You know that a business can’t grow if the owner doesn’t delegate. The business owner will keep “owning” responsibilities if they don’t successfully transition responsibilities to their team.
After delegation, the next hurdle is decision making. You’ve moved from “How do I delegate more?” to “How can the organization make and successfully implement decisions without me?”
Questions to Ask When Empowering Your Team with Decision-Making
- How many decisions require your input?
- Is someone else capable of making the decision?
- When managers approach you with a problem, are they able to provide you with strong recommendations?
- Do you trust their recommendations?
- Who makes decisions in your absence?
- Do people know what they can decide without you?
- If you were on a deserted island for a week with no means of communication, where would your organization slow down?
Where Does Your Team Depend on You?
If you want your team to own responsibility for your organization, then consider where your team depends on you. This could be…
Decision dependence – do they still depend on you for final decisions?
Issue identification dependence – do they have the skill to see major issues coming?
Leadership dependence – do they feel only you can lead big changes?
Mindset Shift: Increase Your Team’s Capabilities
What is the solution? You can maintain your sanity as you grow by shifting from the idea of delegating tasks to increasing the capabilities of your team.
But don’t worry, you will still have an important role.
You are the visionary and architect. Your role is to empower each leader to look at their business unit or department as its own “small business.” Together, each business unit and department will work together for a common good rather than waiting for direction.
You will move from:
- Problem Solver to Architect
- Manager to Capacity Developer
- Solo Decision Maker to Distributed Decision Making
- Being the Expert to Building Experts
Exercise:
Right now, take out a piece of paper and draw a large circle. Put yourself in the middle.
Now think through each person on your leadership team. Place them on the circle, with the distance closer to the center reflecting if you feel they could run the business or their portion of the business without you. Place them further away depending on how much you trust their decision making. (Check out this post for more on trust and how to build it among your leadership team.)
Now consider your team’s development:
- The closer to the center, the less development they need.
- The closer to the edge of the circle, the more development they will require.
The bottom line:
Your business will continue to increase in complexity as long as it is growing. Having a team of strong decision makers is what it takes to keep your sanity and sustain your growth.
Something New We’re Excited About
We’re excited to announce the launch of BizCoachPro! I have partnered with a group of consultants to offer coaching/training programs designed for companies in the $2M to $50M annual revenue range.
We are offering two programs. The Executive Leader program is designed for CEOs and business owners who want support to hit the next level of growth, and the Emerging Leaders program is designed for your up and coming, high-potential leaders to increase their capabilities. Both programs offer instructor-led courses, practical coaching, and real-world application with a promise of 300% ROI.
Curious about this program? We’d love to connect. Please reach out via email or cell.
