I was having a discussion with my partners at Infiniti Telecommunications today, about when we first started to employ staff, and how the hardest thing I found was learning to deal, justify and live with the whole ‘throwing stones in glass houses’ side of management.
Now, I am the first to admit that historically I am far from being the Michael Phelps of time management, or keeping promises relating to “to-dos”; although that has all started to change:
Nor am I historically the best at a number of things that my team are employed to do (this includes ‘behaviors’, as well as ’skills & tasks’) … and this was my conundrum; “How do I have a go at an employee for not doing something, that I know I don’t do myself”
I had a real issue with this - I can’t *yell* at Suzie for not remembering to do ABC, when I forgot to do ABC when I previously did that task…. How do I deal with Tony for making that mistake, when I often made the same mistake before he was hired to take that task away from me ?
My ‘well-meaning’ mums words of “don’t berate someone for doing something that you do yourself etc etc” kept haunting me. I felt that i was always standing in my ‘entrepreneurial glass boardroom, throwing stones at my team”
But then I realized something… something very obvious, and from the outside (now) looks very basic:
“That’s why they are here… They are employed to do the things I either didn’t have the time to do or didn’t have the skills to execute at the required level“
Most business owners only (consciously) think their employees are there to offer leverage. Leverage in the form of being able to now serve two customers at once. Leverage in the form of being able to have stock being dispatched, while at the same time making the next sales pitch etc etc - Typically, business owners look at employing staff in the same way Tom Hanks did in Multiplicty.
But, when I really got and understood that my staff are their to ” competently fill the gaps”, I was able to *justify* to myself that it’s more then OK for me to sometimes expect more from an employee than myself - especially when it’s relating to a task I openly acknowledged I was not sufficient in and thus hired for.
And, it’s the lesson that; “you hire staff to be better then you” that’s been one of the biggest hurdles I have faced in my entrepreneurial journey.. and it’s such a big hurdle so many entrepreneurs face - The willingness to “let go, acknowledge that you don’t have to be perfect and the ONLY way to grow your business is to hire others and that those people are there to not only do tasks you don’t have time to do, but do the tasks you are not good at.
