How to be the boss
I was thinking about using this to kick off a business and technology blog I’m planning, but I just haven’t had the time to do the work necessary to launch it, and this was too good to not share (and a corollary rule is that when you’re the boss, you need to realize early that things aren’t going to work out and make alternate arrangements).
This is from an exchange with a client who has a problem which is, in my experience, not unique among small business leaders – they’re the bottleneck.
“I don’t like being the bottleneck but I am on most projects and I can’t seem to break the trend”.
The answer I gave him, and the answer I give you, is this:
Stop doing other people’s work for them. Stop being the customer. You’re the bottleneck because you have the vision. When someone does some work, they’ll reach a point where they have to stop and check it with you, because you have the vision for what it should be. If they had the vision, they’d know if their work was right or not, but they’re not sure. And when that happens, sometimes, maybe even often, instead of helping to transfer the vision, you get involved in their work more deeply because it worries you that they don’t have the vision and that means you need to do more oversight. That makes you busier, and takes away the time you have to approve the other things that are waiting for your approval of the vision. Maybe you’ll even take over some of those things, “because it will be faster if I just do it”, which sucks even more of your time, which makes you more of a bottleneck. As the boss, concentrate on transferring the vision instead of doing work that other people can and should be doing. You won’t always be able to, but wherever you can, it will help. Focus on giving people a template to check their work against, and you’ll have to do less of it.
This is not to say that you shouldn’t be involved, but when people bring work to you for approval, it goes a lot faster if they’re already confident that it’s right.
Tags: business, management, confidence, boss
