Delegation Is A Process Not A Mindset

There comes a point as an entrepreneur where the momentum you can create on your own is not enough. Some of us get there early in our careers. For others, it takes a while. But when you hit that point you realize you're going to need help in order to go forward any faster than you're doing right now. Delegation will change everything for you. But delegation is a process not a mindset.

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 we can bend them, break them, then 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 clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority. The few who are will to hallucinate there could be a better future. And 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.

This week in one of the Facebook groups I'm in a woman made a post about how she's a tax attorney and she's the only person who can do most everything that she does. And she wrote a long description of how she has to make all the decisions and she's the only one who can do things and everything is up to her and there's no way she can delegate or get help because it's too hard. And then she said something like "I guess I just don't have the right mindset for delegation." And my answer back to her was, "Delegation is not a mindset. It's a process." Like once you say hey, I want to delegate it doesn't matter how much you work on your mindset if you don't create the systems and the structure and the process for delegation in your business, and a system that not just allows for delegation where somebody else is doing stuff for you, but co-creation where they're helping you create the actual end result, you're not going to move forward. And it doesn't matter how long you work on your mindset.

It's kind of like saying, "My car's out of gas. I'm going to change my mindset to make it better." No, you have to go put gas in the car. If you're not delegating right now it doesn't how much you work on your mindset you actually have to go through the steps of effective delegation. You have to go through the steps of letting your team know with clear outcomes exactly what you want, clear accountability as to what each person on the team is doing and then clear scoreboards that show you that you're moving forward.

Let's go through this in detail. See, here's one of the biggest challenges with delegation is that most entrepreneurs can't give their team a clear outcome. Or can't give any member of their team a clear outcome. Here's why. Most entrepreneurs are just getting stuff done, especially in smaller businesses. Solopreneur business, typically under $300,000 a year, you're just getting stuff done. You're not, you're just doing actual work. You're not really doing any more than getting projects done and reacting to what's around you. And that's why it's so hard to give clear outcomes because help me get stuff done is not a clear outcome. But in a small business, once you start planning strategically, once you put a strategic planning process in place where you determine where you're going and you create clarity around that forward progress, you build a plan to get there and so you understand what are the measurements and milestones you're going to use to understand if you're moving forward, that's when you can truly delegate.

When you start creating a strategic plan. See here's what happens. Until you have a strategic plan you will always be putting out the fire that just got lit and the problem that just happened. You will always be trying to play catch up, especially when it comes to delegation because until you have a strategic plan where you know where you're going and where you know where the business is going you are physically the biggest bottleneck because if you're the only person that understands where the future of the business is and there's no strategic plan that explains it to everybody, everyone's going to have to communicate with you to find out where you're going. So right there without a strategic plan it's hard to get clear outcomes. You can't delegate. It doesn't matter how much you work on your mindset it's not going to fix it.

The second part of the process of delegation is clear accountability. This is, so every person in your business knows what they're working on. They know what their role in each project is. They know what their role in the business is. And they know what they're responsible for creating.

Now here's one of the problems with delegation is you can't answer how to effective delegate in a quick Facebook post. And the problem in business today, or one of the big problems in business today is that a lot of entrepreneurs are looking for quick fixes. What's the hack? What can I do now? What can I do by the end of the day to fix my delegation problem? Well the reality is, is it's going to take a little bit more than that. As your business matures, as it grows, as you do more business, as you take on more responsibility, it's going to take more process and structure and internal controls and systems so that you can actually grow the business in a predictable way. And have team members contribute in a way that actually moves things forward. It's not just something you can slap in place by the end of the day. There are fixes, but they're not quick fixes because when you have strategic planning and you know where you're going the second part is clear accountability, which means you have a 4R document for each member of the team which spells out their role, responsibility, results and requirements in each position.

You also have a communications cadence where you're working on a strategic plan where people know where you're going for the year, for the quarter, for the month, what the commitments are for the week and what their individual role is, what they have to get done in order to help you and the company move forward.

And then the third part of having delegation is clear scoreboards. Having clear milestones and metrics and understanding what you are measuring to see if you're moving forward. Now if you have clear outcomes where you have a strategic plan and you have clear accountability where each person knows their role in the project, in the business, in their position and you have clear scoreboards where there's perspectives showing people if they're moving forward or not, then delegation gets infinitely easier because with clear outcomes, clear accountability and clear scoreboards most people will win. Most people will drive forward. Most people will do whatever they can to succeed in that situation because here's what we need as human beings to be in momentum. We need a clear outcome. We need to understand our role. And we need a scoreboard to show us if we're moving forward or not.

If you think back through any period of momentum in your entire life I assure you there were three things present. There was a clear outcome. You understood your role. And there was a scoreboard that gave you perspective or some way you were measuring your forward progress. And that is what create momentum in your life. So in your business if you want to delegate in an okay way, make sure you know what you're going to tell people and check with them, check in with them. If you want to delegate in a way that creates momentum for you and for every member of your team, that puts them into the state of momentum. And remember, when we are in momentum as evolutionary hunters that's when we create more. That's when we do more. That's when we learn. That's when we experience those periods of massive forward gain where our entire lives change. That's where we experience those periods of exponential growth in revenue, in learning, in our abilities and capabilities. And when we're in momentum, especially with a team, that's when collectively we create massive gains. We move forward. We understand more. We see more. And we put more out in the world.

So you don't want to just delegate. You want to delegate in a way that creates massive momentum for your team. You want to delegate in a way where everyone buys in at a much higher level. You want to delegate in a way that creates excitement and engagement and puts everyone in forward motion. And so stop thinking of delegation as a mindset issue. Delegation is a process issue. Because here's the issue with mindset, most entrepreneurs just write off delegation and they say things like, "I'm terrible at it. I'm not a good manager. I'm not good at explaining myself. I have trouble getting people to do things. I'm the only person who can do this. If it's going to be done right, I've got to do it myself." And here's what I want you to know about all of those thoughts. Any constraint that you have in the present, any present constraint that you allow creates a future limitation.

So if you're walking around right now saying, "I can't delegate." You're right. If you're walking right now saying, "I'm not a good manager." You just proved it. Then if you're walking around right now saying, "I can't get the help I need." Then you 100% have created a certainty around that. But if you're willing to start looking at the fact that delegation is a process that you can learn and anyone else can learn. And you can step out of the role of trying to be a manager and step into the role of transformational leadership, when you put the right systems in place and the right structure in place and everything in your business and in your ability to get things done will expand. It will grow. It will be more of what it is today and you'll be able to get so much more accomplished. So stop thinking of delegation as a shift in mindset. It isn't.

I mean maybe there's the initial shift in mindset to say okay, I'm going to learn how to delegate. But then it's immediately a shift to understand process, systems and structure that keep people in momentum and allow you to delegate in a way that you are consistently getting everything you want done. You're team is achieving together. They're moving forward. And they're not just accomplishing, but they're crushing your goals. Delegation is a process and once you understand it everything in your business will go faster. Your life will grow faster than it is right now and so will the contribution you're making in the world. It's a process, not a mindset. Make it work for you and everything in your life will change.

If you're ready to start delegating in a much more dynamic way, if you're ready to start seeing the people around grow through co-creating outcomes with you and if you're ready to take the team you have today and get exponentially more production out of the salaries and the expenses you're already paying, reach out to us. Let us help you move forward fast. Go to billionairecode.com/apply. Just our application will teach you more about your business than a lot of the courses you go through today. Just watch. You'll see what I mean. Go to billionairecode.com/apply. Take a few minutes. Fill out the application. You'll end up on a call with me or a member of my team and let us show you where your business is today. Where you want it to go. What's in the way of you getting there. And let us help you build a plan to get there so much faster. And with all the momentum you really know you want. Go to billionairecode.com/apply. We can't wait to talk to you.