The Key to Gain Control AND Freedom

Hi Everyone,

Today I want to share with you something that has been turning in my mind for some months now.

About 5 weeks ago, Bonnie, one of our Level Three Business Consulting Program clients asked me a question about her private practice. The quick context to the question before I share it with you is that Bonnie had built up a successful Advanced Stage Level Two business (2 locations, steady client stream, talented team members, etc.) but like all business owners she was dealing with the challenges of how to delegate to her team and still maintain a sense of control over her business. (Sound familiar to any of you business owners out there?)

In essence Bonnie was at a cross roads that eventually all of our Level Three Business Consulting Program clients reach—the point where you the business owner struggle to find the right balance between delegating to your team and maintaining the control you need to sleep at night.

Here’s how Bonnie put the question:

How do I delegate more and more of my day-to-day responsibilities to other people on my team and still maintain control of my business?

There it is, she nailed it. In one simple question lies one of the greatest challenges you as a business owner will over face. On the one hand you have the need to leverage your team to get more done by delegating to them.

On the other hand you have the need to maintain control over your business so you don’t have bad consequences happen if team members drop the ball or don’t do things the right way.

STOP! Go back and read the paragraph immediately above this sentence… (“On the one hand…On the other…) If that paragraph resonated with you.. If you found yourself nodding your head… Then you’ve bought into one of the single most damaging misconceptions about building a business.

I see this every day. Working with over 10,000 business owners in the past 10 years I’ve gotten a chance to really understand the false beliefs and misconceptions that cost them BOTH control and FREEDOM.

It’s a False Dilemma!

Here’s the thing, it is not a choice of “delegate and lose control” or “Hang onto things and keep the control”. That’s a lousy choice, and totally inappropriate for those of you who are committed to built a Level Three business.

You see “Control” is a Level Two perspective. It’s an security blanket that most business owners sleep with in their business.

As a business owner control is a reaction, a reaction to watching big mistakes happen in your business when you hand off to someone else… a reaction to losing a sale because a team member screwed up an order… a reaction to sending out a proposal with the customer’s name misspelled… a reaction to not collecting your A/R because someone is too timid to insist on being paid for work you performed. It’s a reaction too… you fill in the blank.

But here’s the thing, reacting to painful moments in your business by taking control back is not the solution. At best it means you’ll run a tight ship that completely revolves around you. All major decisions will go through you… All key projects will be checked by you… All key deliverables will flow through you at some critical stage… The business may be a “success” but what’s the ultimate price? You give up any chance of enjoying the freedom of a Level Three business.

I know this is harsh, but it’s accurate.

I have another one of our Level Three Business Consulting Program clients that I was working with last weekend at a quarterly mastermind session. He is the co-owner of a very successful Advanced Level Two business that was on the verge of going to Level Three. After a little positive peer pressure (how many of you wish you had a peer group of other business owners who were totally committed to take their Level 1 or Level 2 businesses to Level Three?) he committed to “not pick up any piece of equipment” in his warehouse. This was a HUGE breakthrough since he sells millions of dollars of computer parts every year and every time he got involved in the fulfillment end of boxing, testing, or moving parts it cost his business thousands of dollars in lost revenue (his best use of time was in creating the sales systems to sell more parts!)

So why was he so involved in the fulfillment? Control!

I Struggle with the Same Challenge!

Hey, I’ve been there too. In fact, Stephen has to remind me at least 2-3 times a month to let go (intelligently) and step back from the edge. I have to say that having an outside person there to hold you accountable, who because they are outside your business can see so much more clearly, is perhaps the biggest benefit of working with the right business consultant. So what’s the solution?

Don’t build for “control” instead build CONTROLS.

That one single “s” makes all the difference in the world.

Control is a Level Two reaction…

• It’s fear based

• It’s autocratic

• It means you’re gathering up more and more of it for YOUself (and didn’t you want to build a Level Three business that was dependent on you to begin with?)

• It says, “Check with me”

Controls on the other hand is a Level Three response…

• It’s proactive

• It’s enterprise driven (you build controls in for your business not for you the power hungry business owner!)

• It’s primarily a tool to allow everyone in your business to see status, check on results, and self-correct as needed

• It’s mantra is, “Check the scorecard/dash board”

The bottom line is that you do NOT want control which ties you more and more into the central nexus of your business, you want to build in effective and intelligent controls that empower your team and your managers to consistently produce quality results, and flag when things are off target and in need of feedback, troubleshooting, and course corrections.

Here’s the question I want you to ask yourself:

How can I achieve scale with effective controls in place to ensure me enterprise is operating healthfully?

When you (and your team) build in the business controls your enterprise needs and train your team in their use, not only will you have the best form of control (enterprise-centric versus solo-business-owner-centric) but you’ll have a degree of freedom that most business owners will never experience.

I hope this gives you pause and maybe even causes you to really think through how you’re building your business. I’ll come back to this theme in the months to come because it is so important in helping you build the business you really want to own.