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 Today's advice comes from Eric V. Holtzclaw, CEO and founder of User Insight, via his column at Inc.: "You should fire yourself, especially from the jobs that, with you handling them, stand in the way of your company's growth." From his early years at User Insight, Holtzclaw recalls being unwilling to give up control, spending a lot of time in his business, rather than on it. Holtzclaw says that being so immersed in his day-to-day activities, he had no time "to think strategically." Instead, leaders should delegate certain daily tasks to their employees and focus solely on the growth of the company. "Fire yourself today by simply identifying something that you are doing that could be done better by someone else. Enjoy greater efficiency and effectiveness. Focus on what your company needs you to do: strategic direction and vision. Repeat!" Want your business advice featured in Instant MBA? Submit your tips to tipoftheday@businessinsider.com. Be sure to include your name, your job title, and a photo of yourself in your email.
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30 comments:
Holtzlaw said you should fire yourself, especially from the jobs that, with you handling them, stand in the way of your company's growth." I understand what he is saying that if you can’t perform a job within your company you need to pass it along to someone else. There is nothing wrong with delegating a task to someone else. CEO’s have a lot at stake within in the company. They are the person people come to for answers.
I've had this conversation with my husband many times. He had a hard time giving up control to some of his employees and once he started delegating tasks to others he was able to start focusing on implementing new technology into the company. It's hard to give up control, but once you realize you are doing more harm than good, then you have no choice but to let go.
I guess firing yourself in this instance is taking yourself away from the situation. To look outside the box and decide what exactly is going on here. I believe a lot of business professionals get caught up in the loop inside the business rather then taking care of work outside of business and concentrating on the structure of things.
This is one of those ideas that once you do it you will wonder why you hadn’t done it sooner. Knowing how and what jobs to delegate is a key to being a successful leader. There are two ways to will help establish a successful team. By realizing that you cannot accomplish everything on your own and relying on your employees to take on additional responsibility.
I found this article different but interesting. I bet many leaders have a hard time doing this, I imagine that I would. Stepping back and allowing others to handle responsibilities may help one to see the bigger picture once taking a step back. If your feeling that you are not handling decisions or the view of the company accurately find someone that may be able to help you or give you direction. Sometimes a few steps back may be for the best.
Delegating daily tasks is hard for some people. Firing yourself from the day to day tasks can help a manager concentrate on other things such as the company's growth. Step back and take a look at the big picture.
All leaders need to find a way to take a step back from the spotlight and stress sometimes. They have to learn how to delegate the duties to different employees. Figuring out the correct way to delegate the tasks is the hardest part, because if they are not distributed in the right manner then the work won't get done efficiently. Leaders must be able to hand off some of the daily responsibilities and allow others to help in maximizing the company's growth.
This is basically saying the same thing as the last blog we did. Rather than trying to micromanage everything, you should assign tasks to the most qualified person with comparative advantage. Your job should be that of leader (motivator) and manager (not micro-manager).
Some people do take on more than they can handle whether it is leaders or employees in the company. Sometimes when that happens that tend to distract them from the major things that they need to accomplish of the company. Leaders sometimes get the big head by being in control and don’t want to give others such as employees the opportunity to have a little control.
This is a sign of a very good leader if they can "fire" themself. I realize that accounting is not my strongsuit. It is not where I am most effective for the growth of the company. Finally realizing that we needed to hire more people has given us the opportunity to grow and think about what needs to be done to get to the next level as a business.
I was fortunate to have worked for a person who recognized this principal early on in his career. In fact he hired me because he thought I was a better manager that he was. We was always on the lookout for employees that could do their jobs better than we could. This enabled him as the owner to concentrate on marketing and growing his business and I was able to spend more time on managing and planning.
It honestly takes a humble and honest leader to step back from their actions and realize that someone may be able to handle a situation better. A lot of times, we invest so much more than our time into our jobs and each project that we are faced with is instilled with a modicum of pride and attachment. Realizing you may not be the best fit for the job, forces you to step back from the job, extricate yourself from the situation and think strategically instead of with any type of emotional investment.
I think this is a really good point to make with a lot of people. Some managers don't like relish control over others, but they need to learn to do that. Some people are better equipped then others to handle other jobs. It also makes it easier for you to handle other responsibilites.
As a leader, you can't handle everything in the company. That is one reason that companies empower the employees so the top management can focus to the important decisions. Anyway being a leader does not mean knowing everything, it means leading the crowd and working together for the best of the company.
I thought that was the whole point of becoming the boss. Hire someone else to do the work that you could do yourself. I do agree with this article. People should let others do the work if they are better at it. I also realize that it may be hard for some people to relinquish power. It would be better for the company in the long run.
This is an interesting article. I agree with it, but it is very hard to do this if you are the owner because you want to deal with everything yourself. We have a natural instinct to trust ourselves and no one else, but we should be able to give tasks to others that are better are accomplishing them and deal with the problems we deal with best.
I agree, when a business owner needs to grow their business, they should lean delegation skills. Delegation is difficult for a lot of people who own and run their own business, but if you want to keep your business growing it is an important thing to learn how to do. Business owners need not delegate the most important tasks, but minor tasks that consume the majority of their day are a must.
When you get caught up in the day to day operations, it is impossible to see the big picture. As an upper manager, you should never do anything that someone else can do just as well. You have to be focused on where the company is going, not on what is going on in the office today.
This is something you don't normally think about when you're focused on getting a task done. I know early on in my management career I felt as if a task wasn't getting done properly simply because I wasn't the one doing it. This isn't true most of the time for me. I have surrounded myself with employees that I feel are as competent as myself, so why wouldn't I trust them with any task? Sometimes there are only jobs that the top dogs can only perform like payroll or hiring/firing. But I know I've trained all the associates well enough to be able to perform any number of jobs from training new associates, performing the best customer service, or ordering supplies. If I have done my job well by teaching them all they need to know, then there shouldn't be any reason why I couldn't step back and get a new perspective on running the store.
For leaders, especially males, admitting that a task is too much for you is often very hard. For me personally, if I was overwhelmed at work I would rather risk it and suck it up than admit to my managers that I am not capable. This article was saying that when in a leadership position sometimes you need to put your pride on hold and do what's best for the company.
In a way, I do agree with this. However, as a leader, you should understand and know how to do day-to-day tasks. If you cannot do the tasks yourself, you should not expect others to do it. Knowing how to do things is not a bad idea; although, perhaps being so immersed in the day-to-day actions is not such a good idea. Sometimes being too involved can be a little too hectic. You have to oversee what is going on because you have to see the bigger picture.
It is always hard for someone to admit that they are not good at something or that they have failed. But giving up so that your company can flourish is a great idea. But for me I've never trusted anyone else to do my work. If I wanted it to be done right, or the way I saw it as right, I had to do the work.
I actually love this article. For most people it hard to look within and admit to yourself that your not doing a great job or you've failed at a particular task. It takes alot of maturity to own up to your own faults and letting someone better take your place.
I agree with this article. A lot of bosses get in the way of their company growth and actually hurt their business. You need to manager yourself and your employees and see that they are doing the task that you told them to do. It takes a great manager to be able to pass down tasks and trust that your employees are getting it done.
With leadership comes great responsibility. It is hard to work so hard to get the top then have to accept that you need help running a company. There is nothing wrong with letting someone help your company. A company is not successful by one person running it. It takes a team of people to run it.
I always considered delegation to be a quality and a key asset a leader must have. You have to be confident in your team and have faith they will do the job better than if you were to do it. Without you having doubt in your team will give you peace of mind to think on company growth, which by the end of the day will be more rewarding that completiong a day to day task.
I think being too prideful is something that some managers do, but business owners do way too often. Getting to involved in day-to-day activities is something that can definitely hurt of company especially when you are not the best person available to do these day-to-day activities. I think this is great advice for managers and business owners.
That is a very unselfish way of thinking and can be great for a company. If you think somebody else can do your job better, than you either should work harder or like the article states, "fire yourself". It will be better for all of the employees if the company is producing more efficiently.
Great advice, It makes since to let other people do the jobs that they are better at. It gives you more time to focus on the bigger picture.
I agree with parts of this and also disagree with parts. I agree that a manager should not be focusing on all of the small details of the day to day aspects of the company. It will not enable him/her to focus on what the company could grow to become. I disagree in the aspect that the manager should not just hand off all of the tasks leaving him/her with nothing but idle time. As long as the manager is giving out tasks that wouldn't overload an employee it is a good idea.
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