When you’re the owner of a small or medium-sized business, you’re often also the accountant, HR person, marketing director and office manager! I’ve worked with so many business owners who struggle with the same problem: there’s not enough of them to go around and you are having to do things that you really have no business messing with!
It’s admirable that you roll up your sleeves and get into the trenches, so to speak. But by being the COE (chief of everything) rather than the CEO (chief executive officer), you’re actually selling yourself short and preventing your business from growing.
By spreading yourself too thin and running around to meetings all day, you’re not focused on the bigger picture. By checking on something in the warehouse or running errands for the business, you’re neglecting other tasks that could better improve productivity and profitability.
As a small business owner myself, I totally understand this challenge. So I’ve compiled some tips on how to let go of your COE position and step into a rewarding CEO role where you can really shine!
Align your efforts.
Before you start making changes, take a step back. Assess where you are today. Ask yourself where you want to be a year from now.
Once you’ve done that, it’s easier to break down goals into quarterly, monthly and weekly segments. Now, you might have a long list of goals, and it’s great to have ambition. But narrow it down to your top three specific, quantifiable initiatives, and allot 80% of your time and resources to those. What gets measured, gets done.
For example, let’s say one of your goals is to send a certain number of proposals each week and follow up with X number of clients in order to meet your goal. How many hours a week will you need to devote to that goal for a successful outcome? If you miss a day, you need to make it up!
Take a look at how you spend your workday. This will allow you to determine where your time is best spent, and how much support you’ll need from employees to make things happen. Which leads me to my next point…
Learn to delegate.
It’s so tempting to do everything yourself. You know it will be done right, you don’t have to explain a bunch of steps and you don’t have to pay someone else to do it! But if you want your business to grow, it’s time to shift your efforts from doing to leading. I love how Harvard Business Review puts it in their article on learning to delegate:
“The upper limit of what’s possible will increase only with each collaborator you empower to contribute their best work to your shared priorities. Likewise, your power decreases with every initiative you unnecessarily hold on to.”
That’s so true! Trust your people, support them and offer them valuable training opportunities. You’ll be amazed what you can accomplish with the right team.
Work with a leadership coach.
A professional leadership coach can see your blind spots, because they have already reached the level of success you’re striving for. A leadership coach can also prevent you from wasting valuable time, effort and resources. This is because they have been there – done that already and will help you navigate through new terrain.
One of the first steps I take with new clients is to do a complete business and leadership evaluation. Once I understand your present situation and where you want to go, I put together a plan to close the gap.
I’ve learned that focusing on your strengths as a leader and business owner is much more important than trying to “fix” your weaknesses. There are people you can add to your team, either as employees, contractors or consultants – who possess the strengths needed to create a successful business and enjoy the life you’ve dreamed of.
I have several tools in my toolbox to assess your natural versus conditioned behaviors, permanently remove the old programming you’ve been carrying around for years; and update your mindset to support the person you are today as opposed to the child that accepted the stories of others.
They are powerful, safe and simple techniques for uncovering conditioned behaviors and permanently transforming old ineffective programming to beneficial ones and for rapidly removing blocks to success.
As a result, you’ll be able to be the best version of yourself and focus on things that you’re naturally wired for, and hire people who:
1) Are better at some things than you are or that you have no business doing
2) Have the right skills, behaviors, motivation and attitude to build a rock-solid team
Find out more about some of the assessment tools I use.
I know how hard it is to try and juggle it all! From long-term planning to day-to-day responsibilities, you’re busy. However, by being too busy, you could actually be hurting your business because you aren’t focusing on the right things.
By prioritizing your goals, delegating certain things and working with a leadership coach, you can truly create a successful business that will stand the test of time. Let’s start today! Learn more about my leadership coaching services.
Business Leadership, Business Management, Personal Development