a fantastic week, and happy getting canned.
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