How to delegate when you’re a control freak (written by a recovering control freak)
If you’re like most online business owners, your business started with just you.
You doing the writing and you creating the graphics.
…. setting up your marketing strategy…
… figuring out how to create a Facebook ads campaign…
… and managing your social media accounts.
You acting as customer service and bookkeeper and tech support.
And this could have gone on for years, with you doing everything.
Eventually, this shifts. You make enough consistent revenue or get enough clients to hire some help. And you now have a team.
But does that mean you’re actually allowing people to help you as much as they can once you build your team?
In my experience... No.
When I first started managing online course launches, I had a team of 10 to delegate to. Every capacity filled: Admin, customer service, copywriter, graphic designers, community manager, tech support…
With a team this size, and with everyone in their niche role, you would think it would be easy to delegate. But in the middle of a launch, in the middle of all the chaos and last minute changes, and even in the months during planning in the pre-launch phase…
I would tell myself things that I later realized were extremely common among multi-talented online entrepreneurs:
“I can do it better myself.”
“It would take me less time to do it myself than to teach someone how to do it... so I’ll just do it.”
(These are lies that were holding me back, by the way)
Usually there are areas so outside of your expertise as a business owner that you can easily delegate them. Maybe the tech and graphics aren’t your strong suit so you delegate those every 👏 single 👏 time 👏. But there are usually 1 to 2 areas that you’re pretty good at, maybe even great at, that you’re putting off delegating to other people because of the learning curve or impatience.
I’m here today to tell you that: THIS IS HOLDING YOU BACK!
“Amazing things happen when you start focusing primarily on what you do best and eliminate or delegate the rest.” - Michael Hyatt
As humans, there are a lot of things we’ll do to procrastinate on the hard or uncomfortable stuff. We’ll avoid things that could take us to the next level and free up our time, because we don’t want to do them ourselves, and we’re too afraid to let someone else do them...
(And I know it can be hard to let go of all the extra work when your self-worth is attached to being busy or a hard worker or a hustler. But reminder: you’re worthy because you’re alive.)
Maybe you think I’m going too much into this. But understanding why you’re not delegating certain tasks, or why you’re choosing to do everything yourself, is important.
This is the difference between you being an employee of your business, and you being the badass powerful CEO your business.
You need to know that, yes, your employees won’t be able to do certain things as well as you can in the beginning. It will take them longer to do it. It’ll take time to teach them how to do it. And it will take you time to correct them and fix errors.
But the time you put into delegating and teaching is not wasted. It’s an investment.
An investment in a future where your team supports you and is even better at tasks than you are.
Can you believe in that potential?
Each time you teach a member of your team to do something you usually do yourself, you’re buying future time. You’re buying time for yourself when you don’t have to do that thing anymore. Buying time to do you things that only you can do, things that will up level your business.
Like...
Creating the vision, connecting with the soul of your business, opening up potentials & portals of expansion...
...while your team nails your brand voice and ensures your business runs smoothly.
Does delegating seem more like it’s worth it now?
Good. Now, let’s get on to how we actually do it.
So how do you actually delegate?
1. First you have to commit to it.
Every time a task comes up that’s not in your zone of genius, commit to delegating it. Even when you don’t feel like it.
Start with those super common repetitive tasks that you don’t like doing. This will free up your time and energy to delegate more of your business, and it will free up more and more of your time for more important things - whether that’s a time for your business, travel, or just playing with your tarot deck.
2. Write out or record instructions.
Create step-by-step instructions that are documented and can be referred to again and again. This can be in a Google Doc, this can be with Loom — any tool you want to use that will physically document how you do it.
Don’t assume your team knows anything. Include links, passwords, examples, templates. These will become your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
The future phase of this will be making these so detailed that someone off the street could do what you want just by reading your directions. This may sound stupid or unnecessary, but you’re setting your business up to run without you. AKA, it will give you the freedom you dreamed of when you started your business in the first place.
3. Give deadlines.
For smaller tasks, this is a simple due date. For more complicated tasks this may be deadlines for different versions of drafts or different phases of a project.
4. Define your desired result.
If your team doesn’t know what success looks like then they won’t be able to give you what you want. Define your key outcomes and make your desired result clear.
5. Check in before the deadline.
Don’t just set a deadline and assume that your team will hit it.
Especially in the beginning: remind remind remind. Send an email or Voxer a few days beforehand asking the status of a project and if they think they’ll get it done in time.
This will help ensure everyone is on the same page.
6. Be open and available for questions.
Especially when you’re getting started with delegating, you probably aren’t explaining things as clearly and step-by-step as your team needs. That means you actually have to be easy to get a hold of to answer questions.
Remember, your team is there to support you, and they want to support you. So you need to set them up for success by answering the questions that they have.
7. Actually give feedback.
If they do it wrong, don’t just redo it yourself. Even though you’ll be very very tempted to do this.
Give feedback on how you’d actually like it to be. This is an important step of the process, not just for your team but also for you to learn how to delegate better. Because if you delegated it perfectly the first time, they’d have already done it perfectly 😜
Learning these methods of delegating will help you take your business to the next level.
Of course, a key component to all of this is that you need to be open to being supported. Your team needs to have the opportunity, time, and space to get the job done.
You’ll be tempted to disappear into your office alone and get everything done yourself. Don’t do it!
Be open to having the support of your team. If you find that you have a lot of inner push-back against the idea of other people “doing your job” or assisting you, take time to meditate on and think deeply about why that is. And then change it. Your business will thank you & all of the additional people you can serve by being able to SCALE your business will thank you too.
Delegating is a choice, and it will get easier once you begin to consistently choose to do it. At first it might feel like an upward climb for you and your time, with all the new SOPs and documents you have to get together, but in the long run it will transform your business for the better.
After all, when it’s time to scale your business, having these instructions ready to go will make your life much easier.
With enough practice, your team will know exactly what you want. And they’ll begin to consistently give that to you.
Looking for someone to help manage your team and marketing?
At Lumen Digital Marketing, we have almost a decade of experience building successful remote teams that make online programs a success.
So if you’re looking for help with marketing, online course management, or advice on hiring the right team, we’ve got you covered.
Find out how we can help you grow and scale your business, so that you can spend more time in your zone of genius.