From Owner/Operator to CEO Part 1: Driving Business Growth Through Delegation

[Listen to the podcast version here]

Today’s article is the first in a 5-part series where we’re going to explore some best practices on how you – as a service business owner – can transition from being an owner/operator, involved in the day-to-day operations of your business to the CEO, focusing on strategic growth and improving your own life outside of your business.

This process isn’t easy – you’ve got to do the work to make it happen – but it’s 100% possible if you do.

There’s so much to say about this topic, but I figured I’d start with a heavy hitter – delegation.

You’ve all heard that you need to delegate to free up your time.

And every one of you reading this has made excuses for why you don’t do it, myself included!

So let’s start with the numbers:

According to a study by Harvard Business Review, businesses that prioritize delegation are 33% more likely to outperform competitors.

33%!

Ok, how about this one?

Research from the Small Business Administration (SBA) reveals that companies with effective delegation practices experience 50% higher revenue growth compared to those without.

So, you’re 33% more likely to outperform your competitors and have 50% higher revenue growth.

So why is delegating so hard?

1. Fear of losing control: you might hesitate to delegate because you fear losing control over critical aspects of your business. Maybe you worry that delegated tasks won't be completed to your standards or that decisions made by others may not align with your vision. This might be true, but even if it is, you can put strategies in place to improve it over time.
2. Desire for perfection: as a recovering perfectionist, this one has always been hard for me! Everything has to be just right, and only you are capable of hitting the target, except you’re not! Perfect doesn’t exist, and once you accept that, it’s a lot easier to trust others to do the work. High standards are important, but meeting high standards is also possible and likely with the right tools and training in place!
3. Overestimating how much you can do: how many times have you filled your calendar with meetings and work blocks back-to-back for days on end? How many of those days did you actually get everything done? I’m betting that number’s pretty low! And yet, you keep repeating the same behavior thinking it will be different next time. News flash! You are not super-human! You should not and cannot be the one doing everything!
4. Don’t want to take the time to delegate: I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “I’ll just do it myself, it’s faster that way!” as an excuse to not delegate. Yes, it takes time to develop a procedure and train someone to take over for you, but you’ve got to stop thinking about it as a cost. Delegation is an investment in your business’s future and key to your own growth as CEO!

Here’s where you have to do the deep personal work. I can tell you that these things are getting in your way, but it’s up to you what you do about it. Some people work with a personal coach or a therapist. Some people just power through it on faith until they get it right. How you do it is up to you, but it’s critical that you start the personal work so you can grow into your CEO role and empower your team to achieve your goals.

Remember, you’re 33% more likely to outperform your competitors and have 50% higher revenue growth if you leverage delegation effectively. Why wouldn’t you want to do the work to get these kind of returns?

So, how do you get started?

There’s a concept called the Eisenhower Matrix.

It’s a process where you sort your tasks & responsibilities into 4 categories:

Urgent & Important

These are the things YOU need to do. They have clear deadlines and significant impacts if

they aren’t handled correctly.

Urgent & Not Important

These are the things you DELEGATE. Your EXPERTISE isn’t needed for these, but they do need to be completed.

Not Urgent & Important

These are things that don’t have a deadline yet, but will help you achieve your long-term goals. You SCHEDULE these to do later.

Not Urgent & Not Important

These are things that you should just remove from your list because if they’re neither urgent nor important, they bring no value to you or your organization.

Once you’ve run through this process, it’s easy to set priorities:

• Focus on the Urgent & Important tasks
• Delegate the Urgent & Not Important tasks
• Schedule the Not Urgent & Important tasks
• Happily cross off the Not Urgent & Not Important tasks

So let’s circle back to your list of Urgent & Not Important tasks.

These are the ones that get delegated.

Maybe not today, but your next step is to put your delegation plan together.

Here are 5 questions to get you started:

1. What skills and experience are necessary to complete this task? How much time is needed on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to complete it?
2. Do you have someone on your team already that meets this profile or is similar that you could train right now & has the capacity to take on the task?
3. If you don’t have someone already, is this task something you could outsource or do you need someone internally to do it?
4. Think about the value you’d get if you were able to delegate this task. How much time would you recoup and what could you accomplish with that time? How much would you be willing to pay to get this value?
5. What kind of training and support would the person need to be successful in taking over this task from you? How long would it take to put those things in place?

Don’t skip #5 – it’s probably the most important question to answer. Remember all the reasons why delegating is hard? A common theme is worrying that the task won’t get done the way you wanted it to.  

If you put the effort into creating a solid training program and ongoing support, you’ve built the foundation needed to let this worry go.

Training and support might sound like a lot of work, but it could be as simple as writing a procedure or doing a screen recording of how you want the task done and being available by chat for any ongoing questions or clarifications.

Once you’ve answered all 5 questions for each task or responsibility on your Urgent & Not Important list, you can then prioritize what you want to delegate first and get started!

As you start to delegate, you’ll have more time to focus on strategic growth. Delegation frees you from the 24/7 grind of running your business so you can focus on what YOU are best suited to do and empower others in your business to handle the rest.

This is part of what I teach in my Cash Flow Ignition Methodology.

Most of what I’ve shared today is working on your Decisive CEO Mindset helping you make the shift in how you approach your role as CEO and what you want to accomplish with your business.

Next, we take your vision and priorities and apply them to your current operations using the Cohesive Cash Flow System – through this process, we align your vision and operations to focus on generating predictable cash flow and prepare your business for long term sustainability.

The last piece is your Cultivated Success Blueprint. It’s your personal roadmap to achieving long term sustainability in your business and living your best life. No more sacrificing one for the other, feeling torn between your business and your personal life. The Cultivated Success Blueprint weaves the two together, so you have the tools and resources necessary to enjoy both on your own terms.

If you’d like to learn how the Cash Flow Ignition Method can help you shift from owner/operator to strategic CEO, schedule your Cash Flow Optimization call and let’s chat!