The Disappearing Boss
I write about how to empower your teams with customer centred processes, so you can build your unique and amazing businesses into a system that runs smoothly - even when you’re not there. If you want a business that grows with less stress, delivers consistently great customer experiences, and gives you the freedom to rest, recharge, or scale — you're in the right place.
If you want to take a longer break, you need to delegate moreHey there, Have you been able to take a week off from your business? Have you been able to repeat that since? Could you now take a month or so off without any misgivings about what might happen while you're away? If the answer's 'yes!', brilliant. If not, do please tell me why. Because in the next few newsletters I want to look at what processes you need to hand over in order to be able to get away for at least a month, and I'd love you to tell me what they are for you. I have some ideas of course, based on my experience. 3 things that stop most small business employers from taking a month off:1) There is some part of managing the business (What I call 'Improve Process') that only they can do.That's why, in the last few newsletters, we've worked through:
And covered some approaches you can take to help make sure things will run smoothly while you're away:
2) There is some part of bringing in business (what I call 'Share Promise') that only they can do.That's why we looked at
3) There is some part of delivering the service (what I call 'Keep Promise') that only they can do.That's why we looked at:
If you've got all of these nailed, and you're still unable to take a month off, without phone calls, emails or texts, what else would you need to hand over to your team? The answer to that is probably 'a lot', so I've put together a simple tool, an ACTIVITY DELEGATION PRIORITISER (TEMPLATE) you can use to decide which activities to delegate first. This spreadsheet has 4 tabs, one for each of the main activities in your business system: Share Promise, Keep Promise, Improve Process and Package Promise. To be honest, that last one is unlikely to be where the problem is right now, but I've included it for completeness. Now, imagine you want to take a month off to visit a faraway location with your family. What's stopping you doing it tomorrow? Here's how to use that tool to narrow down that 'a lot' into something actionable: Step 1) Identify where the ball and chain keeping you tied to your business is located:Is it in 'Share Promise' - everything you do between someone finding out about you and signing them up to work with you, plus everything you do to help them find you? Is it in 'Keep Promise' - everything you do between welcoming a new client on board and wishing them farewell? Is it in 'Improve Process' - everything you do to make sure Share Promise, Keep Promise, and Package Promise work smoothly? Is it in 'Package Promise' - everything you do to create a new Product or Service that fulfills your Promise in a way that that people serve need now? Is it on more than one of these? Just pick one to work on first. Step 2) Within that high-level area, identify the activities only you can currently do.I've restricted the list to 7 because I want you to keep these activities high-level. For example: 'set up client', 'hold progress review', 'request payment' rather than 'add client to quickbooks', 'book meeting room' or 'create invoice'. But if you need to go to a lower level of detail, do. That might even be a good sign that you've already handed over most of the process. Once you've got your activity list, we're going to work through columns 2, 3, and 4: PriorityPrioritise each activity in terms of it's importance to the business. 1 is most important, 7 is least important. 'Can I Schedule?'Now, take each activity in priority order and ask yourself: Could I simply re-schedule the next one, two or few occurrences around a holiday? The idea here is to reduce your list of Activities down to just those you really must delegate in order to take one month off. Perhaps a client is also planning to be away, so would be happy to re-organise a progress meeting? Or maybe you could get all expected new clients set up before you leave? Or maybe you could fill your pipeline with enough prospects to keep your team busy while you're away? Answer Yes or No, in the 'Can I Schedule?' column. If you are able re-schedule, remember to put these activities into your calendar so they can be protected by your calendar app if you have one. 'Can I Delegate?'For the activities you're left with, still in priority order, think about who else in your team could do it. Ask yourself: Who do I normally pass the baton to in the overall process? Who do I normally take the baton from? People in either of these roles are good candidates for delegatees. 'Who to?'Put in the names of one or more team members you've identified. Ideally, at least 2. Leave the last three columns blank. Step 3) Repeat Step 2 for any other tabs you identified in Step 1.If you'd like a sounding board for your deliberations, book a quick chat to talk through any of this. By the time you've completed this you should either have a fairly short list of activities you absolutely need to delegate now, plus an idea of who you can delegate them to. Or you'll have a list of activities you can shuffle around in your schedule to create space for that month off. Next time I'll take you through a generic process for capturing a process, so you can action that short list. Till then, do please tell me if there are any processes you'd like me to cover next to help you get away for a longer break. Thanks for reading! PS
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The Disappearing Boss
I write about how to empower your teams with customer centred processes, so you can build your unique and amazing businesses into a system that runs smoothly - even when you’re not there. If you want a business that grows with less stress, delivers consistently great customer experiences, and gives you the freedom to rest, recharge, or scale — you're in the right place.