Fire Yourself
By Drue Lawlor, FASID
Director of Coaching at Gail Doby Coaching & Consulting
Photo Credit-@bakerbroductions
Are you the CEO of your business, or do you just “work for yourself.” You definitely work for yourself if you are trying to do everything yourself. You need to face the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day and that one of the most difficult challenges of owning a business is giving up control. If you want to build a successful business then you need to focus on becoming the CEO of your business – and the first thing you need to do is to fire yourself!
Ask yourself if you are choosing to be proactive and spend time on the most important things in your business or are you constantly reacting to a million different things that pop up that you could be working on.
As the business grows, another question to ask yourself is if some tasks have grown enough that someone else should be hired to take them over. Think about what would happen if you hired someone to do that task full time, then find someone who can do it better than you – and trust them and release it to them.
To make firing yourself a little easier, let’s look at 4 benefits.
1.Increased productivity. Imagine what you could accomplish by delegating and thereby multiplying what can be accomplished. The more time you spend on tasks that you do not enjoy and/or do not do as well as someone else, the less time you can spend as the CEO. The best business leaders quickly stop doing all the things they’re expert at when they can use that time more effectively and pay another expert to do those things for less. The CEO who strategizes, focuses on important decisions to move the business forward and builds a successful team.
2.Reduced stress. Even if you can do certain tasks well, if you don’t enjoy doing them then they are hanging over you and it negatively affects your enthusiasm and stress level. By delegating you could be able to actually have your weekends back and spend more time with friends and family.
3.Clearer understanding of your business because you actually have time to sit back and look at the big picture so you don’t miss great opportunities as well as imminent crises.
4.Happier more engaged team. Rather than micromanaging, which has a negative effect, you are giving them the opportunity for more responsibility which can lead to career growth – they feel part of a team of trusted business partners working to make the firm successful and with the ability to share in that success.
So once you have fired and replaced yourself, it’s time to celebrate! Celebrate the opportunity to be able to do even greater things than you have done in the past – along with the great team you’ve brought onboard.
