569 | The Delegation Dilemma: Why Owners Hesitate and How to Overcome It

Hey folks, before we kick off today's episode, I wanna touch on something crucial that we like to call Fake Delegation. Ever do that you think you delegate, but find yourself micromanaging or taking tasks back. It's frustrating, right?

You're left burnout, your team slows down and your business doesn't grow. That's why we created five ways You Fake Delegate. It comes from our own combined experiences and challenges in business and our desire to always serve you best.

We've been there and this guide is our way of helping you navigate those delegation missteps. Grab it from the show notes, it's free, and might just change the way you lead. Now onto our episode.

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are. Welcome to the show folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.

Today we are talking about the art of delegation. A a very crucial skill that every single small business owner, every single leader, crud for the love, every parent needs to learn to master. So we are gonna go through five simple steps to dramatically change how you delegate.

Now, if you have not picked up our ebook, the 5 Ways You Fake Delegate, 'cause yes you do it, and how to do it for real. 5 Ways you Fake Delegate, (And How To Do It For Real), then get that immediately.

Go to chrislocurto.com/delegate, chrislocurto.com/delegate.

Now, this is designed to help you identify and fix those delegation missteps. Now, we've been, we've been there before. We've all been there. We've all experienced this. We all know what it's like, but it is amazing how it is still one of the most misunderstood processes.

We call it proper delegation in Killing the Leadership Crazy Cycle. If you're gonna delegate, we teach you how to properly delegate. Why? Because most people have never been taught how to properly delegate.

Instead, we've all picked up our delegation from our, the leaders who led us. They may have, they may have been good people, they may have had great hearts, but unfortunately you've probably learned how to delegate the same way as most people, which is, Hey, I need you to do this thing. Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet?

Okay, that's not the right way. Let me take it back. So today we are gonna walk through some of those challenges, some of those steps to fix those challenges, but also make sure that you get that, that guide the delegation guide. So that will help you to overcome some of those missteps. So grab that today.

It's free. It might just change the way you lead for good. So, key number one, clarity is king. We have to navigate the communication black hole that exists with our clarity, with our communication.

You've probably heard the famous Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who said once, "the single biggest problem with communication is the illusion (circle, highlight star, the word illusion) that it has actually taken place."

Well, he didn't say actually that it has taken place. Folks, when it comes to delegating, one of the biggest issues, the biggest issue is the misconception of how to do it.

That's again, it's that I, I think I know what I'm doing. I think I'm doing it the correct way, and it's actually not happening the correct way. After that. The biggest problem is this thought that we've done a good job communicating to somebody on what they're supposed to do, helping somebody to understand what it should look like, what the expectations are.

It is vitally important. Now, as I go into this, I want you to just start calculating numbers, okay? So for me, any leader who could be delegating something off of the plate, not just for the purposes of delegation, but for the purposes of going onto something bigger and better.

Okay? So think about it that way. As a business owner, you have way bigger things you should be working on. You should not be doing administrative stuff or, or very little, right?

There is an incredibly small amount of administrative stuff that I work on, very small. I shouldn't be working on it. I pay people to work on it. And for the love, think of how much you're paying yourself or some of your leaders and then take a look at some of the tasks that they're working on. Should you be paying that dollar figure?

No. The dollar figure you're paying is so that somebody can lead other people to success. That's what makes the dollar figure that you're paying worth. It is because I expect that my leaders make other people successful.

That's the goal. I don't want them bogged down in doing administrative work that somebody on their team should be doing. I want them doing higher level stuff, like making that person successful at doing their administrative tasks, making salespeople successful, you know, making HR successful.

Whatever it is, I want my leaders operating at a much higher level. Otherwise, why am I paying them the the amount that I'm paying them? Right? So think about that. Why do you pay you the amount that you pay you?

Why do you pay your leaders the amount that you pay your leaders? The expectation should be that the stuff that they're doing on a daily basis is worth that dollar figure.

So our goal is to get things off of leader's plates that they shouldn't be doing so that they can do more important higher level stuff. So I want you to just think about that for a second.

So start calculating the amount of money you're losing by paying a leader to do things that are administrative tasks. Let's just start there, right?

Second thing is, is let's say you have a leader who has great talent to move on, to lead people better, to do other things. How much opportunity cost is there in a leader staying and doing administrative tasks?

Once again, that's just ridiculous. That's crazy, right? That is not where they should be. So we're losing money in this process. I don't want my leaders on stuck on administrative stuff.

I actually want them focused on things that are bigger, that are gonna grow the business, that are gonna make the team better. So think through those dollars right?

Now, what about the communication aspect of getting a task, a project, something delegated properly? And it doesn't just have to be a task. Don't just think about, I do this administrative task.

It could be a project that you're trying to delegate to somebody else that they need to be focused on, right? The consequences of leaving your team in the dark are vast.

By them not having quality, high levels of quality communication, they don't know what they're doing. They don't know how to do it. They don't know what questions to ask, because many times they can't think of the questions to ask because it's too vague.

The thing has not been explained well enough. And on top of that, you are now losing time and money by checking in to see if they've done it yet, right? By checking in to see if it's finished, if it's done the way that you want it to be done, right?

So what happens is, is by not communicating incredibly well with your team, you leave a per—, could be an individual, could be a whole team. You leave a person struggling to try and figure out what is it that I'm supposed to be doing.

Now, obviously we wish that all team members, including our leaders ourselves, we wish we all were super honest right up front. Do you understand what the thing is that I'm delegating to you? Yes, of course I do. Yeah, I think I got this. Yep, all is good. How many times does somebody say that? Only to find out later on they didn't understand it.

All of you High Cs out there. How many times has somebody asked you that question and you've answered it, but two hours later you're like, I don't even have a clue right now that you've processed through it, you're like, I don't know what I'm doing.

We have got to understand that if we have not clearly communicated to somebody with, with absolute clarity on what they're supposed to be doing, how they're supposed to be doing it, how much leadway they have to do it, you know, add their own flare to it, if they do, and what the expectations of the outcome is, you know, what is it that we want it to look like? What does the vision of this task, this project, this, whatever, what should it look like at the end?

We call that the accountability gap. When somebody doesn't know they have some tasks that they're supposed to do, but they don't truly understand what this thing is supposed to look like and how to get there, right?

So if they can't understand all of these pieces, these aspects, these expectations, then what you're gonna find is this is a task or a project that is probably coming back to your plate.

It's most likely something that you're gonna take back in a short period of time because it didn't go the way that you wanted it to, right?

It didn't happen the way that you wanted it to. Now you're probably losing trust in that team member. They are probably losing loyalty in you because they felt like they were set up for failure and then it's their fault that it didn't get done correctly.

So what could we do? What are just some simple steps to make sure that we're communicating clearly? Now for me, I'm always going to, you know, take a look at the personality style of the person I'm speaking to.

I'm also gonna look at the motivators, the things that motivate this person. You know, if you've done DISC+ with us, the values and the motivators, those things are feeding me tons of information that tell me how to communicate to this person.

But also how do I motivate them to get this thing done or motivate them to ask questions or motivate them to make sure that this thing is gonna get to success, that they don't wanna fail on this thing, right?

So for me, I'm always gonna look at how do I communicate to this person? If it's a D-I-S-C combinations, what? What is gonna be my best approach to getting this information to this person?

On top of that, there are multiple questions that I ask. You know, a lot of folks will ask the question, does that make sense? That's not enough. That is something that I will ask all the time. I will always ask the question, does that make sense?

But I will actually tee it up in different ways, different forms to find out. Sometimes the different personality styles you have to ask the question in a way that frees them up, that they feel like, oh aha, now I can speak into this. So does that make sense? Is a question, is any of this confusing? What doesn't make sense? Is there anything you feel like you're gonna struggle with on this?

Is there anything you haven't processed through yet? Do? Do you need more time to process through the things that I've presented is there? So I will go through and ask in many different ways and forms, especially by watching the person to see if they seem confused to me.

I'll ask questions that get me to a place and get them to a place of understanding that there isn't, you know, that clarity has not happened yet. So if I have not done a, and sometimes, and by the way, a person needing to go process, there is nothing wrong with that.

There are many times I will take a high C who have dumped a bunch of information on, you usually hear me say, that's a lot of information, isn't it? Why don't you go take some time, come back to me in a couple of hours and with a list of questions that you have so we can go through this. Because my goal is to make you successful.

So another great communication piece is actually verbalizing that you want them to be vulnerable, that you're expecting that there's mistakes in which you've communicated. So often what I'll say to somebody is:

"Hey, listen, that's a lot of information. It's confusing. You've got a lot of processing to do. Do me a favor. I want you to go spend a couple hours, you know, thinking through this processing, you know you've got other stuff on your plate that you've gotta tackle, and I just want you to think through and write down questions as you go along and then come back and hit me with those things."

So the thing that I would hate is if we get a week or two down the road and you had questions, and I never set you up for success. So what I'm doing is, is I'm taking all the responsibility, it's all coming back on me. I am the one who will have failed you if I don't get to all of those questions and answer them, right?

So here's what I'm doing. I'm taking that responsibility off of the shoulders of the person or team that I'm delegating to. So now they know that it's okay to not have all the answers. Now they know that it's okay to question whether or not they understand the project and the thing that we're doing as we do this, it gives them the opportunity to feel that like they can be vulnerable.

Because at that point they don't feel like they have to, you know, be prideful and act as though they know all the answers when they recognize that my goal is to set them up for success by getting to every question that I possibly can. Because the more questions I get to, the more things that I answer, the more I've set them up for success.

The less work I've gotta do on the, on the backside of it, then a person feels like they've been clearly communicated to. So another thing that I will do is I'll ask them, you know, through different stages, what are you planning to do in this area?

What are you planning to do with the, you know, we've just talked about this. What are your first steps? I dunno, let me think about that. Take some time. That's all right. Think through. What are your first steps? How are you gonna handle this? What are you gonna do with this? Do you see any failure in this?

Do you see where problems might arise? And I will go through and just go ballistic, making sure that I point out as many things as possible. Now, some of you out there are probably thinking for the love man, how much time does that take? It takes time. It takes time to do proper delegation.

The reason why delegation has failed for you and so many people, you know, so many times in the past is because it hasn't been properly delegated. So I have no desire to have a short delegation conversation with somebody that I know is gonna take me five follow ups before I take that thing back, right?

Instead, I would rather put the time on the front side, and there's multiple pieces to this, so just stick with me.

I would rather put the work and effort in on the front side to clear my schedule of this task project, whatever it is, which gives me time back to do more important things that I can do. You know, my team doesn't want me working on admin.

They want me doing important stuff that brings money to the table so they can actually eat, right? They don't want me stuck in admin stuff. They want me producing things that bring money to the table. So, and as a business owner, so do I.

So what I will do is, is I will look at this as an opportunity of getting this off of my plate. Once this is gone, how much time did I just get back?

If you feel like your identity and your worth is in doing tasks, you're not gonna do this. Lemme just kinda give you that throat punch right now because the fear, and it's probably cropping up in your head right now.

"Well, Chris, if I, if I delegate these tasks off of my plate, then I won't be needed." Folks, that is the biggest lie when it comes to this aspect of leadership.

So many people believe that if they're not doing all the tasks that they do and the team doesn't see them running, you know, 90 and out the north, their hair on fire, then they're not needed.

I, let me say it again. I don't do administrative tasks and I'm very needed for this business. I do higher level things. I lead leaders to be great.

My job is to make my leaders great so that they can lead the rest of the team and make them great. That is way more valuable than doing any administrative task. So I want you to hear this.

You have things you just can't see it yet. So we put out killing the leadership crazy cycle, and then we put out a follow up to that on how to lead incredibly well.

Once you have cleared your plate, right, there are so many things that you're missing out on because you haven't risen to that level yet. You don't know that level yet. Or maybe you can kind of imagine it or see it, but you're still not there.

So here's the deal. The more stuff you get off your plate, the more time you have to focus on higher level leadership stuff, right? The number one thing is making your team successful, right? That's the biggest thing for me.

Then there's other aspects of this, like strategic planning. Like we have our our, we do our Strat Plans and we help people to, to turn their business into something much stronger than it was by discovering the things that are holding them back.

That is another great role for you to do, is to find the things that are holding your team back. There's a ton of stuff to be doing, right? So look at it as this is an opportunity. Spend this heavy time on the front side to get this off of your plate. And here's the second aspect to this. When you've done this well, when you've done this properly, something amazing happens.

It becomes easier every single time you delegate to that person or that team in the future. So yes, there is a heavy load on the front side, there's a lot of work on the front side, but guess what? The more you do this, the easier it's going to get.

Folks, if you've been listening to me for any length of time, then you know the number one issue when it comes to business, when it comes to family, when it comes to friendships, is having a lack of high quality communication to make sure that you are absolutely winning in every aspect of your life.

It all starts with having great communication. The best way to get that communication is to understand your personality style and to understand the personality style of the folks that you're spending the most time with, whether it be at work, whether it be at home.

The best way to do that is to go to chrislocurto.com/store and get your personality profile and personality profiles for your team today. Get it for your family members today. As you go through that profile, you will begin to see the greatest ways to communicate. Go to chrislocurto.com/store today.

Alright, Number two, there is a fine line, a very fine line between micromanagement and empowerment. Folks. You've heard the micromanagement side, is it done yet? Is it done yet? Did you do it the right way? Why did you do it that way? How come this isn't finished here? Let me just go ahead and take that back. You have seen people micromanage.

You have probably been the person who's done it yourself, Lord knows. Take a look for all of you parents. Take a look at how many times you have a child that wants to help out, that is volunteering to do work around the house, like helping out with cooking or helping out with something, dishes or something like that.

Now, some of you with older kids, probably not because you've pushed them away so much. There's, so we as Western parents do a terrible dis justice to our child and to us as a family. When we don't let them help, why do we not let them help? We don't have time. I gotta get this thing done.

The more times you reject them from helping you trust me on this, the more times you reject them from helping you, the less they ask to help. So eventually they just decide, I'm not gonna help. I'm not gonna ask to help.

But when they're young and they're little and they're wanting to help out for the love, let 'em help out. Even if they screwed up, well, course I don't have time to clean up their mess.

Yeah, you do. The more you will help your little ones learn how to do work at the house as a volunteer part of the family, the less you're gonna have to help them, and the more they will want to do as they get older. It's the greatest thing. It is fantastic. Our little daughter, Reyna, she wants to help with everything.

There are times she will yank something outta my hand. Go, daddy, I'll do it. Because she wants to help out. Why? Because we've not hampered her on that. We've not pushed her away. The issue we do have as parents when we do let them help out, is we don't let them mess it up. We don't let them practice.

We give them the opportunity to cut vegetables the first time or, or make pancakes or, you know, scramble eggs or whatever. And as they mess up or constantly, they're go, no, no, no, no, don't do it that way. No, no, no, don't, no, that's not the right way. No, you gotta do it this way.

And what happens is, is the joy of the volunteering work that they're doing is gone. We actually beat it out of them by correcting the living daylights out of them. I'm using this as a, what I think is a fantastic example, because that's what you're doing with your team members.

When you micromanage the living daylights out of a, a task, a project, or whatever you've given them, what you're doing is you're constantly telling them how wrong they are. They're not doing it right, they're not doing the right timeframe, yada, yada, yada.

Your goal should be there to support them. Think about it. Why do kids eventually stop asking if they can help? Because their morale is tanked.

They believe that there's no point, they're just gonna get told no. Or if they are allowed to help, they're gonna get corrected 17 different ways. And so they just decide, forget it. I just don't want to ask to help.

What happens when you're paying somebody to do work and you're micromanaging the living daylights out of them? Their morale is tanking, and the last thing they wanna do is ask you if they can take on something else.

And by the way, when you have somebody whose morale has tanked because you've attacked the way that they do something because you've micromanaged them, then from that point forward, guess what they're gonna do?

They're gonna slow down their productivity, they're gonna make it more difficult, and you to desire less to delegate or give them something else, because their fear is they're just gonna fail you when the whole time, most likely you as the leader are the problem.

If you would have just helped them to get things done correctly and taught them and train them and and led them, then they would be glad to take on something else.

They would be on fire. One of the things I love about our team is the way that our leaders lead our team is always leading up with ideas. Our team is, has no problem coming to us and say, what about this? Can we do this? How about this? Because what they don't hear is, Nope, that's stupid. Nope, that's not a good, no, we don't have to time for that.

Nope, we don't. We instead, we will walk through things, talk through things, allow ideas to be spread. And so it allows our team members to constantly volunteer ideas. We don't wanna shut down their, their ideas. We want them to continue to, to flourish with thoughts and things that they can do, or we as a team can do so that we can change your lives. Our team loves helping you.

So what happens when we empower our team? Then we create this amazing thing called trust. Trust comes from a, a, a level of vulnerability. So if I can be vulnerable, I might gain your trust. If I micromanage, I will probably lose your trust.

So if I can be vulnerable in allowing you to fail to ask 14,000 questions to change, you know, and again, some things people can change the processes and some things they can't. We need to just be very clear.

If we don't, if we don't need them reinventing the wheel, maybe you've, you know, you, you've perfected the wheel 14 times over, Hey, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. I just need to make sure you're doing it the way that we do it. That's fine too.

But then there's times, and this is something I have learned in my early years of properly delegating. My personality style is I'm a 40 C. So if I'm delegating, a lot of times, you know, because I'm very entrepreneurial, I can do administrative tasks, I can knock anything out.

But then when I go and delegate it to somebody who's like an 80, 90, 99 C, they do it 10 times better than I do. And believe it or not, they do it faster, especially when they do it in their way.

Now, keep in mind, if I'm delegating to a high C, they have to know the whole big picture. They have to get in, they have to work it, and then they have to be allowed to make some adjustments that they can to make it better, right?

So there's times we can't allow adjustments. It's operating the way it's supposed to operate. I just need you to do it this way. Then there are times, and by the way, what are some great examples of that? If you've got a sales team of 16 people and you have over the last five, 10 years perfected your sales process, then there's probably some small aspects that don't need changing, right?

There might be some other bigger things, but sometimes you just, they just don't need to be changed. But if I'm delegating to a different personality style, they're gonna do it differently than I do. So I have to be vulnerable. I have to build their trust in me.

I also, they need to be vulnerable and I need to build my trust in them. They need to see that by, and, and, and the more I'm vulnerable, the more they will be vulnerable.

And then there's a level of autonomy that I need to give them, right? That they can do this in work, in their own ways, in their own, you know, whatever it is that they're seeing or tools that they need or whatever to make them successful. But with that also comes accountability.

If I give you some rope and it doesn't work, I'm gonna pull that rope back, right? So you have to, if you're gonna give autonomy to somebody and have trust in somebody, then you've also gotta have accountability. If it doesn't work, you gotta pull that back. So you need to be using the right amount of techniques to balance between oversight and independence and, you know, really let change independence to interdependence, right?

We really should be interdependent on each other, not independent of each other. We don't wanna be Allens or anything like that. But I'm gonna have a, and I, I hate the term oversight. I shouldn't have even said oversight, accountability, and interdependence, right? So I'm gonna give you a level of accountability as I oversee what you're doing.

As I, you know, as I check in and I ask questions, and I try to set you up for success, and I try to get you tools and all that kind of fun stuff, but then also I'm gonna give you that rope so that you can operate in your ways, in the ways that's best, right?

So we gotta make sure that we're not anywhere near that micromanagement line, but instead we're working in that empowerment line.

Number three, you gotta break through being the bottleneck. We call it the bottleneck boss dilemma, right? You gotta break through this. Now, what does that mean? If everything has to come through you, if you are the central decision point, you are slowing down your business, your business's growth, your team's productivity, your team's growth.

It is just ridiculous how much you are hurting your team. So, and by the way, some of you out there enjoy being the one that everybody comes to. Man, I, I get it. I, I, I'm somebody who loves to lead direct fix things, but I learned pretty early, early on that if I, if they have to come to me for every answer, then I'm not making them great.

Now, I will tell you, I actually have a desire for things to grow by duplicating myself. I love duplicating me. I love my leaders duplicating themselves. That means that I don't have to take on everything to make this business grow.

So in my early days when I recognized that I was becoming the bottleneck, I was like, oh, forget this. I need people to be able to grow in this business to grow and my team to grow and all that kind of fun stuff. So you are gonna have to get to a place where you look at the person in the mirror and go, you gotta stop slowing down the business. You gotta stop being the bottleneck to this business.

Because what happens is people don't grow, people don't get better, people don't change. In fact, they get stuck in this place of believing that everything they do must be approved by you. On top of that, they get this fear that actually if they don't go through you, this thing fails. They are the problem.

So many times what you'll see is a person is absolutely afraid to pull the trigger on stuff because they're afraid they're gonna get their head lopped off.

They're afraid that they're gonna fail. They're afraid that they're not gonna do it the right way. Whatever it is, what you will see is many people will hold back because they're afraid because you, the boss are the bottleneck. And by the way, don't be a boss, be a leader, right?

So if you are the bottleneck, then I want you to think through, and I'm gonna hit the financial side again, because this matters so much. How many different ways you are hurting yourself, that you are hurting your business. So, for example, first thing is, is that if you are the one that everybody comes to for answers, you are missing out on greater opportunities.

You are missing out on the things that are much more important that you could be handling, that you could be solving bigger things, bigger projects, bigger stuff, right? Strategy, vision, all that kind of fun stuff. There's so much more that you could be doing.

Second thing is, is that you're absolutely doubling up the amount of time it takes for people to work on stuff, every time somebody has to come to you, they have to stop their process. They have to go to you, get you involved.

So it's their time, your time going through this process. Go back. You're only, we're only operating off of your intellect. We're not operating off of the intellect of the team because you're the one who has to solve all the problems. Then they're going back and doing what you say, and why are we paying them?

Because if we can't pay them to think for themselves and we can't help them to grow and help them to become stronger and help them to become better, then the best they will always be is this person who is always submissive to you. That is always seeking your answers, your processes. That's the another big, huge money pit when it comes to being the bottleneck boss.

I have had people on my team in the past that came from horrid bosses that they wouldn't allow them to think and come up with answers. And when I started shutting that down and telling them, listen, I need your input. I need to know what you know. I need to know how smart you are. I need to, I need to see you do this stuff for your own.

Then bam, they exploded into being able to not only come up with great ideas, but eventually surpass me and things, which is what you really want for your team, right? They can't surpass you on everything, but they sure as heck should be better than you in the area that you've hired them for. So make sure that you're holding back on you.

I know some of you're like, crud, what am I gonna do? There's a lot more important things that you should be focused on than being the answer person for everybody on, on your team and encourage them to come up with their own answers.

It is so funny how much when somebody comes to me with a question that they get answered with a question, Hey Chris, here's this situation over here. What should we do about that? That's a great question. What should we do about it?

There are times I have clients that will ask me a question about something, I'll push back and I'll go, yeah, that's a great question. What do you think you should do? And they just get this huge smile.

They're like, oh crap. Okay, let me think through this. Because the answer is something that they can get to. The answer is something that they can come up. If they spend some time there, there's just something that they've missed.

So I'll continue to ask question after question after question, and that is my leading. I will lead somebody to the answer by asking the right questions. So don't be the answer man.

Number four, we've gotta get our team from doubt to confidence. So we need to cultivate confidence in our team. We need to make sure. Now, some people would say, we need to cultivate self-esteem. I don't give a rep about self-esteem.

Self-esteem is something that was created in the eighties to try and make people and kids feel good about themselves when they were doing things that they shouldn't be doing or doing bad things.

I don't give a rep about your self-esteem. I care about your self-worth and your self-respect. Those two things are important. I don't care if you feel good about you while you're feeling like the world's biggest victim. I don't care if you feel good about you while you're doing something stupid or bad or hurting somebody that that is ridiculous. That's that. That's even a focus.

But your self worth, I really care about and your self-respect, I really care about. So we have got to learn how to cultivate confidence in our team. If we over scrutinize our team, doubt will absolutely erode their confidence and their interdependence. Think about it. The more you pound scrutiny into somebody's life, the more they doubt themselves.

Hey, spouses, hey, married people. Think about it. How many times does your spouse scrutinize you or you scrutinize your spouse? And you could see that it starts to put separation in, in between you and that person, right?

So we have to understand it does the same exact thing when it comes to our team members. We're asking our team members to be interdependent.

I want you to be able to add your flare work on this yourself, but do it inside the parameters of the things that we are trying to accomplish inside the vision, the the Strat Plan that we're doing all this kind of fun stuff, and yet I'm gonna pick everything apart.

Well, crud, how long is it gonna take before that person starts to shut down? How long is it gonna take before that person starts to doubt some of you out there? Lemme go back to number three.

Some of you're the bottleneck boss because you've eroded that, that confidence that your team has, and now they come to you for everything because they're afraid to answer anything. Hello? I know that just hit home with a lot of people.

If you've eroded their confidence by your scrutiny, then that's why they come to you over and over and over again. You have got to focus on building trust.

You have got to focus on building confidence within your team, and it starts with you being vulnerable, you modeling vulnerability. The more that they can see that you can be vulnerable, the more that they will start to trust you and realize that they can be vulnerable.

I can't tell you how much I love it when somebody on my team, especially my leaders, because they're just so good at it when they call their own selves out on stuff, when they see something they're struggling with and they call themselves out, it is so powerful, it's so phenomenal.

It's fun to see because there is absolute vulnerability there and there's absolute trust that they have in me, their leader, that I'm not going to take advantage, which I don't understand why people will do this anyways, but take advantage of that vulnerability or use that vulnerability against them.

Because what do I do? I jump in to help. I don't jump in to be controlling, manipulative, ridiculous. I see vulnerability. Every bit of my 88 s and my 89 altruism jumps in and wants to help, wants to take care, wants to get them to success.

So if I'm vulnerable and I can show them that I can be vulnerable, they can be vulnerable. The more we do this, the more trust is built. The more trust is built, the more confidence is built, the more confidence is built, the more risk taking happens.

You may not like your team members to take risk, but I sure do. I'm somebody who realizes that if my team is not taking risks, we are shutting down our productivity. We are not doing much. I like to see risk taking.

Now within parameters, obviously they don't get to just go be their own island, but I want them to be so confident that they can go after stuff or ask about going after stuff that's gonna be edgy.

It's, it might be difficult, it might be a little painful, but boy, if it lands, the outcome is gonna be phenomenal. So another thing you need to do in this process is you've got to encourage your leaders, yourself, your team, to celebrate that decision making, that, that autonomy, that interdependence among team members.

When you celebrate that, then everybody gets to see this is okay. It's not just okay, but it's good. It's something that's helpful. It's something that's desired inside of our business. Learn to celebrate great decision making, good decision making.

If it's done, you know, celebrate good decision making period, but especially when it's done in interdependence or in autonomy. All right? Just powerful.

Number five, who the silent overload. You've got to confront the unspoken challenges and they are there. So there are internal struggles that leaders face with delegation, right? And the, the, the, this ridiculous cycle of taking back tasks 'cause things weren't done correctly. I talked a little bit about this, but I need to hit this again.

If your identity, now I want you to challenge this. I don't want you to answer this right now as you're listening to this. I want you to be vulnerable with yourself and really challenge yourself. If your identity is in the things that you do every day, the tasks that you accomplish every day, if your approval is in that, if your worth is in that,

then everything I've just talked about, I'm so glad you're still here listening to me, but you're not gonna do anything about it because the biggest fear is that you won't be worth anything. Guys, I cannot explain this enough.

And, and this is one of those things where it's like, until you do this, you're not gonna truly understand how powerful it is. It's like, Hey, let me suggest, have you ever tried? I don't know. Have you ever tried pancakes before? No. They're phenomenal. They look silly. No, they're really good. I don't want to, why not? They're brown and and flat. Why would I try a pancake? Because they taste really good. That's okay. I don't want it.

What a ridiculous little example I just used. But you kind of get the concept right until you taste it. There's probably at least one person out there who doesn't like pancakes and you're just weird. I love you, but you're weird when you have the, when you taste a, a really good, well-made pancake, you enjoy it, it's fun, it's fantastic.

It causes you to go. I think I like pancakes. I think in the future, I want pancakes. Again, this is the lamest example ever. But I want to drive this point when I tell you there are so many better things, so many bigger things that you could be working on if you would get over this belief that you will not be needed or not be worthy if you gave up the tasks that you're doing.

If you can look at this ridiculous, silly pancake example, it's the same kind of concept when you get free, by the way, how much time do you just get to think and strategize as a leader? How much time do you get to spend on looking through and discovering things that are holding your team back?

How many, how many hours a week do you get to solve problems or, or discover problems that nobody else is even seeing right now when you are somebody who's bogged down in tasks because your identity, your worth, your approval is all in that, the belief that your team thinks.

That's why you're important. Then you're not doing any of the other stuff. I can guarantee you that. How do I know? Oh, I don't know, 30 years of leading leaders, teaching leaders, entrepreneurs.

It's I've, I've seen this more than once. I've seen this a few thousand times that lie that you tell yourself that this is your worth. It's gotta go. It's got to go. Trust me by testing the theory. What if you just got off a handful of things off of your plate?

Where would you spend that time? What would you do? What would you change? Just spend some time thinking on it, right? You've got to overcome these internal struggles. You've got to get over this concept that that's what your worth is. 'cause it's not my leaders. They are very clear. That is never gonna be their worth to this business.

It'll never be their worth to me. I want stuff off their plate so we could do bigger, better. I enjoy doing bigger and better with my, my leaders in the team. It's crazy powerful. Another thing is, if you do not communicate expectations and give feedback on the team's development, then what you will discover is nobody's gonna grow.

Well, some people are gonna go in the wrong direction. You'll get the shotgun approach. Multiple people will be doing things differently, going different ways, trying to figure out what they're supposed to do. You've gotta get over this massive lack of not communicating well.

People need to know what you expect. What is the desired outcome? What should this look like? Paint me a picture so I know what it looks like so I can see if I'm off track.

Don't just tell me what to do. So many people will delegate stuff and just tell people the tasks and the person doesn't know what it's supposed to look like when it's done. Help me to understand the expectations. Give me feedback along the way.

As you're getting in there and you're meeting with me and you're spending time with me and you're making sure that my questions are answered and I've got the right tools and you know, I know what I'm doing and things are being successful.

Give me feedback. Don't rip my head off. Don't tell me how wrong I am, how bad I am. Tell me all the good stuff you see, and then lovingly help me to make changes to the things I'm not doing right, right? Why do I say lovingly?

Because so many people are used to being yelled at that they're just wrong, they're bad. Help me to do it the right way. If you'll be open with that communication, if you'll be open with those expectations, if you will be open with feedback, we are really good as leaders and and business owners at finding people doing things wrong.

We have got to be phenomenal at finding people doing things right. The more right, we will find them doing the heck of a lot easier.

It will be for them to accept when they do things wrong. You gotta put way more deposits in the bank than you take withdrawals. Some of y'all just take withdrawals and there's nothing left in the bank.

If so, then you cannot be surprised when you lose quality people. So what are we gonna do? We're gonna make sure clarity is king. We gotta make sure that we are not micromanaging, but instead we are empowering.

We gotta make sure that we're stopping and breaking through this concept of being the bottleneck boss. It is just a crappy place for your team and it's a crappy place for your business, much less for you, right? But especially your team and your business growth.

We've gotta make sure that we're cultivating team confidence and then we've gotta make sure that we are confronting the unspoken challenges that silent overload.

Folks, the more you do this, I've talked through all of these great options and reasons and processes and everything. The more you do this, the more successful you will be, your business will be, your team will be, your leaders, will be. The more successful your clients will be, your vendors will be because it will impact every single aspect of your business.

So once again, make sure that you get the ebook, Five Ways you Fake Delegate and How to Do It for Real. chrislocurto.com/delegate. And as always, folks, hopefully this has helped you today. We want you to take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.