Kak
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I get what you're saying.I agree with both of your points, I’m not suggesting you should do everything yoursefl, just that there is an advantage to having the know-how (ie, being able to do it if needed).
There are parts of my business operation that I’ve helped build, but have taken a life of their own, and developed past the point where I know all the details involved, things that I haven’t put my attention on for many months.
An example is building prospecting lists — I’ve helped develop our own tool to do it, and our own process. But I can’t possibly manage it for 70+ customers, so it’s all done by others. The process has been improved since I’ve first created it, I have no idea how. So long as there aren’t problems/complaints from customers I won’t give it another look or get involved — I simply don’t even want to know about it because it’s not a priority.
So I’m not suggesting you do tasks yourself just because you can do them or even just because you’re better than someone else at it. Indeed you can be better than your team members and very often you should still not do it.
But… there are situations when you SHOULD do it, and that’s when it pays to have the know-how. For example, now I’m building an app. If I assigned this to a developer it would take at least 3 months, he doesn’t know exactly what I want (hell, I don’t know what I want — what I want changes based on what’s possible and how certain technologies/APIs work), and he would charge me $10K.
Idk about you, but I’m not happy to wait that long or risk $10K, and then depend on a dev to make the thousand and one changes I need and waste a few other months getting it done. Such things, esp. since they are very important to the growth of the business are better done quickly by me.
Better to put in the hard work myself for 2 weeks, and possibly bring in someone else once it has a solid foundation that I know and understand to expand it.
I wouldn’t be able to do something like this, as fast as I am doing it, if I didn’t have the skills, that’s my point.
The worst is when you need to hand a role over to someone else that isn't as good at it as you. All you gain is time, no capability growth.
It makes it ever the more tempting to do it yourself.
Might I argue though that your time is much better served at the helm than swabbing the decks. Because we have limited time as mere mortals, there is an opportunity cost of not doing what you are best at (or most effective at) . For me that has to be a role that scales. Leadership.
As long as the leadership isn't suffering neglect though, have at it. I swab some decks too.
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