Episode 85
Learn How to Trust a New Hire and The Pillars of Delegation
Learn the foundational principles for what makes someone good at delegation. Brantley unpacks the four ways in which someone with no experience can become an effective—even good manager—even if they are a control freak! He'll show you how to gradually trust someone, build trust, and create skillset that lets you recover your time and your peace of mind.
This episode covers the topic of delegation, management, time management, hiring, micro-management, build a business, team structure, reporting, and business administration.
Transcript
Welcome to lunchbreak a special weekly series of the
Pierce Brantley:eternal entrepreneur that gives you sized pieces of wisdom on how to do
Pierce Brantley:the function of faith and business.
Pierce Brantley:Each episode unpacks, a short, actionable topic you can put into practice this week.
Pierce Brantley:Let's get into it.
Pierce Brantley:Well, hello and welcome back to the eternal entrepreneurial podcast.
Pierce Brantley:I am Pierce Brandley co-host of the show.
Pierce Brantley:I hope most of you are listening to this at least on Tuesday, not Christmas day.
Pierce Brantley:I know I'm enjoying time with family.
Pierce Brantley:It gets much needed time off and just reflecting on just how
Pierce Brantley:faithful God has been over the last year in my life with my business.
Pierce Brantley:And so I hope that the same has been true for you as well, that you're cozied up.
Pierce Brantley:You're drinking some hot chocolate.
Pierce Brantley:You're giving yourself some agency to go gain a little extra weight
Pierce Brantley:while you enjoy some extra pie.
Pierce Brantley:My wife made four pies.
Pierce Brantley:We literally have a pie drawer in the fridge and it makes me really happy.
Pierce Brantley:It makes me really, really happy.
Pierce Brantley:I've been doing keto like all year.
Pierce Brantley:And the fact that I've got two coconut cream pies, two cherry pies,
Pierce Brantley:I think a something with Marangu and I don't know, I don't care.
Pierce Brantley:I'm going to try it just puts me in a good place.
Pierce Brantley:Another thing that puts me and everyone in the good place is the topic of delegation.
Pierce Brantley:How's that for a segue?
Pierce Brantley:I'm joking.
Pierce Brantley:No, but we are going to talk about delegation to.
Pierce Brantley:And specifically, I want to talk to those folks who may have been diagnosed with
Pierce Brantley:what I like to call control, freak, itis.
Pierce Brantley:I think that is the medical term and it's a debilitating
Pierce Brantley:predicament wherein you can't do anything without doing it yourself.
Pierce Brantley:And no one else can do anything without you doing it
Pierce Brantley:yourself for them through them.
Pierce Brantley:And so this is where the power of delegation really comes into play.
Pierce Brantley:And it's something I've been studying for the last year and a half.
Pierce Brantley:I'm working on a book.
Pierce Brantley:And so I want to share some concepts with you.
Pierce Brantley:If you're in a place where, you know, you need to start offloading work to someone
Pierce Brantley:else, but the thought of doing so is a little bit daunting either because a,
Pierce Brantley:you don't know where to start in terms of what to hand off or B the thought of
Pierce Brantley:handing something off actually scares you.
Pierce Brantley:It gives you anxiety.
Pierce Brantley:This is what I want to talk about is kind of how to move away from the work so that
Pierce Brantley:you can be more effective so that you can recapture your time and believe it or not,
Pierce Brantley:delegation actually gives you leverage.
Pierce Brantley:You get more done through other people when you employ delegation.
Pierce Brantley:Rightly so to illustrate the effectiveness.
Pierce Brantley:Delegation, think back to your high school days, this idea of a fulcrum,
Pierce Brantley:a fulcrum is a simple machine.
Pierce Brantley:You can think of like a, it's got a pivot point in it with like a
Pierce Brantley:board, a top, a top, like a Seesaw.
Pierce Brantley:And you can lift a lot of weight because of that pivot point, that
Pierce Brantley:point, that fulcrum point that allows you to get leverage out of
Pierce Brantley:something on the other end of some.
Pierce Brantley:We call this mechanical advantage.
Pierce Brantley:You probably familiar with the term for back in the day, in the same
Pierce Brantley:way you have managerial advantage when you leverage the expertise.
Pierce Brantley:And the time of someone else, you are able to lift more work and just like
Pierce Brantley:in a fulcrum where the farther you move away from that point, the more weight
Pierce Brantley:you're able to lift, the farther you move away, systematically from the jobs being
Pierce Brantley:done, the more you're able to leverage other people's time to get more done.
Pierce Brantley:It's a fascinating phenomenon.
Pierce Brantley:Your fulcrum, meaning that point at which something pivots,
Pierce Brantley:there are four phases of it.
Pierce Brantley:Meaning delegation has four very clear ways in which you can move systematically
Pierce Brantley:away from the work you are doing.
Pierce Brantley:And the four fulcrums, the four positions of the folk are moving away from the work
Pierce Brantley:are firstly, you don't know what else.
Pierce Brantley:Second is you can't do what I can do.
Pierce Brantley:The third is, you know what I don't know.
Pierce Brantley:And fourthly, lastly, we have, you can do what I can't do.
Pierce Brantley:So, what do all of these kinds of four positions mean?
Pierce Brantley:First off the baseline one, the one that every control, freak, every
Pierce Brantley:micromanager or just someone who's really comfortable and close to the
Pierce Brantley:work who has to move away from it.
Pierce Brantley:You don't know what I know.
Pierce Brantley:This is the the core fear and the core belief.
Pierce Brantley:And possibly to some extent the truth that anyone who has to move that work off
Pierce Brantley:their plate for the first time you have to come to terms with what is kind of keeping
Pierce Brantley:you from getting someone to do the work.
Pierce Brantley:And you don't know what I know is the first admission of that.
Pierce Brantley:And so in order to solve.
Pierce Brantley:You need to move into knowledge, transfer really, really quickly.
Pierce Brantley:And you have to reverse engineer what you know, and teach someone now
Pierce Brantley:that doesn't make them an expert or good at the work, but it does help
Pierce Brantley:them understand both your mindset and tactically, how to do the job in front
Pierce Brantley:of them, that you will no longer do.
Pierce Brantley:So.
Pierce Brantley:The first part of delegation is you don't know what I know.
Pierce Brantley:And to change that, to move past that you need to communicate everything, you know,
Pierce Brantley:practically about getting the work done.
Pierce Brantley:Once you've done that, you can move to the second fulcrum.
Pierce Brantley:You can move your delegation expertise one step forward, which
Pierce Brantley:is you can't do what I can do.
Pierce Brantley:As we all know, head knowledge does not an expert make.
Pierce Brantley:You have to have that practical experience.
Pierce Brantley:And so to move someone into that practical experience, they need to start shadowing.
Pierce Brantley:And doing the work alongside you.
Pierce Brantley:This is like a show and tell versus just a tell you need both aspects.
Pierce Brantley:So for gated amount of time, a let's call it like a probationary period.
Pierce Brantley:In this second phase of delegation, you should be letting someone watch and
Pierce Brantley:learn the technique and then try it.
Pierce Brantley:They will not be perfect at it, and you should not expect
Pierce Brantley:them to be perfect at it.
Pierce Brantley:What you should expect them to do is have basically on the job training.
Pierce Brantley:And as soon as you see them getting past a threshold of, of
Pierce Brantley:acceptance, you should start to move away from that part of the work.
Pierce Brantley:And so the second folk room you can't do, what I can do is all about.
Pierce Brantley:Helping you come to terms with the fact that eventually they will be able to
Pierce Brantley:do what you can do and you can step away from that piece of the work.
Pierce Brantley:Then you gain even more of your time back.
Pierce Brantley:Now, once you feel comfortable with how someone can do the work, you
Pierce Brantley:move to the third folk room, the third phase, and now you're really
Pierce Brantley:starting to get away from things.
Pierce Brantley:So now someone has the head knowledge, they have the ability to do the job.
Pierce Brantley:You've recovered a lot of time.
Pierce Brantley:The next phase.
Pierce Brantley:You know what?
Pierce Brantley:I don't know, meaning because they are the ones daily involved in the work
Pierce Brantley:because they are the ones doing the job.
Pierce Brantley:Now they actually have a better pulse on that work than you do.
Pierce Brantley:And that is a good thing that this is where.
Pierce Brantley:Entrepreneurs most first-time managers start to get a little
Pierce Brantley:bit nervous, especially if they like the details, because now
Pierce Brantley:they're disconnected from them.
Pierce Brantley:And so you need to be honest about that, but you can go and solve that too, because
Pierce Brantley:just being good at a job and knowing how to do it doesn't mean they're actually
Pierce Brantley:being an effective from a business perspective, meaning they're meeting some
Pierce Brantley:metrics or some KPIs that benefit the.
Pierce Brantley:We all know that just hitting a number for numbers sake does not
Pierce Brantley:actually equate to a good output.
Pierce Brantley:So in the phase of you don't know what, I don't know you're removed from the
Pierce Brantley:work, but it becomes really important that you start to implement report.
Pierce Brantley:Now in this phase of delegation, you need to start having weekly,
Pierce Brantley:monthly, and quarterly meetups with that person in order to understand
Pierce Brantley:how they're maintaining the job that you no longer do that they do.
Pierce Brantley:So weekly looks like kind of, more deeply.
Pierce Brantley:Reporting.
Pierce Brantley:You're looking to see if the main benchmarks goals, project
Pierce Brantley:timelines, if they are getting the tasks done and you want to
Pierce Brantley:understand blockers, but ultimately you're removed from the details.
Pierce Brantley:And so that time of meeting once a week needs to be a fairly high level.
Pierce Brantley:You just want to understand basically.
Pierce Brantley:Are you moving along successfully?
Pierce Brantley:Do you have any blockers and what are the notable things that happened in
Pierce Brantley:the last week and the monthly phase?
Pierce Brantley:You're looking to head up from that.
Pierce Brantley:You're looking at projects, you're looking at milestones, you're looking at overall
Pierce Brantley:effectiveness and growth of the employees.
Pierce Brantley:I think quarterly or even yearly, depending on the type of business
Pierce Brantley:you have, you're looking much more at how their role is helping
Pierce Brantley:shape the business over time.
Pierce Brantley:And so this third phase, while it's often the hardest one for an entrepreneur to
Pierce Brantley:struggle with is the one that helps you make sure that the machine is well oiled.
Pierce Brantley:So if you think about a gear in its place The effectiveness of the gear
Pierce Brantley:depends on where it's positioned.
Pierce Brantley:And it depends on what part of the machine.
Pierce Brantley:And that's all about finding the right person, putting them in the
Pierce Brantley:right role, making sure they can do the job, making sure that machine
Pierce Brantley:is well oiled is all about reporting and it's something that is an active
Pierce Brantley:maintenance so that you can trust the machine is working the way it should.
Pierce Brantley:Now, lastly, the last fulcrum, this is when you are
Pierce Brantley:completely sort of abstracted.
Pierce Brantley:So the person knows what they are doing.
Pierce Brantley:They can do the job effectively without you.
Pierce Brantley:And they actually now know more than you do about the day in the
Pierce Brantley:life of the work getting done, and they are shaping the business.
Pierce Brantley:So at this point you are.
Pierce Brantley:More or less getting pretty good at delegation.
Pierce Brantley:And the only thing you're now concerned with is the fact that
Pierce Brantley:they can do what you cannot do, meaning they are now the experts,
Pierce Brantley:they know more they've lived in it.
Pierce Brantley:And because of that, they actually can do more than you
Pierce Brantley:originally could do in that role.
Pierce Brantley:So they are now the, the SMI the subject matter expert and the person who is best
Pierce Brantley:positioned in the organization in the organization, other than you actually
Pierce Brantley:more so than you to get the work done.
Pierce Brantley:And this takes a little bit of time, but depending on the person and depending
Pierce Brantley:on the work you might get there faster than you think at this point.
Pierce Brantley:They can do what you never could have done before.
Pierce Brantley:They're in a position to start leading other people because they
Pierce Brantley:are now capable of re replicating the process that you just did with them.
Pierce Brantley:They know more than the average person they've been in the role for a long time,
Pierce Brantley:and they have the ability to walk through.
Pierce Brantley:Again.
Pierce Brantley:So depending on kind of the trajectory of your own business, once someone
Pierce Brantley:is in a position that they know more than you originally knew, and
Pierce Brantley:they can do more than you could originally do, it's time to consider.
Pierce Brantley:If it's right for the organization, for them to actually move into management,
Pierce Brantley:if they're the right person for it, from the temperament and desire and your
Pierce Brantley:business needs to grow in that direction.
Pierce Brantley:This is probably a time at which they can start replicating that
Pierce Brantley:delegatory process all over again.
Pierce Brantley:These are the four phases of delegation, the four fulcrums, the
Pierce Brantley:farther you move away from the work, the more work you will get done.
Pierce Brantley:First phages, you don't know what I know, meaning you're the expert.
Pierce Brantley:The second phase is you can't do what I can do.
Pierce Brantley:Meaning you may understand that.
Pierce Brantley:Computationally, but you don't have that practical expertise.
Pierce Brantley:So give them that practical expertise.
Pierce Brantley:Thirdly, you have, you know what, I don't know, meaning they are living day in the
Pierce Brantley:life more than you are, which makes them the best person to go to about facts
Pierce Brantley:and details and progress in that role.
Pierce Brantley:And then lastly, You can do what I can do.
Pierce Brantley:They are now the foremost expert in the organization, both from a head
Pierce Brantley:knowledge and expertise, position of things to lead that area of your business
Pierce Brantley:completely and likely if they're the right person, they're a good candidate
Pierce Brantley:for management and to replicate that delegatory process all over again.
Pierce Brantley:So this is a lunch.
Pierce Brantley:If you're a control freak.
Pierce Brantley:If you have trouble letting go, just like me, I hope these four
Pierce Brantley:phases have been effective for you.
Pierce Brantley:What I would ask is the next time that you bring someone into the organization,
Pierce Brantley:you know, that that's kind of a pain point where you got to bring somebody
Pierce Brantley:in, instead of just shoveling everything off to them from a, because you have
Pierce Brantley:to, because time is of the essence.
Pierce Brantley:Go through this phase, these phases methodically move from
Pierce Brantley:teaching to modeling and doing, to reporting to letting them
Pierce Brantley:replicate the process through.
Pierce Brantley:All over again.
Pierce Brantley:All right.
Pierce Brantley:My friends, I hope you have had a fantastic holiday break.
Pierce Brantley:Merry Christmas.
Pierce Brantley:God bless you.
Pierce Brantley:And don't forget to think the tunneling.
Pierce Brantley:Thank you for listening.
Pierce Brantley:If you enjoyed the show, do me a favor and leave a quick review.
Pierce Brantley:When you do it helps other entrepreneurs find this content and