"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar."
- Raymond Lindquist
What are your challenges as a leader and a business professional? One of my biggest is LETTING GO. By Letting Go, I am speaking about putting trust and confidence into someone else to take a direct role in managing your success, you clients and your future.
To improve, we should understand why are people hesitant to "let go?" Primarily, it is due to the belief that no one can do it as well as you. Additionally, it is a belief that YOU are the value of the whole system (ie it only works because you are in it). Also, some people believe that they cannot manage it if they are not touching it every day!
Whew! Sounds like a life stuck to a computer, iPhone, tablet, laptop, pager, smoke signal, driving in your car taking calls, returning voicemails while sending people to voicemail to call them back after you email the other guy that you just hung up with while six new emails came in.
Holy crap - kill me!
2 DEGREE SUCCESS STEP: This is another situation where I am not the best, but I am working on it...and working in it! I have recently hired an assistant. Additionally, I am looking to better systems/processes to make sure that I am able to continue a HIGH level of service and client contact. Oh yeah, it sucks - but its necessary!!
Here are some great ways to start LETTING GO in a manageable way:
1. Don't Wait For Responsibility to Be Taken: Many CEOs mention their frustration that staff members don't ask for more responsibility. Most staffers don't do this, because they're looking for a signal from you–the leader–that you think they're up to it. So don't wait for responsibility to be taken. Instead, distribute it.
2. Ban "I'll Just Do It Myself": When we start to delegate, we often find the work isn't up to our standards. If we take a sub-part assignment back and re-work it, we've missed an important learning opportunity, for both the staffer and the leader. So fight the urge to do the work yourself, and instead invest that time in coaching the pro into how they can turn their first draft into a piece of work that does the job.
3. Focus on the "What," Not the "How.": Real development can only occur when the staffer has true ownership of an assignment. So fight the urge to show them how to complete the assignment. Instead, articulate your vision of what the end result must be, and let them determine how to get there. You'll not only be encouraging enhanced assignment ownership, but laying the foundation for the employee to contribute on a higher level going forward.
4. Go For Completion, Not Perfection: Of course, I mean effective, quality completion. Perfection is simply an excuse to not allow someone else to own a project or an account. Accept that the person to whom you've delegated the assignment won't do the job "as good as I would." But remember that in the big picture, their "Very Good" job is actually better than your "Excellent" job, because it allows you to do you real job of creating the long-term agency strategy and growing the business.
5. Observe How They Do It Better Than You: One of the benefits of delegating–a project, an account, a group–is that the person to whom you've delegated to will bring a new set of eyes, skills and experience. While they might not do it as you would do it, they'll most likely improve it in some way. Be on the lookout for this. It will make you feel comfortable delegating even more to that staffer, and may open your eyes to other assignments in which they'll be particularly successful and bring even greater value to the agency and its clients.
Full article available at: http://kensviews.com/agency-management/letting-go-is-hard-to-do/
Cheers,
Zach
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