Today in The Freedom In Five Minutes podcast, I talk about the dangers of outsourcing a business owner’s decision-making and how a good leader can avoid these types of dangers.
Learn from my experiences in dealing with internal saboteurs and how I dealt with them. And remember how vital it is for an organization to nurture a positive culture to bring about growth where everyone is working together.
All that and more, coming up!
Overview & Episode Content
- What Is One of the Few Things a Leader Must Never Outsource?
- Your Staff Might Not Be as Excited About a New Hire as You Are
- To Outsource Decision-Making is Like Driving a Nail into Wood with a Boot
- Hold Your Team Accountable When You Outsource the Decision-Making to Them
What is One of the Few Things a Leader Must Never Outsource?
We have one big client that I have been wanting to onboard for a while. This client runs a franchise development company and such an amazing guy. He is super smart and very good with business which he has been doing for a very long time already.
One day, this client read Clockwork by Mike Michalowics. He felt like it was about time he created some systems for his business. So he reached out to my business partner, Paul. And they worked on making it happen.
We brought him on and, of course, I found out that he was all about systems and processes. But he needed to get things going first. He must have the means to build systems and processes quickly.
The client was very excited to start working with us, “I know you guys can document things and are super cost-effective. This is great for my business! I want to make this happen, and I want to continue to grow.”
I was definitely excited because I have wanted to get him on board for a very long time. And it ended up great because he hired 2 VSAs from ProSulum.com. He assigned one VSA to his sales team and the other VSA to his administrative director.
But instead of keeping in the loops during the whole onboarding process, the client offloaded the decision-making to his in-house staff members and he went on to focus on other matters in his business. And because of that, he was not able to avoid trouble in one of his departments.
Your Staff Might Not Be as Excited About a New Hire as You Are
There is a reason why I still have my consultation business today. People pay me a lot of money to get their team on board with creating systems and documenting the different business processes. And people keep on paying me for that because it’s hard!
You, as the business owner, could be very excited about the new venture, “Yeah! Let’s do it! Come on, let’s go! Everything will be automated! It’s going to be amazing!”
Well, that’s only you as the business owner. There is always the possibility of your staff feeling differently about it. Your administrative director, for example, might feel like the VSAs will be taking their job! Or your salespeople might feel the same way.
Your staff might feel and behave like everything is fine on their end but they unwillingly try out the VSA and intend to kick them to the curb later on. For this particular client, the sales department side worked smoothly with our VSA. The administrative director, on the other hand, had issues.
After a few months, we had an email from the client’s administrative director asking about the length of time they need to give notice so they can cancel the VSA assigned to him. So, I forwarded the email to Paul and let him handle what was going on with the client’s administrative director.
People who usually send that type of email are used to doing things a certain way. Their minds become completely closed to other ideas.
To Outsource Decision-Making is Like Driving a Nail into Wood Using a Boot
Just imagine if you’re doing some renovation and you need to hammer in a nail on a piece of wood. Then, your administrative assistant takes one of their boots off and uses that to drive the nail into the piece of wood.
It might take a very long time for the administrative assistant to finish but it works and gets the job done. You, on the other hand, the business owner, want to hire someone with a hammer or a nail gun so that your administrative assistant can focus on their main tasks.
So you hire someone with a hammer and introduce that person to the administrative assistant who’s supposed to show the new guy the current process of getting things done, the systems in place so that the person with the right tools can get things done faster.
And so the administrative assistant shows the new guy the current system — driving nail using the sole of their boot.
After hearing out the administrative assistant, the new guy suggests, “But I have a hammer and a nail gun. I can use my tools so we can finish the job faster.”
To which the administrative assistant says, “No, we’ve been doing this system for a long time and I don’t want to mess things up. Let’s just do the task this way and see where we’re at in a few months.”
And a few months later, the administrative assistant sees that the work has been done at almost the same pace as before the new guy was hired, “I’m not sure we really need this guy. As matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I can drive nails using a boot faster than him.”
Then, proceeds to recommend canceling the new guy.
Hold Your Team Accountable When You Outsource the Decision-Making to Them
The example above is extreme, but it’s similar to what usually happens when you outsource your decision-making. “Hey new guy, meet this person who knows everything we do. Talk to him, and get everything documented.”
A leader holds the team accountable. See exactly what they are doing. Have them record their process and see if it is actually effective. Find out if your team is doing tasks the most effective way.
When you let your staff onboard a new team member, you don’t just stop there. As the leader, hold your staff accountable for showing you that they are delegating properly. They must be responsible for giving the new person the same opportunities they got.
And most importantly, your staff must be accountable for showing you that they are not sabotaging the business. The fact is, a team member might sabotage the onboarding of a new hire.
That is usually the case with people who cannot bring themselves at a higher value, or if they feel threatened by the thought of being replaced. They will try their best to not let the new hire succeed. As a matter of fact, this already happened with another VSA before — also with a real estate company.
That VSA was doing mostly accounting jobs for the company and their in-house accountant, although super nice during the onboarding, was totally sabotaging the whole thing.
Clients hire our VSAs because they do not want a huge liability if their in-house accountant fails to show up because of an emergency.
Guess what, it actually happened! She tried to sabotage the VSA. And then, she was gone for weeks due to a medical emergency. The thing is, a good leader can avoid situations where the staff is trying to get rid of an opportunity that could have elevated your business.
Conclusion
This is important because whenever you are hiring positions below somebody else and you are not directly in the loop, you must make sure that you are monitoring the onboarding process.
Ensure that your in-house staff are giving the new hire every opportunity to succeed. I would say that 25% of the time, that person who is training the new hire might feel threatened.
By holding that person accountable to make sure that the new hire succeeds is really key to building a positive culture and a business that thrives. Help your staff see that they are not being replaced. And let them realize that they are being elevated to a higher position.
Later on when they hire someone for you, you can teach them the steps you took to keep old staff members accountable.
So, the more that you can avoid the internal sabotaging, the more you are able to bring about an organization that grows without you and gives you the freedom to have a thriving business and culture where everyone is working together.
Resources and Links
This is Dean Soto, founder of FreedominFiveMinutes.com and ProSulum.com. Check out either one of those websites if you want a Virtual Systems Architect. With a VSA, you show them how to do something once in 5 minutes or less, they document that and take over for you so you never have to do that task ever again.
Go check us out, I’m excited for more things coming up in the future with you and your business, and I will see you in the next Freedom In Five Minutes Podcast episode.