When you started your company, you most likely did everything. From answering the phone, to processing the mail, to making the decision to hire employees as your business grew, you’ve done it all!
Some of that was out of necessity, but, you’ll have to admit some of it was due to a condition known as perfectionitis.
Now that your company has grown, are you still in that startup frame of mind? If a task isn’t done the way you’d do it, do you need to make corrections? Is it possible that given the parameters of a particular task, there might be a number of different ways to accomplish the same thing? Would you be willing to admit it is possible that an employee might have an approach to a task completely different from yours, but with the same or better results than if you’d done it yourself? How much freedom do you give your staff?
In the March 2007 issue of ENTREPRENEUR magazine, Geoff Williams, author of an article titled Dead Zone, quotes Margaret Morford, president of The HR Edge, as saying “Every time someone presents you with a problem or issue, ask them, ‘What do you think we should do about it?’ If you do not like the suggestion, ask this as a follow- up: ‘If we did that, what would you do about (fill in the blank here)?’ Give them time to think. They will either fix your greatest objection, in which case you should implement their suggestion, or they will offer another one.”
A strategy I find works well when you find yourself making decisions from a closed perspective is to put yourself in the future. Visualize the person you will become when you are running a wildly successful company - that successful entrepreneur, one whom others approach for advice. How would that person look at the decisions you’re making today? Would that person allow others the leeway to make contributions to the business in their own way?
Having perfectionitis doesn’t mean you change your standards - you will still have the same standards for the quality of service and products that go out the door. The specific steps one takes to get to that quality can be left to the individual employee as long as you have clearly defined goals and quality control checks built into the process. Allowing others to do what they do best, frees you to be the entrepreneur - to be the visionary, growing your business - your revenue, your profits and your cashflow.
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