I was just talking to my son who said he liked knowing he could do things himself and not rely on anyone else. Totally get it Noah! That was me too. I love and respect his independence. I know I wore the idea of “I don’t need anybody” like a badge of honor.
Obviously, I have come a long way from that thinking. Yes, I can do it all. But the question is should I? Should you? Are you getting in the way of progress, growth, development of your team, expansion of your business?
A hurdle I have faced as an entrepreneur is being the bottleneck in my business growth. As a solopreneur when you start out you have to do it all, and that’s exactly how I handled it. But as I began to grow, what I had to learn was how to figure out what I had to do and what I could delegate.
I had to remind myself of my mom’s advice… She said, “Focus on your core strengths. There is a professional for everything!” Click to tweet.
Now she may have been referring to my cooking, but it certainly applies to business. That advice guided me to recognize that I was getting in the way. I started to spend my time where I had the most impact. That enabled me to say “no” to things I didn’t want to do or didn’t have to do. And find team members, not just one, but multiple team members, that all had their specialties.
Take a look at the team around you. Is trying to do it all holding you back, holding them back, or stifling your growth? How can you build trust in others? What are they good at? What is their superpower, special sauce, or great skill they could bring to the team?
If you want to grow, understand what your core skills are, what it is you have to do that nobody else can do better than you, and then if you keep growing, you might have to find some people that you can train to start doing those things.
So don’t be a bottleneck in your own business or on your own team or even in your own household; build a team, find people that enjoy doing things that you don’t enjoy doing, and focus on your core skills.
Want to hear more about this realization, check out this video about it here.