669 | How to Audit Your Calendar and Delegate One Meeting This Week

Pull up your calendar. Not tomorrow, not next week. Right now. Look at everything on it. If your week is packed with meetings, updates, check ins and problem solving, but your team still lacks clarity, then your calendar is telling the truth.

You're not short on effort, you're short on leadership space. And this week I want to challenge you to do one thing. Delegate one meeting. That is coming up next.

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, I'm challenging you to something that is hopefully going to help you move from being as busy as a leader or owner to being a little less busy.

Today's episode is not going to solve everything, but it is a step in the right direction.

I want to move you from being the person who solves everything to the person who is building a team that can think and lead just like owners do.

Now, that shift doesn't happen automatically. And again, if everything is still so dependent on you, and I'm telling you it most likely is, let's just be honest, you're probably feeling overwhelmed. You're probably feeling like you have to answer a bunch of questions.

You're probably feeling like there's certain things you're concerned about letting go of because you don't know how the team is going to respond to.

There's probably a lot of things that you're experiencing in your leadership or your business ownership that is owner dependent or leader dependent.

And it's a stressor. It's tough. It weighs you down. It can again overwhelm you. And unfortunately, we just think that this is the way that life is supposed to be.

We think that this is just how business is. Well, that's why I'm talking about it today, because that is not the way my business runs and my business has never run that way.

Now, my early years of leadership, yeah, that's how I ran until I started figuring these things out and running into problems and not liking it...

And realizing if I was handling everything or having to oversee everything or answer all questions or everything had to run through me that I couldn't grow into being who I'm supposed to be.

And it also held my team back from being who they are supposed to be. So I started learning and growing and implementing things and changing things and delegating things properly, which we're going to talk about how to properly delegate.

And I started realizing that as I did that And I got more stuff off my plate, even things I enjoyed doing.

There's things I loved doing that I had to sit down with myself, have a conversation with me and say, listen, if you continue with this, you're not going to be able to do these other things.

So, yes, you love it, but what's your plan? Do you want to grow as a leader? Do you want to continue? Do you want to become a business owner? Do you want to solve things?

When you do become a business owner, what is it going to be like? How are you going to make sure this doesn't happen? So early in my leadership career, that's what I did. I literally had that process in my brain.

Now, that wasn't the exact conversation, but I went through that process of having to convince myself that things that I love doing, I was going to have to give up.

And praise God, decades later, it was the absolute right thing to do. And that's kind of what we're going to talk about a little bit today, starting with just one area, and that's delegating meetings. So today we're going to try and create a habit.

We're going to try and talk about how it begins. And we do that by auditing our calendar. You know, delegating just one meeting, using the time to develop ownership in the team.

And that's what you really want, right? Like, isn't that exactly what you would like to get from your team is leaders who are solving and owning and running with things and solving like owners? Yeah. That's what you want.

So until we actually start moving in that direction, we're not going to make it happen. It's all going to depend on us. It's all going to rely on us.

It's all going to be on our shoulders and we're going to wonder why, you know, we don't get to go take a long vacation and why we aren't able to let go of the stress at nighttime. So that's kind of what we're talking about today.

How to audit your calendar and spot where ownership hasn't shifted yet, at least, and how to delegate just one meeting, just one meeting this week.

And we're going to walk through a step by step version of that and how to use your time to gain back. Right, by allowing your team to lead and lead better and helping them to grow and lead better.

Audit Your Calendar Like a Leader (00:05:17)

So the first thing we have to do is we have to audit our calendar.

I want you to open up your calendar.

Obviously, the drama of the open of the show, you don't have to do it right this second, but very soon, I want you to open up that calendar and take a look at everything that you've got on today, tomorrow, this week.

All right? Before you change anything, you got to know the truth about your schedule. Is it slammed with meetings?

Is it slammed with tasks, updates, check ins? Is it slammed with you trying to solve things throughout the business?

Is it slammed with you trying to taking on things because you don't have somebody in a specific role or a spot and you've just got to do it?

What is your calendar telling you about your day, your week, your month? Start there. And I want you to ask, let's take a look at meetings.

That's the thing we're going to focus on today. Take a look at some maybe recurring meetings that you have. And I want you to ask three simple questions for every meeting.

First, do I need to lead this? Am I the one that has to lead this meeting? And if my answer is yes, why must I lead the meeting? Every answer you give yourself to that question right there is going to be incredibly telling.

Like let's say you said, well, I have to lead it because nobody else knows how to. Okay, whose fault is that? Who could change that? Who could fix that? If it's just because they haven't been taught how great.

We'll walk through how to teach them. We'll show them how you can do that properly. Well, I don't have time. Whose fault is that? If you don't have time, why do you not have time?

Well, because I'm too busy with all the other things on my calendar. Oh, there it is. If you're too busy to delegate even one meeting that you've got, what does that tell you?

That tells you that you're too slammed to lead people to success anyways. If you can't delegate one meeting, you're too busy the way you are. So that's something we've got to look at.

Second question. Well, I've actually just given you like 14 questions.

Next thing I want you to ask is, could someone else own this? If so, who, who is capable?

Even if they, you know, the, the funny thing is, is the first time you delegate a meeting to somebody, they're going to be like, I don't know what the heck I'm doing.

What do you want me to do? You know, it's like, well, you've sat in this meeting 400 times before.

Don't you know how this usually goes? But the truth is, is that once you put that pressure on somebody, then it's like they go blank. I don't know what to do.

I don't know how you want me to lead this thing. Now, some people won't. Some people will jump in and want to take over and run with it.

But there's a really good chance that you're going to have somebody who's like, well, what do you want me to do? Right?

So that's the other thing, is if they're teachable and moldable and we can lead and guide them to leading a quality meeting, great, fantastic. That's all we're looking for.

We're not looking for them to be an expert at leading meetings yet. We don't need that part yet. We need the willing servant who's got the capacity to do so. That's what we're looking for.

Next thing I want you to ask is, why does this meeting exist in the first place?

So usually meetings are put in place because they had a good reason. But a lot of times we'll have meetings and people really don't even know why we're meeting.

It's something we've done, you know, for years and it's not very valuable at this time or whatever. We need to find out why is.

What does it exist? What was the purpose, what was the mission for the meeting when we put it in place?

And does the meeting carry that same purpose? Now, this is very beneficial for multiple reasons. One, you might find out you actually don't need that meeting at all.

Now, if it's not being productive, that doesn't mean cancel the meeting. It means ask yourself the question, should we make it productive again? Right?

Are we just doing a bad job and everybody is busy so nobody's putting attention to it, Whatever that is, dig in and find out if that's the answer.

If the meeting literally carries no value anymore. Well, there you go. You just opened up a slot on your calendar. But chances are you're going to find that you have a meeting that does need to be executed on.

People do need to be communicated with, whatever that is, you know. And usually the meetings where you mostly just listen or approve or kind of repeat direction over and over, those are usually the first ones to hand off.

If it's not really taxing on you because you're just getting updates, you're getting whatever, you don't have to be the one who leads that. That's probably the place to start.

Where can you find a person, a leader or. It doesn't even have to be a leader. It could just Be a person on the team that maybe you're looking to grow their leadership skills or, or you want to test some things out on.

But somebody who has the capacity mentally as well as, you know, on their own calendar as well, can they lead this? Which if they're in the meeting, then really they should be able to lead it.

And then we're going to start delegating that process to them.

So here's where we start, because a packed calendar, even if you're going to sit in the meeting anyways, right, you're probably doing some sort of prep or something, or maybe you're not, you might just be winging it.

That's always a possibility. But what if the meeting doesn't need to be on your calendar? What if it's a meeting that you're really not doing a heck of a lot in anyways?

Could somebody else run that? Could you just get updates from that meeting and not have to sit through the whole meeting?

These are all things that you want to be asking yourself so that you can find out whether or not you should be fully delegating this meeting.

Now, that's the next thing we're going to do. And I want you to try and do that this week. I want you to try and delegate one meeting and doing it properly.

Because we're all about proper delegation around here. We can't stand it when somebody just tosses something over to somebody else, expects them to do it really well, and then, you know, when they don't, they just get frustrated and take it all back.

Right? That's not what we're looking for.

Delegate One Meeting This Week (00:11:50)

So this is the challenge for you this week. Pick one recurring meeting, you know, maybe a project update, maybe a team check in that someone else on your team can run.

Now, keys to delegation. It's really not that difficult of a process. You have to be intentional.

So first thing, obviously choose the person who can run it. Now, just like I shared, do they have the capacity, do they have the mental capacity?

Are they in a good space to be able to lead this? Do they know enough to lead a meeting? Are they experienced enough to lead this specific type of meeting?

All of these things have to be answered before you hand this off.

Second thing is, do they have time, right? Because they're probably going to have to prep for this meeting at some point.

Even if you are winging it, they're probably going to want to start prepping for it and you're going to want that too, to make sure that this meeting goes really well.

So do they have time on their calendar, Is there something that they're going to have to delegate off to somebody else? That's a small piece of something that allows them to do this.

Then have the discussion with the person, explain why you're giving them ownership, see how they respond. Is this something that they, you know, it may be that they're like, oh, please don't do this to me.

Definitely a possibility. But if you explain why you're doing this, it might be the very thing that allows them to go, okay, he has confidence in me, she has confidence in me.

I need to have confidence in myself. I can do this. I can make this happen. So let them understand. Hey, I'm also clearing up my calendar.

But I believe you're the person to do this. You know, I think you've got the capacity, everything and then allow them to ask you questions, right?

That's going to reveal a lot of insecurity, you know, just confusion on what they think the meeting is about or what they think it should be.

And really, if it's not very valuable, we don't want them doing the same thing that you've been doing. Right.

If it has gotten to that place where there's no real value, and we do know that it does have a good purpose and it does have a good mission, let's get that going.

Let's get this, you know, bumped up again, operating the way we want it to and everybody on board. Next thing, I want you to walk them through what the purpose is so that they understand it.

If they don't understand the purpose of the meeting and the agenda as well, and how the agenda works, what are they going to do?

They're just going to run it probably right into the ground, or they're going to take it a direction that it was never intended to go in.

So we need to make sure we're spending time with them, explaining to them, this is why this meeting exists, this is why this is important, or this was the original purpose and we need to get back there.

Or we need to make some adjustments for a better purpose, whatever it is, help them to see why, help them to understand, help them to know the agenda and why the agenda exists the way that it does, or change it.

Maybe you need to change the agenda some. So by walking through all of this, this is what's helping to prepare them to take on the task of running this meeting. Right?

This is properly delegating, getting them set up for success, asking them tons of questions, allowing them to ask you tons of questions. All of this gets them exactly where you want them to be and that is prepared.

Next thing I want you to do is let them lead it without you taking, taking any control. Now, it's very simple to allow the first meeting that they're running to be something you explain to the team.

The team has to understand why is so and so now running the meeting, right? So explain that to them and then say, I'm going to, you know, do my best not to jump in on things.

I may jump in from time to time in the, you know, the first meeting or two or three. But then I want you to get to a place where you don't take control. Allow it to happen.

Now, if a lot of your identity comes from speaking up in meetings, you're probably going to take control. If a lot of your worth comes from answering questions and problems and situations and meetings, you're probably going to take control.

You don't have to do that, right? You need to recognize it. And you also need to recognize because your team is going to look to you, physically look at you for answers and responses.

That is a good time to, hey, folks, so and so's heading this up. So let's try and go through so and so first before we look to me for any solutions on stuff, right? Try and allow that person to solve.

Try and allow that person to and help guide the team through solution, right? Get the team to give input, tax the collective intelligence on the team.

You know, what does this look like? How do we solve this? You know, what's the real problem here? All of that stuff.

And then if they ultimately don't get there, then instead of answering, and by the way, you might need some extra time on your meetings while you're doing this.

Try and get the team to answer by asking a ton of questions. So if you know what the solution is, don't just give the solution. Help the team to discover the solution by you asking them a ton of questions, right?

Get them to, as I do my air quotes, "self discovery" by you asking a bunch of questions and they'll get to the answer, right? All of this does, you do all of these things.

It grows not only one leader on your team, but it helps other leaders to get there as well, right? It helps them to, to see what it looks like to lead a meeting and to experience you leading somebody else and experience you delegating.

So not only are you growing one person into some leadership, you're also helping others to recognize it, see if they want that as well. See if they want to be a part of that another thing it does is it frees your time up to lead at a higher level.

Now, the other piece I want you to do, as you look at your calendars, not just look at meetings you're in with team members, ask yourself this very difficult question.

It's very difficult to calculate, and it's difficult sometimes to be honest with yourself. How much actual time am I leading people to success each week?

I can't tell you the number of people that have come back to me and said, Chris, it's literally like five minutes.

I'm not. I'm slammed. I'm so busy with all these other things. Great, let's get those things off your calendar. And then you can lead people to success, which is usually followed with, I don't know how to do that.

Nobody's trained me to do that. Great, we'll teach you that part too. Right, we'll help you with that. But the key here, the key takeaway, is that delegation is not losing control.

It's building leaders. It's helping people become more successful. It's taking more stuff off of your plate. Folks, technically, I don't lead a single meeting. Now, the--

My, my leadership team meeting, you could say I lead that. But even in there, I don't really lead it, right? It's something that we're all operating at the same time.

Not it's a meeting where we're all jumping in on stuff. There's no one individual leading that because my leaders are phenomenal.

They're at that level. They do such a great job. And that is what you want.

Use the Time You Get Back to Actually Lead (00:19:21)

Now, third thing is use the time you get back to actually lead. Do not fill that slot on your calendar with something else that's not leading people, right?

Don't replace it with another meeting that still is doing the same thing. Use that time to sit down with your team. And I just want you to start by answering three questions, right?

Just these three.

Ask a team member what matters most this week, right? Sit down with your team, team members, whatever, and ask what matters most this week?

What on your schedule, what on what you're doing this week, what on what you're working on this week matters the most, and allow them to give that information back to you.

Second thing I want you to ask, once they've given that information and you're able to process through it a little bit, what problem is slowing us down?

It doesn't have to be aligned with the first question. Just ask, what problem is slowing us down? So when you look at your day, your week, your month, your project.

What is the thing that you can point to right now that is literally slowing you down in this process and allow that to come out. Third thing I want you to ask, how can I help you succeed?

So if it's just a one on one, that's obvious, if it's a group, allow each person to answer, how can I help you succeed this week?

How can I help you succeed with what you're trying to accomplish? You see, your leadership time should be focused on clarity. It should be focused on coaching, direction, guiding, helping them get someplace that they wouldn't naturally get to.

This is your opportunity to make them better. This is your opportunity to make them more successful at what they're doing. Now, there's a ton to this. There's a lot of information that helps you become phenomenal at this.

But guys, we're just taking the first step right now. What does it look like for me to help this team member be more successful at what they're doing?

Because if you do, and you've heard me say, your job as a leader is to make your team successful, not the other way around, if you do that, then by default you will become more successful. That's how that works.

So let's get in there and see what we can do.

As far as helping other people, you don't need to do this. You know, you don't need to solve every single problem on their plate this week. You're probably not going to be able to.

But take a look at the time that you have available and ask yourself, how can I help my team or individuals or the person who's struggling the most be more successful this week? The truth is, your team doesn't actually need you in every single meeting.

What they need is your leadership. Leadership doesn't disappear because leaders stop caring. It disappears because calendars quietly fill up with things leaders shouldn't still be carrying.

So audit your calendar. Delegate one meeting and use that space to lead where it actually matters. So those are your. That's my challenge to you. Those are your action items. Audit, delegate. Use the time to lead. Now, if you're realizing your calendar has slowly taken over your leadership, you're not alone.

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Folks. You can't pour from an overwhelmed mind.

So lead intentionally and take all of this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.