For any business owner, giving up control is difficult. Why? Because you fear that by handing responsibilities off to other people, a task won't be delivered as well as when you had control of it. What we leaders often times forget to consider is that when someone is truly eager to learn, they push themselves to learn and to perfect what they learn to the point | where they can accomplish a task equally as well--if not better--than their "teacher". Today, my role of as a student switched to that ofa teacher. I began showing Francisca how to bake by teaching her the importance of measuring cups, the importance of beating the butter and sugar for at least 3 minutes, the importance of sifting the flour and cocoa, the importance of knowing the difference between dry and wet ingredients, and so on. |
I began the day by assuming that she knew nothing about baking, even though she's seen me bake since I was 6. But there's a difference between watching and doing, and as I read in a 99u article, "Your new hire can be the most entrepreneurial self-starter in the world, but if you don’t take the time to teach her the ropes, you put her in a position to fail." The trick is to delegate, but not to abdicate. Give your employee the space to learn independently, allow her to make mistakes, but be |
there to correct them and help her learn from them. Show that you have faith in them and keep in mind that you were a beginner at some point of your life. Trust me, to a certain point it kills me to have to give up the entire baking aspect of my business, and like any owner, I worry about the impact that hiring someone will have on the quality of my product. Nonetheless, if I want to expand, I must delegate | first as it will allow me to get more done and to invest that additional time on the managing, marketing, and accounting of my business. By doing so, I will be able to provide my customers with better service standards and flexibility, I will be able to accept more orders, and I'll develop a business that's production can operate without me necessarily being there. In other words, |
"Hire the best. Pay them fairly. Communicate frequently. Provide challenges and rewards. Believe in them. Get out of their way - they'll knock your socks off."
- Mary Ann Allison in Managing Up, Managing Down