Slow Your Roll!
And then I started my own company. Foolishly thinking I’d be
a better boss than my board. Turns out that 8-ball scenario was all my own
doing and that damn thing kept on rolling ahead of me, always just beyond
reach.
So I stopped running.
After a year in business, working seven days a week, at all
hours, I sat down (though I have no idea where I found the time) and thought to
myself, “I did NOT start a business to run myself into the ground!”
And the changes began. It was time to slow my roll. Let
someone younger and faster go chasing magic balls. I’ma sit right here and
figure out a better way.
At that point, a winery was one of my clients and they
needed a ton of my time…on the weekends. So I took care of all my other clients
Monday through Thursday and spent the next three days at the winery. (If you’re
counting, that’s seven days.) I decided to learn more about all the staff
members there, asking leading questions that would tell me who was management
material. What team of employees would compliment each other while implementing
better policies and practices to benefit the business? Which two people could I
trust to handle all that a winery entails (not just the business aspects, but
dealing with drunken dopes, and managing their former peers…even if they’re
resentful of the new boss/employee situation). I quickly found my pair of
amazing employees who really were rising to the occasion and immediately
promoted them to assistant managers. Or, more specifically, a Saturday manager
and a Sunday manager. Lesson #1: Delegate
OMG – weekends!! I had weekends again! And, I wasn’t sacrificing
income, quality of services or clientele. I did it by delegating and empowering
others. It was a really good – and powerful – feeling. I sat in it for a while,
celebrating my successful idea and some well-deserved time off. Time that
allowed me to unwind, to think more clearly. To go grocery shopping and make
salon appointments, like a human being!
Once the clear thinking started to settle in, I began to
find more ways to make my life easier while still running my business successfully.
Emails. Time to do something about the emails! I was getting at least a hundred
emails a day. It seemed like as soon as I’d respond to one, three more popped
into my inbox. I had this deep-seated need to answer everyone, with all the
solutions and information they required, within moments of receiving their
email. What I was slowly coming to realize is that almost no one expected a
response from me in seconds, but they were learning that I would and so it was
generating more incoming emails because, hey, if she’s willing to find the
answer to this for me at a moment’s notice, she’ll probably drop everything
to figure that out, too. Lesson #2: Be careful what you teach people.
I realized I was on my email day and night. I never got much
else accomplished because as soon as I delved into a task, more emails came in.
Damn people, always needing me!
And then it hit me. I was the only damn people interrupting my flow of productivity. I decided three things:
- I would no longer respond to any emails after business hours.
- I would check emails and respond only three times a day – first thing in the morning, lunchtime and just before I left the office, and only for 20-30 minutes.
- I would exit the tabs on my laptop containing my email accounts – there’s less pressure to respond if you can’t even see them coming in!
And do you know what happened? Two awesome things: no one
got mad because no one cared that it took three hours before I responded (or overnight!)
AND because I wasn’t responding with lightening speed, people stopped sending
me multiple emails with multiple requests. My inbox is now something like 30
emails a day. That’s still a lot, but it’s only one-third of what it used to
be. Lesson #3: Set boundaries for yourself.
In retrospect, I wish I had implemented some of these things
when I was leading that nonprofit. I see now that the board members who were
less engaged than I would have liked may have been that way because I wasn’t
delegating. I mean, how is the Treasurer expected to pick up and make
bank deposits if no one says, “Hey, the deposits are ready for you when you
have time today.”? In fact, I had taught my whole board that they could make
request after request from me, and I’d figure out a way to get it done myself.
It wasn’t that they expected me to do it all, all by myself – but I taught them
that that’s how I handled things…so they let me. I worked without boundaries back
then.
I learned how to slow my roll. Give myself time to think
more strategically. Time to realize where my time is spent toward the highest
value for myself, my company, and my clients. Does anyone really care who does
my bookkeeping? Nope – let someone else handle it. That website – it’s
gorgeous, isn’t it? No one expected me to set that thing up myself. And those
2am questions and requests sent via email…no one cares that I didn’t respond
until 10am. Same for the ones that roll in at 5:01PM.
Today, I am happy to say, I accomplish so much more than I
ever have, by doing a whole lot less than I ever did. And that damn 8-ball? So
far gone, I can’t even see it anymore. Goodbye and good riddance!
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