Be Free to “Boss” With an Empowered, Autonomous Team Behind You

When you make the move from solopreneur to hiring a team to pick up the slack, it can prove a very unsettling situation. Handing over the reins of your business... your baby... can put you in a very vulnerable place. Even once you’ve determined that there’s more work than you can handle alone and you’ve hired help, your natural reaction - at least on some level - may be to want to hold onto control of that which you’ve delegated to others.

Admittedly, it’s difficult to relinquish control; you may have some very tangible and understandable reasons for the uneasiness and reticence to turn it over to the hired help. That inner dialogue may sound something like this:

• "They don’t know my business’ ins and outs as well as I do."
• "They’re not as invested in my success as I am."
• "What if they change things? I want it to be the same as when I was doing it myself."
• "What if it looks like I’m distancing myself from my clients if I have someone else handle this work for me?"
• What if they do it "wrong" and make me look bad?"
• Can I really justify the cost of hiring a team to back me up?"

While these are all legitimate concerns on the surface, there’s a tradeoff that needs to happen when you’re ready to scale. The reality of having a bigger business is that you will need to turn certain responsibilities over to others who may approach things differently. That, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. We all have our strengths and talents. Chances are, yours lie in the actual industry you’re a part of and not in areas like bookkeeping, marketing, business operations or even strategy. There are other professionals whose expertise is in those areas and, hopefully, those are the types of "partners" you’re hiring onto your team. It’s in your best interest to let them do their thing so you can do yours.

Of course, you want to ensure you trust the people you hire and that you feel comfortable with their expertise and willingness to learn the ropes in your organization. It is VERY helpful to have your workflow mapped out in a detailed Standard Operations Procedures (SOP) manual beforehand for them to follow to help them maintain a sense of continuity and uniformity as you personally distance yourself from the day-to-day functions.

It is at this juncture that growth can begin to take hold in a business. With your team taking care of the behind-the-scenes, often time-consuming and energy-depleting details, you can step into a bigger role as the face and guiding force of your business... if, that is, you do step up fully, with confidence that you no longer need to be involved (for the most part at least) in that foundational workflow.

When it’s new to you, you may find it difficult, though, and try to keep a finger in the day-to-day pie for fear of loss of control over your business. Symptoms of this failure to fully embrace with confidence that your team’s got your back include:

• Continuing to check on relatively minor details that are no longer in your purview
• Agonizing over every word in emails and marketing materials
• Insisting on doing things the way you were doing them as a solopreneur
• Resisting new processes implemented by your team

Rather than fall victim to the urge to micromanage your team, this is the time to empower them so that you can professionally level up, confident that everything is running smoothly as you do. Of course, you’ll continue to have regular check-ins with your team and keep the lines of communication open - but the goal is to find a sense of ease and conviction with how your business is growing.

When your team feels a sense of autonomy - that they are empowered to work to the best of their abilities on your behalf - they can shine, allowing you to step into the spotlight and work in your area of expertise.

Empowering your team involves providing:

• the resources, information and trust they require to do the work
• guidance from the vantage point of where you are, having stepped more fully into your professional persona so they know what is expected of them at the given moment
• detailed communication about your vision, your expectations for your team moving forward so they can grow along with you for continuity

It can be downright scary to take the leap to hiring staff to help you run your business; it’s the only way, however, to grow to be the successful and flourishing business of your dreams. Ensuring you fully empower and back your team with confidence will help them best serve you and your business, paving the way for optimal business growth.

How have you empowered your team to help you shine professionally?