Let Go And Help
Your Team

Entrepreneurial Personality Type Podcast / Episode 102 / LET GO AND HELP YOUR TEAM

I'm Alex Charfen, and this is the Momentum Podcast, made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off, and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy, and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, and rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny. We define it. We don't understand defeat, because you only lose if you stop, and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average, and cling desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there can be a better future. Instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world, because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive, human evolution, and we always will be.

Let go, and help your team. These days, I have the privilege, the opportunity, just the incredible day to day life of working with some of the most progressive and incredible entrepreneurs in the world. Growing businesses, making a massive impact, growing teams, growing movements that are changing the world. One of those entrepreneurs is Natalie Hodson. If you haven't checked her out yet, go to nataliehodson.com. Her last name is spelled H-O-D-S-O-N.

Just watch the video on the first page. The way that she presents herself, the vulnerability she allows herself to share, the situations she shares with women, and what she's been through, and normalizing the female experience of having kids, and having pelvic floor issues, and having challenges that come from having kids. Natalie even recorded a video where she was exercising, and she was wearing gray pants, and wet her pants, and let the video keep going, to show women that this is what happens sometimes when you have a baby.

I don't know. Natalie's one of my heroes. I think she's just amazing. She's so willing to share, and tell people what's going on. The reason I bring her up ... Not to tell people what's going on. She's so willing to share her real life experience, and help women be comfortable with their vulnerability. The reason I bring her up is because she inspired this podcast.

A few weeks ago, we were on a call, one of our coaching calls in our group, and we were all talking, and Natalie said, "Well, when something comes up on my team, I have this tendency to say, 'I got it,' and I'll make it happen." I said, "Okay, so Natalie, tell me about that." She said, "Well, you know, I know a lot of what's going on in the company. I know if something's happening. When somebody asks for help, or says that they need something, the easiest thing for me to do is say, 'I got it.'"

I said, "Okay, Natalie. I want you to think about this in a different way from this point forward. From now on, I want you to think that every time you say, 'I got it,' you are hurting your team." Natalie is such a conscientious, caring, incredible human being that even though we were on a video conference, I could kind of see the blood drain out of her face. She was like, "Oh. That really hurt."

I said, "Natalie, it was kind of meant to, because every time you say, 'I got it,' you take away the opportunity for somebody on your team to get it, and make things happen. The more you take on, the slower your team grows." She got it. She understood. I could tell it hit her, because ... And this is why I shared that with her, because I know if I had just said, "Hey, Natalie, you should stop trying to do that," she'd keep doing it. She's so conscientious, and so caring that she would. But as soon as I let her know it was hurting her team, she would shift.

I want you to know that unless you let go, and stop getting everything, and stop making everything happen, you are hurting your team. Here's the challenge. Successfully growing a business requires an entrepreneur to do everything. If you've figured out a different way to do it, let me know, because I've started dozens of businesses, and at the very beginning, when you're figuring things out, when you're working out the business model, and understanding what you're going to do, you have to do everything. There's nobody else there. You can't delegate to anybody but you.

So to be successful in starting a business, you do everything. Here's the challenge. Successfully starting a business conditions us, as entrepreneurs, to do everything, so we have a hard time letting go, and letting our team grow. Here's why that's so important. The faster, as an entrepreneur, that you allow your team to fill in, the faster, as an entrepreneur, you allow your team to build processes, the faster, as an entrepreneur, you allow the team to figure things out, the faster your business will grow.

Now, I want you to know I understand something. You can probably do it faster than them, better than them, with less mistakes than them, but you can't do everything. So, sooner or later, you have to make the decision that you are going to let go, and let your team start creating outcomes. Once you make that decision, not only is it liberating for you, it's liberating for your team, because when you get out of the way, and give them the space to succeed, they will. When you get out of the way, and give them the space to create outcomes, they will. When you get out of the way, and let them be responsible, they will.

Because if you want someone to be responsible, you must give them responsibility. You must put them in a place where they can make things happen. If you're constantly filling in, and doing it for them, your team never will. The fastest way for us to grow an organization, to grow a team, to grow our business, and to grow the outcomes that we have, once we have a team, is to allow them to step in and start lowering pressure and noise for you, and making things easier for you.

This is one of the hardest habits to break, as an entrepreneur. I have it as well. We all do. When we hear something that we know we're capable of, when we hear something that we know we could do faster than the next person, when something comes up that we know we could just knock out, it is so easy to raise our hands, volunteer, make it happen, and then go on to the next thing.

Here's why that hurts you, your company, your clients, and your future. As the entrepreneur in charge, as the person who's creating the vision, creating the outcomes, creating the forward momentum in this organization, if you're constantly doing, you don't have time to think about the next iteration. You don't have time to create the new outcomes. You don't have time to see the market opportunities that are around you.

Every time you're willing to let go, and let your team step in, and let them step up, and actually have responsibility, you are actively building the infrastructure of the company that's going to help you make the contribution you know you're capable of.

This is a hard transition to make as an entrepreneur, because until you start hiring people, you must condition yourself to get things done, to make things happen, to do things. In fact, isn't that the early content that all of us here, isn't that the base level personal development content? What's base level, foundational, personal development content? It's hustle, and motivation, and getting things done, and getting out of bed on time, and making it happen, and doing more, and getting more done, and being more effective, more efficient.

All of those things still hold true, but now you just have to apply them to a different set of activities. Rather than doing tactical work all day, you hustle, and you work hard, and you do all those things to do more strategic work, to elevate what you do on a daily basis. Rather than pushing yourself every day to make sure you get every last thing done, you push yourself every day to make sure your team is growing, that they're taken care of, that they feel protected, that they feel safe in your organization. Rather than the motivation to make things happen on your own, you take that motivation and you apply it to your team, to help the entire group, the entire organization grow.

The key is that you have to learn how to let go, how to step out of the way, and how to let people step up, because the most frustrating thing for team members is working in a company where the entrepreneur constantly inserts themselves, does too much, and doesn't allow them to thrive. If you're lucky enough to hire people who care, and who want to succeed, and who want to work with you, and who want to make greater outcomes in the world, then don't hold them back by getting in their way.

It's okay if they go a little slower than you right now. It's okay if they don't do it as perfectly as you do. It's okay if they don't do it exactly your way. You're going to coach success along the way, let them learn, let them grow, and let them show you what they can do.

Here's my promise to you. If you are willing to let go, not only will your team step up, and start going things that you didn't even know they could, in no time at all, you will find that there are people on your team that are far better at what they do than you are at what they do. You will start finding that you can bring people into your organization that have capability and capacity you've never had, and it will dynamically change the way your company grows.

When you're willing to let go to the point where you don't have to know everything that everybody's doing, but you understand the outcomes they're creating, you will create a dynamic team, and a culture of performance that will grow over time, and make a massive contribution in the world.

So in the next few weeks, as you interface with your team, as you talk to the people around you, as you decide what you're going to get done, I want you to develop a new instinct. Each time you think about volunteering to do something, each time you think about taking something off of the table, each time you're about to say, "I got it," I want you to remember, "I got it," hurts your team, and when you let go, you let them grow.

The next time you have that urge, instead of saying, "I got it," I want you to ask, "Who can do this? Who can make this happens? Who's capable of doing this? Who has the time?" and then coach that person's success along the way, because the more you coach the people around you to do what you previously have done well, the faster you grow that solidified team around you that will get you into the multiple seven figures and beyond. The faster you become a transformational leader that can lead a larger organization, and the faster you become someone who isn't limited by their own skills and productivity, but is only limited by your dreams, and your ability to attract the right people.

A lot's said these days about some of the more incredible entrepreneurs in the world, but you can't find a single one of them for me that is doing tactical work on a daily basis. The guys who are running Google, they aren't saying, "I got it," to their team. Elon Musk isn't walking into the factory and saying, "Hand me a wrench." When we look at the people who are making things happen, who are literally changing the world, Sara Blakely isn't going in and putting Spanx into the boxes. She's making sure that they're shipped around the world to the hundreds of thousands ... no, I guess it's millions of women who use her products. But she certainly isn't doing the work herself.

If you want to ascend into the next level of entrepreneurship from where you are today, if you want to get beyond just building that initial team, and start building a team with leadership teams who have teams themselves, if you want to build a contribution that's greater than what you have right now, and maybe greater than what you've ever dreamed of, it's counterintuitive, but if you want them to grow, you must let go, because successfully starting a business conditions us to do everything.

Which is okay, but you get to the point where you have a team, and you have leverage, and now it's time to stop, because what got you here will shred you moving forward. It won't just hurt you, it won't just stop you, it will shred you. It will eviscerate you. It will lacerate you. It will hurt you. I know I'm getting a little over the top here, but here's why I say this. I've watched it. I've watched far too many entrepreneurs start to build a fledgling team, get some people around them growing some stuff, start getting into bigger numbers, maybe get into seven figures, get excited about it, but then keep the behaviors and the habits they had when they were a tiny little company.

Almost immediately, you can watch as what should be a multiple million dollar company starts having challenges, personality conflicts, issues with people, blame starts getting thrown around, responsibility is jettisoned. I can't tell you how often an entrepreneur with a million dollar plus company walks in one day, gets rid of everyone, and goes back to doing it themselves. There is a better way. When you let go, you let your team grow. When you let go, you help your team.

If you're an entrepreneur who's growing a team, we should talk. I can help you grow your team faster than just about anybody else out there can. If you want to put a solidified organization around you that's going to help get your business to the next level so that you can make the impact and grow the outcomes that you know you're capable of, get in touch with us. We have a mastermind of business owners, entrepreneurs, just like you and I, who are growing multimillion dollar companies, making incredible outcomes in the world. I would say changing the world in so many ways.

Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the privilege I have to coach these companies as they go out and make things happen. One of them might be you. Let us know if you're interested. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for being a Momentum Podcast listener.