In my first proper entrepreneurial attempt, I started by designing all systems around me.
After all, in the beginning, we are the secret sauce… or? 😉
I felt it was my idea so I thought I must make all the decisions.
To make those decisions, I needed information.
And to get the information, I concluded I must be involved in everything.
You can see where this is going…
So as the team comes in, and the work starts, the struggle begins immediately.
At the time, I had no clue.
Later I understood the relationship between Authority and Responsibility.
The 2 Essential Elements For Effective Delegation
To delegate effectively, among many things, there are 2 key elements.
People need to have the responsibility of making sure the process succeeds. And they need to have the authority to make decisions without getting punished for them.
People need to have the responsibility of making sure the process succeeds. And they need to have the authority to make decisions without getting punished for them. Click To TweetThe mistake people often make is that they make the person responsible, but fail to give them the authority.
That was my mistake.
I made them responsible but then didn’t trust them enough to give them the authority to make decisions.
Not that they were incapable. They were fully capable.
I just didn’t know how to let go of control.
And so from the start, their hands were tied.
Eventually, this frustration turned into resentment.
And from there, there is no turning back.
So how did I manage to make it work?
I didn’t manage.
It went so bad that it took me about a year to build the confidence to try it again.
How did it go the second time?
We manage to grow to 6 figures.
Building A Team
If you are about to hire or are starting out to build your team, always ask yourself.
Am I giving them both Responsibility and Authority?
Giving away responsibility is easy. The hard part is the authority.
So to make it easier, you can set parameters that are slightly beyond your comfort zone. See how they perform and go from there.
You don’t need to give the keys to the business from the start.
What matters, in the end, is that they feel trusted.
That they feel capable, and that both you and themselves see their growth.
It turns out that we, as entrepreneurs, are at the same time the biggest bottleneck in our businesses.
When I first read that in one of Michael Gerber’s books, it didn’t make much sense.
Today I see it everywhere.
If you want to build a long-lasting, sustainable business, you need constantly work to take yourself out of it.
And the best way to do it is by allowing people to make decisions on your behalf.
If you have done proper recruitment and you have given them a framework on how to make decisions, your life will become very simple.
The team will appreciate your trust and can be sure they’ll strive to perform the best they can.
There is nothing better than having a team member tell you about a challenge they had, and how they solved it without you ever having to get involved.
When that happens, things move faster.
Nobody needs to wait on you to get a picture of what is happening to make a decision on something you are not dealing with.
It’s just so much more efficient.
What’s Hard About Building A Team
Now, I know it’s hard to internalize all this.
That’s why I showed you how you can take baby steps earlier.
My biggest struggle as I was building a team was that I felt this was “my business. It’s my face out there. My name.
I’m the one going around making promises to clients.
But if you think about it.
That’s exactly why you need to be able to give authority.
People will behave according to how you treat them.
If you treat teenagers like children, they will behave like children.
If I don’t show trust in my team, why should they behave like they can be trusted to deliver?
It seems counterintuitive at first, but if you are to grow a scalable business that can run without you, you need to learn to trust.
So as you start building a team, give it a try.
Authority and Responsibility.
They go hand in hand.
Best,
Juan “Authority Giver” Guerra