MBA982 How To Empower Your Team To Manage Themselves + Free Ride Friday!

Let me tell you about Intuit QuickBooks. When I was starting out my business, I remember sitting at my desk late at night not working on my business but cleaning up numbers, tracking and reconciling payments and wondering how this became my life. But once I automated the admin side of things of my finances, those nights had disappeared and I felt a whole lot better. Outdo it with intuit QuickBooks QuickBooks is the trusted end to end solution that businesses rely on for getting paid, managing finances, paying employees, finding new customers, and more. QuickBooks provides a team of AI agents and trusted experts, so doing it yourself no longer means doing it alone. Their payment agent gets you paid faster, their customer agent finds leads, follows up and secures more sales, and the accounting agent automates and categorizes transactions. Get your critical business jobs done with QuickBooks on the Intuit platform. Ready to Save on new Tech? It's time for Dell Tech Day's annual sales event celebrating our customers with fantastic deals and benefits. Perks include Dell Rewards, free shipping, premium Support and more. PCs like the Dell 14 with Intel Core Ultra processors will help you do more faster and with a premium suite of monitors and accessories, you can upgrade your whole setup with amazing savings. Visit Dell.com deals. Hey there. Today is Free Ride Friday so make sure you hang on to the end of the episode to hear who won this week's Free Ride. Every Friday we give away a lifetime membership to one of our programs. This month we're giving away EZcourse, our 30 day course on how to build an online course in 30 days. It's a $500 value sold over at EasyCourse Co but we give it away for free every Friday. For somebody who's left us a rating and review on itunes we do a weekly random draw and somebody wins. So if you'd like to win, just leave us an iTunes rating and review to enter the Dr. Alright, let's jump into today's episode. Hey O. Welcome to the $100 NBA show because your business needs you at your best. That's why we deliver our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online over at 100mba.net and in today's episode you will learn how to empower your team to manage themselves. We've all heard the term micromanage where you're all over every little thing and part of every single decision. And some of Us, we don't want to micromanage, but we just don't know any other way. So in today's episode, I'm going to show you some simple steps to empower your teammates to manage themselves. So you just put them on task and then just review the results. No need to manage the process or anything in between. This is going to save you time. This is going to save you stress. It's also going to make you enjoy your business a whole lot more. Plus, your employees, your team, are going to like you for it. They're going to love you for it, because, hey, you're trusting them and you're allowing them to grow professionally. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. For some of us, empowering your team sounds great, but it's like, how do I do this? How do I, you know, hand over the reins and give them more responsibility and, and make sure that they're actually doing what they have to do? Well, this is something I had to go through myself, building my businesses, and I was actually forced to do it because our team was growing and I just couldn't manage everybody. I had to start putting people in place to help me manage. So the first step, I would say, is to start thinking about building a management team. You need to have managers in your business. You can't be the only one managing. Now you might be thinking, I can't afford all this. I can't get managers. Well, even if you have one person in each department, they could be the manager because they're going to have to feel empowered to work with other people themselves, because managers talk with other managers. So even if you have just one customer service agent, that's a customer service manager, if you have one person in sales, that's the sales manager. And once you grow, then they'll have people under them that you can have them manage. But by making them a manager, they are starting to understand they're going to have to be responsible for. For their department. They're gonna have to start building their own procedures. Number two, you're gonna have to start taking some risks. Now, they don't have to be huge risks, but let's say, for example, you're building a new project or a new offering or a new feature in your business, your product. I like to have one meeting with the people involved. We discuss what the outcome is. This is what we want out of this project. This is what it should look like at the end when it's out of the oven, right? Like the turkey out of the oven in the cooking show. Here are my recommendations of how to get to that result. Now I need you guys who are on this meeting, your teammates, the people that you've hired to get to this result. You can take my advice, you could take some of it, you could take all of it. Point here is that this is what we need. If there's a budget involved, this is your budget, this is the timeline, this is when it's due, this is the deadline, and go ahead and do it. You are responsible for the result. You have to give them that responsibility. Tell them that they're responsible, this is their job now. And that you'll be checking in on a regular basis online, whether it's email or with some task management software like Basecamp. And you don't have to check in every day, but you can check in periodically, once a week or something like that. The point is that you got to tell them, hey, you guys got to work together, you got to meet on your own, you got to discuss, you got to have your own chats. If you need my help, I'm happy to join and help out. I want you guys to take on this project. I learned this technique from Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. He mentioned this in his autobiography, Shoe Dog, where he says he likes to tell people what he expects and let them surprise him. He says, tell people what you expect and let them surprise you. Don't tell them how to do things, don't hold them by the hand. Tell them this is the result we need. It's your job to get there. You have the freedom, the autonomy to go ahead and do that. Make it happen. I do this all the time. And let me give you an example. We just released a new feature on Webinar Ninja which allows people to use their own thank you pages. You can use Webinar Ninjas thank you pages. This, this is the confirmation page a user would see after they register for a webinar. But now we implemented a new feature where you can have your own thank you page or you can host your own thank you page on your own site and forward your registrants to that page. So obviously that takes a lot of coding. It takes a lot of design. You gotta change the UI and the user interface in the software. So it's a bit of a project. It's gonna take a few weeks. So I met with our lead developer, our designer and our front end developer and I told them this is what the experience needs to be for the user. The they asked me some questions, they told Me, okay, when's the deadline, when we need to get this done? And I just asked them, so what's the first step? And do you need anything from me? Well, they said the first step is that we need to document this whole feature so that if anybody's involved in this project, they could just follow the document so they know how everything is supposed to function. It's hard to remember everything in a meeting. So my lead developer will write up a document, he'll send it to me and say, hey, does this sound good? Is this exactly what you want? I may make some modifications or say, nope, that's exactly what I want. And that's exactly what I said. Great, thank you. And from there he hands it over to the designer. The designer works on the design, has the looks and aesthetics, might chime in with me and say, hey, do you like this look or this look? Or might chime in with the whole team. Although say, this is what I like. What do you guys think? So by this time, by the time she finished the design, it's a few days in and I'm spending five minutes just to look at a design done. She then gets on a call on a video call with the front end developer and says, hey, this is the design we need to implement on our ui. Let me show you exactly how it functions, what it looks like. Here's a mock up. This is what happens when you click this. So what happens when you click that? All that stuff. Vernon Rail develops it, makes sure the designer is happy with it, then goes back to the lead developer. Lead developer codes the backend and then sends it to support to say, hey, test this out, make sure there are no bugs. So you get the point. I'm not really involved that much other than just, hey, I like the way this looks and that initial meeting, I gotta empower my team to make all the decisions to make all the meetings to hand over things. That's why it's important to have that first meeting, so everybody understands what the procedure is. Step one Design. Step one Step two Implementation. Front end. Step three Backend. Step four Testing. Step five Go live. Right. I highly recommend using some sort of project management software, whether it's Trello or Basecamp. We use Basecamp. We love it because it has these great to dos and everybody's notified. Great way to collaborate, especially when you have a remote team like ours. So empower your team to make decisions and take it on another strategy. Go on a management hiatus. What does that mean? Is that at some point you're going to have to go on vacation or you're going to have to take a break. So whether you're taking a two week vacation or a month vacation, whatever it is, you need to kind of prepare your team that, hey, I'm going away soon and I'm not going to be available. I'm shutting off completely. You can't ping me, you can't email me if there's an emergency. You know, I just have my lead developer or my manager call me on the phone. If I don't get a phone call, I'm not talking to anybody. But you got to prepare your team for that. So one of the things I like to do is give them tasks, tell them this is the result we need and this is the deadline. When I get back, I'm going to check on you, check on what's going on, and I need this done. You need to work it out. You got to figure it out by letting them know that, hey, you're not around to micromanage and that they have to manage themselves. It's gonna empower them. They're like, okay, I gotta do this. I have a result that I have to meet. You know, the founder of the company is not around. I can't reach out to him, nor will he or she nag me or remind me of things right now. This is gonna take a little bit of trust on your end. You're gonna feel like, oh, I hope they're doing the work, hope that they're doing their thing, hope everything's going well. You just got to trust in it and you got to kind of pull off the band aid. And you may want to do this in steps. I started this about four years ago where we took one week off, shut off completely. Then we did two weeks and three weeks. And then now eventually we can get a month where everybody's on task and everybody's working with each other to reach that goal. Now, a couple warnings. One, you can't empower and completely hand over the reins from day one of employment. Got to show people how you expect things to be done in the beginning or have somebody do that for you. Whether it's a manager or, or somebody you have in place, you have to set the tone, the culture in your business. Once they're set, after a few months or so, they can carry on those values. And as your team grows, new people will feel the environment immediately. Wow. Everybody's doing things on their own. They're empowered. We're working together. I'm not being micromanaged. This is great. Now A word of warning. Not everybody can do this. Not everybody can be empowered and feel like, hey, I can do things on my own. I like this. Some people don't like not being micromanaged. They want to be micromanaged. They won't do anything unless they are spoon fed the information or the tasks. At this point, you have to reevaluate that hire. You have to talk to that person and say, hey, in this team, we empower people to do things. If you need, you know, directives every single day, this is not gonna work out. So we have a couple options. Either we have a plan so you can transition into this new way and you can learn to feel empowered and understand that you don't get to be micromanaged here, or we part ways right now. And there's nothing wrong with that. Some people just are not a good fit. And you're not gonna know that sometimes until you actually hire them. Some people, you have to tell them to do something three or four times before they understand it's important. That's a no go in our business. If I have to say it once, it's maybe too many times. No, but seriously, I probably don't have to say anything more than once to any of our teammates because they got it. They know it's important. They know they have to do it. And a lot of times I don't have to say anything at all. They know it's expected. I also want to emphasize this takes time. It takes time. It took me years to get to the point where, where I am today. And I still have a lot ways to go. My goal is to be able to step away from the business for six months and have it run on its own. I'm nowhere near that yet. That's my goal. But again, it takes time. It takes the right talent. It takes cultivating the right team, nurturing that team and making sure they know you're appreciating them. And building that trust in that relationship takes time. ADP knows anything can change the world of work. Like, what if a blocked shipping port caused a worldwide coffee shortage? Suddenly, businesses are scrambling to manage an increasingly drowsy workforce. Productivity slips 20% just due to the extended time it takes to conduct a job interview while yawning. Anything can change the world of work. From HR to payroll. ADP helps businesses take on the next anything. ADP always designing for people.

Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals, like business management, strategic planning, and effective communication. And you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at Capella Eduardo.

Now, at the start of the episode, I talked about having managers in your business, even if it's just one person per department and that person runs the whole department. As you start growing, and let's say, for example, your customer service team starts growing and you have, you know, three or four agents and a manager. Not everybody you hire is a leader. Some people may want to be a leader, and that's good, and some people just don't want to be a leader. Your job as the founder, as the manager, as a person who leads your team is to identify these qualities is to look out for people that can be great managers in the future and to groom them. Have them shadow the manager that's there now. Have them fill in when that manager is out sick or is on vacation. Always should think of a backup plan for your managers. You got to start grooming people before you need them because, hey, if they're really good, there's a good chance they might do something else in the future. So be prepared. Make sure that you groom people that have the inclination to be a leader. And my last piece of advice is that if you do empower your team to do something to take on a project and it doesn't go perfectly well, they fail, they miss the deadline, something happens. It doesn't mean, oh, I can't let them have any power. I have to micromanage them again. It just means you need to refine your process. You have to debrief and sit down with them and say, hey, why didn't this work out? Why did we miss a deadline? Why didn't we complete the project and hear from them, find out what they struggled with and, and see how you can help them in those areas and give it another shot. They might need a little bit more of your help. Maybe the procedure wasn't clear. Maybe they didn't know what to do next or who to hand over to find out, rectify those problems and give it another shot. Maybe make the next shot a smaller scope project so they can get a win, get them a win so they can feel like, yes, we could do this. We can manage ourselves, and we got this, right? Well, there you have it, guys. Well, that wraps up today's lesson. But today's Episode's not over. It's Free Ride Friday. I gotta give away a lifetime membership to ezcourse, our 30 day course on how to build an online course in 30 days over at ezcourse Co. Every Friday we do a weekly random draw with anybody who's left us an iTunes rating and review. Let's see who won this week's free ride. And the winner is. Litcentric.com lit centric says just the right topics. 5 stars. The topics on the show are not only interesting, but they're timely too. The content is just the right size, length and scope to be useful. Thank you for the valuable listen. I'm looking forward to all the episodes.

Thank you.

Thank you, litcentric for that amazing review. You are our free ride Friday winner. Just email me at omar00mba.net so I can hook you up with your free ride to ezcourse. Every week we do this, so if you haven't left us a rating and review on itunes, do it now so you can enter our weekly random draw. All right, that's it for me, guys. But before I go, I want to leave you with this. Being a great manager and a great leader is a lifetime pursuit. It just takes time to get better and better and learn through experiences. Everybody has their own style. Everybody has their own way of doing things. But there are certain practices, certain things that I shared with you today that just work and make your life easier. So give them a try. All right? On Monday's episode. Our next episode is a guest teacher episode with Joey Coleman, a great speaker, a great author, and he's going to be teaching you how to counter buyer's remorse. You know that feeling when people buy something and afterwards they're like, oh, did I make the right decision? You got to make sure that you tell them, yes, you did make the right decision. Make sure they know that it's a great experience. How do you counter that? Buyer's remorse. We'll talk about that. Or actually, Joey will talk about it in his guest teacher lesson. Hit subscribe so you don't miss it. And until then, take care.

Of Is it time to reimagine your future? The right business skills may make a difference in your career. At Capella University, we offer a relevant education that's designed to focus on what you need to know in the business world. We'll teach professional skills to help you pursue your goals, like business management, strategic planning, and effective communication. And you can apply these skills right away. A different future is closer than you think. With Capella University learn more at Capella, Eduardo.