Stop Doing Everything Yourself in Business! December 17, 2006
Posted by Christine in Business, marketing.trackback
As Anthony Davis says in his “E-tip No. 67 Why do everything yourself?” , really…. Why do you do everything yourself? In many small businesses there is simply a cash flow problem, but even in large corporations there are trends where some members of a team pick up all the responsibility for a job and are the first to be home with serious burn-out.
Remember when you were in college and you were assigned to do a project with five other students? Didn’t only two or maybe even three of you do all the work while the rest sat back and enjoyed the good grade you received? All too often it is the same in business, but not always are unproductive employees called on it. After all, we think we can do it faster/better/different anyways, so why bother asking someone repeatedly to do something? You should ask because you want to stay sane, and if you are running around doing other people’s job you cannot do it faster/better/different.
Give your employee the resources and trust that he or she can do the job. If you don’t trust them with it, why should they bother?
Create an environment where your employees are accountable, and trusted. Then, if a project stalls they will not hesitate to come to you for advice. At which point you could decide the project needs additional expert input and you can hire an impartial outsider. Benefits are that you pay for what you get, and the expert may get the job done better, faster.
Time is money, put both to good use!
Hi Christine
And the time value of money is important. Just sit in a meeting and work out how much it’s costing for a bunch of people to sit there deciding to getting round to making a decision. The rule of thumb is 2p/minute per £1000 of salary including on costs and support (admin etc). So someone on £40k/year is costing the organisation around £50/hr – with 10 people in a meeting that’s £500/hour! It soon adds up!
So giving team members the trust and resources – or bringing someone in from outside the organisation to do the job can add serious value, particularly if they leave the staff much more resourceful and capable in the future.
Anthony
Thanks Anthony,
I completely agree with you, hence the post. In fact, many companies who are not eager to outsource change their mind after they see the positive influence I, as an “outsider”, can bring to their creative team. Bringing in someone new, temporarily, introduces fresh thinking, new perspectives and a new avenue for projects that were going in circles before, or just not achieving the results they were “supposed to”.
Hi Christine
You’ve prompted me to post something I do with my business coaching clients – calculating the value of themselves to help them decide when to do something they love and are brilliant at and when to get someone else for the stuff they dislike doing or are less than brilliant at. It’s at: http://anthonydavis.wordpress.com/2006/12/18/e-tip-68-how-do-you-value-you/
Generally, it costs a business owner 3 times their hourly worth to do something they dislike (plus the angst of putting it off!) than getting someone else who loves doing that.
Great site by the way.
Anthony