Don't Let Responsibilities Swim Upstream!
Scaling up entails picking apart your process and delegating parts of it to specialized professionals. As a dedicated founder, you now may become prone to falling in the ‘reverse delegation’ gap. In other words, you distribute tasks and roles, but through a variety of reasons, these tasks or parts of them come back to you.
Daniel Marcos of the Growth Institute writes: ‘The truth is, if you don't invest in educating and training your team – along with yourself – you will end up with massive pushback, and a lack of understanding of the new models you are learning and implementing.’
The interjection is crucial here. YOU may be the one who needs the most training. You may be a perfectionist, may not trust other fully with their new responsibilities, or may simply be a can-do guy or gal, who willingly puts his/her shoulders under tasks that are no longer theirs. And then there are the sneaky types who, through skillful communication, try to make you accountable for their issues.
To help yourself with this increased burden, below are a few practical questions you can use (c/o Dan Rockwell), to make yourself and your team more aware of the delineations of responsibility:
1 - “What’s the next step you can take?” (Use “you,” not “we.”)
2 - “I want this to be a team effort. What contribution can you make?”
3 - “I think you misunderstood my question. I wasn’t thinking about something I should do. I was wondering how you might run with it.”
4 - “Which of your strengths might apply to this opportunity?”
5 - “What comes to mind when you think of taking this responsibility?”
6 - “I know it’s *easier* for me to do it. But it’s *better* for you to do it.”