At some time, maybe it was yesterday or maybe it was a month ago many of you have had that moment of absolute sheer terror when you believed that you had lost complete control of some particular area in your life. As a self proclaimed control freak this is a daily occurrence in my life, and one I work very hard at to, ironically enough, control.
I work with clients on a daily basis where I have to ask the same two questions to them that I ask myself:
“Can someone else do this for you”?
“Can you live with the fact that it may not happen exactly the way that you would do it”?
Obviously the optimal answers are “Yes and Yes”, but that isn’t the answer I hear most of the time. So I want to share with you some effective steps on how you can get to “Yes and Yes”.
- Say “Yes and No” – by at least acknowledging that someone else can take over for you it will be easier to properly hand off the task regardless of your answer to the second question.
- Document the steps YOU take to get the task done, either in writing, voice recording or video recording.
- Train in 3’s – have them watch you do the task, then you do the task together and finally you watch them do the task.
- Every other time they do the task watch them do the task again, NEVER do this more than two times.
- Decide if you can answer “Yes and Yes” now, otherwise start at step 1 again.
Most of us know why it’s important to delegate as much as we can, the most obvious reason being that there simply are not enough hours in the day. Then even if there were do you really want to spend all your time on the not so fun stuff?
I’m working everyday to turn my outer control freak into my inner control freak just so that those around me don’t have to witness or be victim to me control freaking out
I am beginning to embrace my need for control a little for the positive things it brings to my life, because of the nature of my business I need to have it and know that many of my clients appreciate it from that perspective. Now to find a way to have my family appreciate it would be amazing!