Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of excerpts from Hitendra R. Patil's book, "Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant."
Steve Tappin, CEO of Xinfu, once said, “Eighty percent of business leaders fall into a common trap called the “Crazy 8.” They try to delegate, but quickly get frustrated and take back responsibility. They become overwhelmed as they try to do too much themselves, get stuck in the day-to-day issues, and end up becoming the bottleneck in their company. Then, they go round this Crazy 8 again and again.”
Tappin further said that “resisting the temptation to micro-manage is one of the hardest leadership skills to learn.”
Are you too endlessly running through this Crazy 8 trap?
In my book, "Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant," I have suggested some ways that you can escape this Crazy 8 trap. But it is critically important to understand why you fall in this trap.
When it comes to the business world, the notion of 'I can do it myself.' leads to far more heartache and failure than it does success”
In his book “The Sticking Point Solution,” Jay Abraham, who Forbes listed as one of the top five executive coaches in the United States, said, “Some businesses are stuck saying, 'I can do it myself.' It’s appropriate for a child to say, 'I can do it myself!' If the subject is tying one’s shoes, buckling a seat belt, or shooting a basket, children need to be encouraged to learn to fend for themselves. But when it comes to the business world, the notion of 'I can do it myself' leads to far more heartache and failure than it does success”.
Why do we fall into this Crazy 8 trap?
Allow me to touch upon some of the deeper reasons why one gets into “I can do it myself” mode:
- As a “small” business (or if your business is more like you having created a job for yourself), you think that it is too expensive to hire help, even for part-time.
- You do not put a dollar value on your own time when doing things that are NOT generating revenue for you.
- You may be training your clients but you do haven’t defined training processes to delegate work.
- You may not truly appreciate the power of “leverage".
- You may not have recognized that your clients come to you because “you are you” and not because you have a specific piece of software, have an office and so on.
Take any (really) wealthy person in the world. He or she earns (huge) money on (thousands of) other people’s time, knowledge and efforts.
Ron Baker, the pioneer of value pricing, says, “Time is not value. Time is not the cost. Time is a constraint”. We all have finite time in our days (and lives). There is only so much we can do ourselves. And hence, if you earn only on your own time, there is a limit to how much you can earn.
Jay Abraham once said, “At heart, entrepreneurism is all about leveraging people, assets, capital, and efforts.”
Interestingly, this statement does not include the word “time.”
Isn’t that a hint enough?
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Hitendra R. Patil is COO of Pransform Inc., and author of "Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant."