Have you ever sat in the backseat of your own car?
It’s a little strange to sit in any seat other than the drivers, but the backseat somehow amplified that strangeness for me on a recent road trip. I will say that it got me to think about the other areas of my life and question why I am compelled to always be in the driver’s seat.
Although I have no trouble delegating, I have tremendous difficulty letting go once I delegate. I’m a process driven person and if you ask my staff they will probably tell you that you can physically see me twitching if someone deviates from a process. With that said, efficiency is equally as important so if by deviating we come to the same outcome and save time, then we need to rewrite the process. I’m learning that it doesn’t need to be me that writes, tests, rewrites, tests again etc.
When I became a supervisor for the first time, it was for the customer service department of a courier company, I remember thinking how great it was that I can still do my same job and I get paid more money. What I quickly figured out was that what bothered me before about those that worked alongside me was now my responsibility to fix. I never wanted to look bad to my boss so I always checked and double checked everything, and so a control freak was born.
I’m certain most business owners have often thought they can’t take time off because everything will fall apart. I know because I’m one of them and you know what? I did take that time off and it didn’t fall apart. It is a matter of trust, either you do or you don’t, and if you don’t learn to you will always NEED to be in the driver’s seat.
Making the commitment to be conscious of those moments when we need to take perspective by taking the backseat is so important to every individual, business owner or not. I am amazed how many times in the last few weeks I have had to stop myself from asking the “did you do….” questions after handing a task off, but am grateful that now I am stopping myself, most of the time.
