I’m About to “Lose Control” and I Think I Like It

Posted in Outsourcing & Delegating  Print This

Here’s a question posed to me by one investor in my latest survey:

Q: “How do you surrender control [to an assistant] without losing control?”
A: “You never give up control.”

When I say things like, “Stop being a control freak,” I mean to stop watching their every move and meddling where it is just not necessary, or spending so much time managing someone who is already capable that you are wasting your time and effort, or just being annoying.

The reality is, you should never surrender control of your business to someone else. Even if you are not doing all the work yourself, you are still in charge, and always will be. You are still responsible for everything that gets done, and always will be. Everything the business has to get done is YOUR duty.

The Good News

You may always be responsible for what your business gets done, but the good news is that you can assign tasks to other people. You will then be accountable for getting results through them, but they are accountable to you for getting the task done, in the way you asked them, in order to achieve the results you want.

This, of course, assumes that they know how to do the task, and you know that they are capable. If not, train them on it first.

Then, follow up on the task and have some kind of way to prove it was done correctly. This is how you stay in control of the work being done, even though you’re not the one doing it. Assignment  Work  Follow-up. This is the process that let you escape the burden of doing everything yourself, while not having to surrender control to someone else.

Always Be In Control

ALWAYS BE IN CONTROL—and get rid of anyone who takes that control away, be they a team member, a realtor, a title company, a seller, a tenant, a private lender, or anyone. You know how to run your business better than anyone, and you will profit to the degree that you can remove ridiculous speedbumps and roadblocks imposed by others.