How To Delegate Smartly: Break The Doing Habit

The Doing Mind vs. The Thinking, Solving, Equipping, Delegating (TSED) Mind

We recently had some heroic clients in discussing their transition from the first mountain into the second mountain.  All clients coming into the Business On Purpose coaching experience begin at Basecamp where they are equipped and installed with the base-level tools to begin operating their business on purpose.

These tools systematize four primary areas of priority; purpose, people, process, and profit.

At basecamp, imagine each person is getting fitted with the appropriate business harness and then we begin outfitting them with the tools of a written vision story, master process roadmap, subdivided bank accounts and dashboards, and about 23 other tools that are often either missing, or in partial form.

Upon being outfitted and equipped at basecamp, we begin climbing the business owner's first mountain where each of these tools both for the owners and key leaders are implemented and tested.  

After proving to themselves the utility of these tools and enduring a few slips and falls, the owner and key leaders then begin to set their minds on the second mountain.  While it takes a few years to become equipped and acclimated; owners on the second mountain climb realize that the equipment and testing they received were necessary for the second mountain climb, and yet no amount of training could prepare them for the mindset shift needed to make the important move from the “doer” to the “thinker/solver”.

While in this recent meeting, I was physically watching our clients wrestle in their minds with the death of their “doer” mind and the awkward adolescent growth of their “thinking and solving” mind.

A phrase we remind our heroic owners often is, “You must move from task-leadership to people-leadership.”

And remember, tasks never talk back.  Tasks don’t project emotion.  Tasks move when you want them to move, and don’t move when you let them sit.  

People are very different.  

As we worked through this death and new life scenario we stumbled upon a paradox; the doing loop vs. the thinking/solving/equipping/delegating (TSED) loop.

Here is how it works.

For those caught in the doing loop, more doing will always be their answer to challenges that should require thinking/solving/equipping/delegating (TSED) instead.

The doing then cascades into a death spiral of sorts.

Doing then leads to working too long.

Working too long leads to burnout.

Burnout leads to frustration and perpetual negativity.

The negativity is eased briefly due to an increase in short-term income (because the doing produces more immediate response).

The irritation and money then responds with consumption; consuming food, stuff, or anything that will numb the pain of more doing.

The consumption leads to emptiness which breeds bitterness.

The bitterness will spur one of two responses: more doing (leading to more spiraling) or opting out of the business altogether and doing something else.

The doing loop is endless until it is broken either by brokenness, or broken through a willful desire to begin thinking/solving/equipping/delegating.

When an owner decides to forego the easy solution of “just doing it myself” and instead leans into the thinking/solving/equipping/delegating (TSED) loop, then will then break the cycle and find joy. 

How?

Think about a small fire that is burning in your business right now.  Just one.  You could go put that fire out yourself right now.  You get the joy of feeling like a micro-superhero if only for a moment and the problem is solved…for now.

The downside is that you have likely left your team feeling inadequate and certainly ill-equipped to handle the problem in the future which means you have signed yourself up for a lifetime of doing.  

Or make a different choice.

The TSED model works like this.

Fire starts burning and instead of you rushing in with all of your gear to put it out, you stop.

You see the problem which invites you to think about a solution.  

Once you have documented or recorded the solution, you then equip another person to permanently extinguish that fire every time it flares up in the future.  

The delegation comes when you actually prepare the training, trust the other person to execute on the training, and then have a set follow-up to get a report back on progress. 

You have now shown dignity, humanity, and leadership to another person while saving yourself hours of time and frustr