In my last post, Do It Now, Delete it, or Delegate-Part 1, I detailed some simple time management strategies to help you can organize and prioritize what’s coming across your desk so as not to end up buried under a mountain of unread trade magazines and junk email. The next and final step in this process is learning how to delegate.
How Do You Allocate Your Time?
If you’re trying to do everything on your own, you won’t grow your business. It’s a bandwidth issue. There are only 24 hours in a day and how you use your 24 hours will determine not only the success of your business but also your relationships, your finances and pretty much every other aspect of your life.
When I address time allocation during live training sessions, I draw a picture of a train with 168 boxcars on it. 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week. 24 times seven is 168. I ask people to take that 168 hours and figure out how much time they spend sleeping, eating, grooming and taking care of the other basic necessities of every day life.
Once they’ve got that number, they have a much clearer picture of how much time they’re wasting. It’s really easy to sit down on the couch and knock out four hours of TV or get caught up in social media but it’s just as easy to take on a bunch of projects that someone else could be doing for you.
Doing It Yourself Costs More Than You Think
Clients come to me all the time and say, “Wes, it’s just faster for me to do these projects myself.” And my response is always the same: you say that right now because you have to take the time to train somebody, to teach them how to do it right. But once you have a system in place, you won’t have to spend any time on it at all.
In the dental office, one of the easiest jobs to delegate is payroll/bookkeeping. And yet I still know a lot of doctors who will spend countless hours reviewing the information and submitting it themselves (there is some fear to having someone else see the financial data/other team members salaries/etc.).
If they were being a true CEODentist, they would teach someone else (a current team member or someone outside the practice) how to do all of that and then hold them accountable for getting it done.
As I’ve said before, delegation is not the same as abdication. It’s not a “set it and forget it” approach. You always have your employee report back to you on how things are progressing.
Delegating Pays for Itself
A little while ago, I bit the bullet and hired a bookkeeper. It was tough at first but now we have a system in place. At the end of each month, she gets all my receipts and does all of my reconciliations. The actual work takes her 2-4 hours. My audit of her work takes about five minutes.
She charges me $25 an hour. My time is a worth a lot more than that. To me, she’s a bargain.
Take a moment and ask yourself what work you can farm out. Then teach someone how to do that work. At the end of each month, you’ll realize that the ultimate cost dips way down and you’ll have more time and energy to do the work that only you can do.
What extra projects are you taking on at the moment that could be done by someone on your staff? Leave a comment below.
Elevate Yourself to CEODentist Status! |
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