Delegation Decoded: Freeing Up Your Time with Michelle Bambenek

Welcome back to another episode in our season of AI versus va. Today we have Michelle Bambinek, who is an expert at not only delegating to people, but helping other people learn to delegate to other people. Michelle has been on the show repeatedly and I'm so excited for you to listen to this powerful episode. It's going to teach you everything you wish you knew about delegation, everything you're doing right, and all the things you could be doing better to get you freed up. But we're going to talk about VAs. We're going to talk about artificial intelligence and how the same techniques that successfully allow us to free ourself up with regular in state human beings are the same things that we're going to do with VAs overseas as well as artificial intelligence. It is a game changing episode. Let's jump in. Well, Michelle, thank you so much for being back on Willpower. I'm sorry. Grateful that you chose to came back. I know most people know who you are, but why don't you introduce yourself again and really this time highlight your company. I don't think we've ever really talked about your company.

Well, I appreciate it. It's always nice to be back. I am the CEO of Rockstar Consulting. Rockstar Consulting is a company that really assists practice owners in the physical therapy space on really growing their teams and hiring, training and retaining their team members. And I'm primarily known for working with clinical directors and admin teams and really empowering them to build their practices and help offload the owners.

Yeah, you've been doing this for years now. I remember when we were partners in our old rehab company, how I just told you you were like the clinic director. Whisper. Repeat listeners will remember that. But now you've done it. How many people do you think you've. How many companies do you think you've helped over the last three years?

Oh, gosh, that's a good question. And it's one that I should probably go back and look at. But when I look back at just seeing how impactful it is, it seems like millions. I mean, it seems like it's not enough. Right. You know, it's one of those things that, like, there's so much within our space in our industry that is untapped that I just feel like I'm scratching the surface. Although it's a number of people that I've been benefited by being able to aid and support, it's not enough.

You got a lot of people out there who are desperately trying to get help. Obviously, you know, you've helped dozens and dozens. And for today's episode, you know, we're in this AI versus VA space of debating that. But really the global thing about this show with this new season and this rebrand is about freeing people up. So, you know, this is something you've helped, obviously other people do. You've done it for yourself.

Right?

What drives you with your current role as CEO of Rockstar Consulting? What is your passion? Like, why did you choose to go into that?

You know what? I really love empowering people. And it started with empowering myself to be a better version of myself on a day to day basis and being a leader in not only what I was able to provide my patients as a provider, but then I've always loved leadership. I've loved growing with people, I've loved growing teams. And this has just been like that springboard through my physical therapy career and just seeing how the beauty of a team and what it can do for not only each other and for a company and an organization, the way that it grows, but also how that extends to the patients in the community. And that's a bit of why I want to do and continue to do what I do is because I see so much of an ability to impact a greater number of people by empowering people in individual leadership. So you and I always talk about the the primary purpose of a leader is to grow other leaders. And that's what I feel like I'm on this earth to do.

Yeah, man, it's so cool to watch it happen too. And obviously we've been connected now for a long time. We just had another work anniversary together a few weeks ago. How many years is that now?

14 years.

Come on. If hiring employees feels like dating apps full of ghosting and disappointment, you need to be at The Rockstar Summit March 6th through 8th, right here in sunny Arizona. This event is laser focused on one thing, helping you recruit, train and retain top tier talent so your practice runs like a dream. Instead of a dumpster fire, you'll get proven systems, real world strategies and a community that gets it. Plus just enough fun to make it feel like a reward, not a retreat. So visit www.virtualrockstar.com events to secure your spot before we sell out. And we will sell out. See you in March, Rockstar. It's so interesting to see how we have the shared passion over building teams and how that's the solution ultimately for becoming free. But we're going to talk about lots of different things today. Rockstars, as you're listening because you Know, Michelle is a delegation expert, so we're going to hit into that, but we're going to talk about how this delegation thing goes into virtual assistants and AI, but just concepts in general around how to delegate, how to get things off our plate. The difference maybe between delegation and dumping, all of those things. Let's start with that. Michelle, what do you think the difference is between delegation and dumping?

Delegation and dumping is very distinct in the fact that delegation is explicit with instructions and it is very spelled out on exactly what done looks like. So you're like painting done the exact product of the end in mind, like the ideal scene. What does it look like to have this completed activity process, you know, whatever that work is being done, you know, maybe system meeting, rhythm, whatever it is, it's actually outlined specifically. Dumping is a flyby, like, hey, I need you to do that. And it's like there's no deadline attached, there's no specifics. So people are left to assume kind of what that leader or that person that kind of did that fly by. Dumping, right, is like asking of them, like, well, do they want it tomorrow? Do they want it yesterday? Do they want it next week? How much time do I have to do it? Am I spending a week on it? Is this two hours? Right? Like, those are the types of things that are really helpful in like the delegation versus dumping phase. You know, Bernie Brown calls it painting it done. Like, what does a done finished product look like? If you're asking for me to pull stats, it's is that bi weekly, is that monthly, is that year over year stats, things like that that are helpful in aiding our team members on what really is needed and wanted from them.

Yeah, that's a big separation there. And it's interesting because we still have to apply some of these things you talked about when working with artificial intelligence. ChatGPT is only as good as the prompts in this case, I would say the information that we would use in delegation to do that. So do you find that most of your clients when it comes to delegation, are they the ones who struggle with it? Is it just because it's never been taught to them before? Is it a style thing? Like, what do you think? Is it a mindset thing? Like, what do you think gets in the way of people who aren't successfully delegating, who are trying?

You know what? I think delegation is born out of a necessity and sometimes it's at the level to where it's now like an urgent need and it becomes dumping.

So I think, oh, like they're burned out. And they're just kind of like, hey, I can't do this anymore, John, you're on it.

I need it off my plate. Like, it's yours. Like, you've come in, I've hired my director and now this is yours. When that director comes in and they're like, I don't even know what yours means. What does that even look like to me?

Yeah, totally.

And so this idea of having somebody come in, even for a pt, like you hire somebody, we get really excited about a new hire that's coming in. They may not even know the EMR. And we've got them stacked with like 12 patients, 18 patients a day. And it's like, I don't even know up from down or where the theraband is. Right. That's also a difficulty in making sure that we're setting our team up for success. So although, like, delegation is like an important and very necessary thing for leaders to do, if not done correctly, we err on the dumping. And I think it's because we wait too long to realize, like, what is it that I should own? What is it that I need off my plate? What is it that gives me joy and energy? And what is it that is pulling away from my greatest capacity and driving this business forward? And who can I give this to?

Yeah, it feels like dumping is a reactive mechanism is how you described it. When people are burned out versus delegation is a intentional proactive activity. Is that fair to say?

Yeah, very fair.

So why do people wait so long?

That's a really good question. And quite honestly, I think a number of things play into why people wait so long. I think there is a pride thing that might run into it.

Like, no one can do it better than me.

No one can do it better than me. A control thing that also runs into that same vein. There might be a cost point, like, who is going to take this on? There might be an idea of like, I don't even know what this is, so how can I really effectively pass this?

How can you delegate something you don't understand?

Which is very true. And that's really a hard thing to do. So there's a number of different things that can lead to that. Those are a few that come off the top of my head.

You know, one thing that I know, for me recently I was in charge of something at church and for me at a company, I don't feel like. I feel like I've mastered delegation at a company level. But I waited too long because I was just too afraid There you go. I was too afraid. I was worried about like burning people out. And I don't know if that wasn't true for me as a leader back when we were partners at Rise Rehab as well, because, you know, back when I felt like the team wasn't quite the rockstar team that we ended up having, it was one of those where I was always worried about people quitting anyway for sure. So I only would delegate when it was such burnout that I just needed help. And frankly, I was frustrated. Like, I'd be in that energy of like frustration and anger and I always wondered. And then it like perpetuated the lie, which is that no one can do it better than me because I was only dumping it when I was at a burnout point. So for you, tell the audience how you understand this element because you and I were partners and in a multi location private practice. Tell me about a time when you were really feeling that, that overwhelm and how you finally like realized that you had to do something about that.

Well, I think it was born really off the idea of seeing that through our relationship and realizing that there was this beauty of like how we work together and this protection of each other. I think we all do this as leaders too. Of like, I don't want to give that to them because they're overburdened. You mentioned this, right? Like, I'm just like, I don't want to lose them, I don't want to overburden them. So I'll take that.

Yeah.

Well, if you're working closely with your partner and you're seeing that and you honor each other for the humanity that you bring, you start to realize, like, okay, like, I see you and you see me. Well, what can I do to support you so that you can grow this bigger thing for us together?

Right? You take your piece, I take mine. We grow it together.

We grow it together. So it was like in this moment where, you know, this was before I had grown into my partnership level and I was a clinical director. I was like, my biggest ability to get there is to offload you so that I could get to a position where I was running the clinics and you were growing the practice.

So your beginning of that was really helping. So I didn't realize that, and this is very touching that the first step into like getting more control was to help offload me because of who you are. And I'm sure everyone's like, well, how do I hire a Michelle? And it's like, you know, that's true. That like, when you offloaded me, then I was able to support you better. And then we worked together to getting things off of your plate through this thing called delegation.

Absolutely.

So what would you say were some of the key. Like, looking backwards at Rise Rehab, what would you say were some of the key things that. That you did to delegate to a team of, you know, of directors with multiple locations? Like, what were some of those things that you did successfully to delegate those duties? They didn't have. They weren't on your plate?

Yeah, sure. Good question. First of all, it was outlining the ideal scene of the company as a whole. Where was it that we were going? Right. And in that moment, like, being able to realize, like, every single person has a component part within that. So having a strategy in place for everyone and knowing that every single one person is no more important than the other, and everybody has an equal ability to carry the load. And so that looked like accountability for every single team member across the board.

And so you say accountability. What did that look like?

Yeah, that's a good question. So that looked like reporting statistics, making sure that you were showing up to your shift on time, that you were honoring meeting times and meeting rhythms, and you were really just kind of supporting the team, the mission and purpose and values, and just living as a member of the team as a whole. It's like, we're all marketers. We all have a play in making sure that we're getting team members busy and getting new patients in the door. So it was just like this lift that wasn't so heavy because everybody was a part of it.

Yeah.

And so that was a delegation of an ownership to everybody. Not like ownership isn't doership, but there is one person that was in charge of making sure things were going right. But it didn't mean that everybody didn't have a responsibility to make sure things were going right.

Okay, that's a huge point. Let's double. Let's dig on that a little bit. Ownership isn't doership. What does that look like? Give us an illustration. Examples.

Okay, so let's just say for a clinical director, we have a target for a company to hit a certain. Certain metric. Right. Knowing that every single metric is tied to humanity. Right. The people and the. The community that we get to impact. So you have a target operationally to hit X number of visits.

Yeah, and I like that you're highlighting this thing, Michelle, about, like, keeping. You said that at the beginning when you. What was the first step in delegation that you mentioned? It was like Having a clear vision.

Yeah.

Like if you don't have an overarching culture and vision. And so you mentioned that. Right. Going back to this example of a director clinic that you're working with together with that person that they know how that aligns with the end in mind. So that's a big piece of that always.

Right. Like why proceeds how. Always. If we don't have the why, it's next to impossible to be able to effectively delegate and get your team to actually back it up.

Maybe that's why people delegate and they don't feel like people aren't doing as good of a job is because they don't understand the why. I wonder.

No, I mean, that's a really good point. Right. Because I really like that. Say more.

No, I just think I'm just. I actually just said that because you said it. What I'll say about it, the way it landed for me when you said that was when we can. When we can delegate from a place of having it aligned with why it matters.

Yes.

Then people are more open to do it. Because for me, when I'm dumping and I'm just like, drive by dumping, as you call it, where it's like, I need you to do these five things. I'm in a position where I'm not like, saying, hey, John, this is why I want. This is the. This is the task. Here's how it aligns with what we're doing, short or long term. Here's the why behind it. Here's why I am asking you to do it. And it's interesting because in the first episode of this season was with Lance Gross, and he could not say the word delegate. He has multiple companies. He took two weeks basically in the Bahamas and came back to no work. So he's mastered delegation, but he couldn't say delegate. And I said, why do you. Why is that? And he goes, because it's not delegation. It's empowering others to progress. He goes, if I'm holding onto it, that perspective and mind shift was so big. So, like, that would be a why versus a how. It's like, hey, instead of a problem being solved and who's the unfortunate soul? It's like, hey, who's on the team that would benefit from learning how to figure this out for me or do the task itself? So maybe that's why people aren't successful in delegating is because they don't communicate that.

They don't communicate the why. Yeah. And working without a why or a purpose or even a target of which to achieve. It's kind of fruitless. Right?

Yeah.

So to continue the illustration, right. Like you have that purpose and that drive for that clinic and it's understanding that and realizing that every single team member has a component part to play in that. So it's having that clinical lead disseminate that information, cascade that down to each one of the team members. The physical therapist. Physical therapist assistant. Showing the rehab coaches or the technicians and, and everybody how they play an impact in that and making sure that they have a statistic that's tied to it so that when they come to our team meeting and we're able to like show how we influenced that in a positive direction, that is the doership, not necessarily the ownership. Right. Like going to the owner, they're actually not the ones that are on the hook for the total visit count at the end of the week.

Right.

Even though they are reporting that and have their ownership piece to the clinical director.

Okay. So that. Yeah. So the director would own the total visits.

Correct.

But he wouldn't. He or she wouldn't own the total visits per person. That would be the pts owning that.

Owning that.

And so the owner would own what the gross and net income is that their stats. Okay. So they have. So everyone owns their stats. But tell me now about that relationship because now that we have different owners.

Sure.

I'm sure everyone listening rock stars can relate to someone saying that's not my job.

Right.

So how does ownership and, and doership or accountability and responsibility related to each other?

Yeah. So accountability being the person that counts, the person that carries that statistic, that is the person that owns that area of work, that is the person that is going to have to answer to that. If that's an upstat or a down stat doesn't mean people don't celebrate with them. And people aren't necessarily on a position of like having to answer to their component part of it if it doesn't go right. But just like we're not the janitors of, you know, our facility, if we see a piece of paper on the floor in the middle of our clinic, we don't walk over it. We pick that up. It is our responsibility to make sure that our, our facility is clean and presentable for our, for our company, for our clients, for our team members. Like it's a presentable thing. It's, it's doing right by the company. And that's our responsibility as team members who are purpose driven and value aligned that are working towards a uniform goal and target and so there's just this uniformity of like, hey, if I can make your life easier, that concept of who's our customer? Right. If I can do anything and everything to assist you in your job and making it better or easier, then I want to do that. Right.

Yeah.

And it's not at the expense of mine. Right. It's not like I'm bleeding out because I'm just going to, like, serve others. But in serving and serving, you get that give and take from the concept of, like, give and take from Adam Grant. Right. Like, you give and give, and you'll see that reciprocity come right back to you. And so the accountability and responsibility. I kind of went on a tangent, but it's.

It's a good one.

It's a good one. So accountability, you. You're the one that answers to that. But other people along your communication line are also responsible for making that go. Right.

Okay, so here's. That's a great point. I love that analogy of picking over the. Stepping over the paper and cleaning it up because, like, that's. Everyone's responsible. So, like the PT or the medical professional who says, well, it's not my job to get new patients. It's like, no, it's all of our jobs. You're just not accountable for it. Meaning if there's a marketing effort, when you're slow, you're responsible for helping things go. Right?

That's right.

But here's the big but. Let's use that example of someone stepping over that piece of trash. Like, the CEO is walking out at the end of the night and there's a piece of trash. They decide, I'm responsible. I'm as equal across the board as everyone else. I pick up that trash and throw it away. How is that not enabling the employee who was responsible for keeping the clinic clean from not doing their job correctly?

Sure.

That's kind of just a devil's advocate question for you.

Yeah, I guess in those types of situations, I would look for consistency in that manner. Like, at that point, I'm like, by demonstration showing that I'm not above that situation where I'm going to be able to, you know, graciously pick down and pick up the trash. Now, if that becomes a repeated process, then at that point, I'm having a conversation with the person who is having that as their job.

So it's a crucial. It's both things. It's a coach conversation and it's stepping in at the same time.

Yeah, 100%.

Yeah.

So if it's a You know, it might be an opportunity of like, oh, I'll get that. You know, and somebody sees you or, you know, you've done this and I've done this before, I'm sure. Like, oh, I'll get that. And you're like, it's okay. I got the. I got the laundry. I can change it.

Right.

I've been changing laundry in the back office. And one of the rehab coaches will come back and be like, oh, I got that. It's like, no, it's okay. I'm here. I can. I can fix it.

Yeah. There's an opportunity at that point to serve on a selected individual basis. As long as we're not, like, the person, like, never even thinks about, well, she's doing it, who cares?

Yes.

Like, that's the difference in that element there. That's really powerful in delegation because as we're looking at just freeing people up as the global theme that has come up repeatedly in the previous episodes. Okay, so you being an expert in that has been very useful. And then I think what we're going to get to here, Rockstars, as you're listening, is how delegation concepts that we're teaching aren't just going to free you up in your immediate team, but how you're going to leverage technology like AI and GAS to do that. So let's talk about, like, tools. You talked about, like, what it looks like to delegate and accountability and meetings. But what tools do you use to communicate or to delegate?

To delegate. So there's different things that you can utilize to delegate. There's different software systems. And now being far removed from being in a clinic myself.

Right. You're no longer in a clinical.

I'm no longer in a clinic. I work with a lot of clinic teams, and they use different types of software to kind of do a school scoreboard type of thing. I know we've used Zoho, that has a lot of stat tracking and things like that, which will actually create, like, an accountability, which, in essence is a little bit of a delegation by demonstration, but also visibility.

So you're talking like a job. Like, did you say job scorecard or did you say scoreboard?

Scoreboard, Sorry.

So that's what Alex Ermosi was telling me. He was saying how having a visible display of the statistics is an immediate, like, accountability holder and immediately implies certain delegations.

Oh, 100%. So you've been watching basketball, right?

Yeah.

Okay. How many times are you looking at the scoreboard?

Constantly.

Constantly.

I'm actually at the point now where I've got those apps and I'm looking at individual stats.

Right. Why?

Because it helps me understand what's happening.

Okay. What else?

It's super exciting and it's fun to see. Like, I can root for the players and like, for me, certain players, if they're not performing, I get angry at them because I feel like, come on, man, step it up. Because you don't know when you're just watching the game.

Right.

Because all you see is the movement and you have a sense of what's going on. But the stats tell the story.

Tells the story. Right. Okay. And what does that tell the team?

Oh, what needs to happen? Decisions.

How they're gonna win. How can we expect our frontline team members to know how to win if they don't know the score?

So it's interesting how technology is utilized to help create accountability and even delegation.

Yeah. It's not why we do the thing. Right. We're here to impact lives and change them for the better, but it's how we know we're making that impact. Right. And that's where, like, it's misconceived that these, like. Oh, you're just about stats. And it's like, no, we leverage these tools, these AIs and like these scoreboards and things like that so that we can make a greater impact. Right. It's actually freeing us up. We're not there doing the stats and we're. And pulling them on our own. Like, let's leverage AI. Let's leverage our VAs to help us pull those so that we can put our time and attention on the skills we went to school to learn. Yeah, Right. And it's like, that is the power of leveraging those types of services and those. That type of industry to make us that much more efficient and be able to. I mean, those are delegations. Right. Like in that direction. But it's also showing us, like, how we win better.

It's a total mindset thing, I'm realizing, because you can have AI and VA from what you just said, supporting you in this journey of getting free. But if you're not clear on, like, you know, empowering versus delegating and definitely delegating versus dumping.

Yes.

And you don't understand the power of these things, like metrics, then it really isn't going to make that big of a difference for most of our listeners because they have to understand these concepts prior to even utilizing it. Because what those things are doing is va. For example, you've got to know how to delegate really well. Otherwise if you're not going to come in, magically figure things out, like they might have a knowledge base you don't have, or AI might have a knowledge base you don't to have have. But if you don't know how to properly assess delegation and responsibility and accountability, you're screwed.

Absolutely. It's going to take a very specific and very unique individual to come in and read your mind. Right.

I think they're called fortune tellers.

Yeah. To know effectively what you're going to do or what you want to do or what your target is or where you're going in your business. Like, you need to have that outlined and delineated for them to be successful in their position.

Yeah.

Which is the truth for anybody in our organization. Vas and aside. Right. Like anyone so oftentimes, even just our, our team members, our pts and our front office team members, if they don't know those things, they're not going to be successful in their positions.

Yeah.

And so this delegation, this concept of delegation goes all the way back to your vision, your purpose, values, and knowing exactly what you're wanting to achieve through your, your, your organization, your business.

Yeah. And it's interesting because I remember the tools that we used to use at Rise Rehab would actually have a paper scoreboard where we'd print out graphs, whereas now there's like these digital ones that you can do through Zoho. Zoho is one, there's a whole bunch of others. Are there any other tools, whether they be paper or whether they be digital, that you use to helping delegate?

Yeah. So I still leverage even just Excel or Google sheets, stat sheets. So those are just a means of communication from clinical team members to clinical directors where they'll go in and input their stats for the week. So there's a visual representation of how they're tracking. So then that can be represented and put into like a Zoho or any type of scoreboarding stat sheet.

Oh, cool.

So, and some of our EMRs will have that too. They'll have a running, you know, sheet on them. I'm not sure exactly all of those because I've been removed from them, but I know that some of them have a dashboard, so to speak, that keeps that on track. But I find whenever we have our team members actually physically entering in their numbers, there's a greater sense of ownership, but also an acknowledgement of their work towards it.

Okay.

And then there's a bit more, I think, initiative towards achieving a goal versus a retrospective look at like, oh, I guess I didn't hit it or. Oh, yeah, I hit bonus. It's like they are continually working towards that target that they have.

I love that.

Yeah. An agreement with the company.

Yeah. I'm going to. Before we get into the va AI Specific elements of offloading our listeners and the rock stars. I think it'd be really fun if we did a role play where you delegate something to me.

Oh, gosh.

So let's do a role play where you are delegating to me as someone who's a direct report of yours to. To get something done. Maybe. You're the CEO. I'm a clinic director.

Okay.

And you're asking me to do. Let's do something small so it's not like this like, ongoing metric thing. It's more of a task. Let's just do a simple task that you're delegating me. What would be a good task?

I'm going to have you communicate the new PTO policy to the team.

Okay. So we have a new PTO policy and you're delegating to me, the clinic director. How. How that works. So demonstrate for the rock stars here what that would. That conversation would look like. And then whatever else you tell, then tell me what else you would do behind it. Like if there's any written communication.

Yeah, for sure. Okay. So first of all, I would come prepared with the new written up PTO policy.

Okay.

Okay.

And assuming we've had conversations on this already and I've already accepted it, but you're just wanting me to communicate it.

So. Okay, so you're already in agreement of knowing what it is.

Yes.

Okay.

So I know what it is and I agree to it to kind of save time.

Okay. Rock stars. He's. I've cleared all disagreements or questions that he might have because that's important in the delegation. Because if he has questions then that are unanswered, he is going to likely not be able to support it as effectively if he doesn't.

I see. So no matter how small it is like this, a PTO policy is a big one. So especially in a case like this. But even if it's as small as, like, hey, I want you to go find a new treadmill.

Yeah.

Like you're just wanting to make sure. So you're saying the importance of clearing any out points.

Because if you're not clear as my first person in, like, connection with me.

Yeah.

And you have a disagreement about it and you're now going to the rest of the team and communicating it and you're not online with Me.

Right.

How effective are you going to be?

I'm holding.

You're going to stink.

I might even use it to kind of like be like, hey, this is what she wants.

This is what ownership wants.

This is what the CEO, if I'm a C player.

Yeah.

So, but here's my other question. Here's my counter question. Then. What's the difference between that and, like, asking permission for them? What's the difference between getting their buy in versus, like, making sure that I approve? Like, you know what I'm saying? Because I'm thinking about the rock stars who are listening going, what's the difference between clearing any issues they might have on it versus, like, making sure, like, just asking for their permission, which is kind of a different level.

Sure. So in this communication where I would have with my clinical director as the CEO, it's really communication. Your duplication of that equals understanding.

Yeah.

Right. So from five dysfunctions of a team, we recognize that their communication understanding doesn't always mean agreement.

Got it.

Right. Agreement.

So I can understand it, but it doesn't necessarily mean I agree.

Right.

But you're still wanting to hear that anyway.

Right. So I want to know that you understand agreement. You have to agree and commit. Ah, right. So understanding. So communication plus duplication equals understanding. That's level one.

Say that slower.

Okay.

That was great. I'm not. I'm not an editing thing I want you to say for the audience.

Yeah. Okay. So communication plus duplication equals understanding.

So that's essential for delegation.

100%.

Okay.

Because how many times have you been in a conversation and. And you say something, and then they say something back to you and you're like, I didn't say that at all recently.

That happened today.

Right?

Yeah.

You're like, that's not what I said at all. And you're like, okay, well, like, let's clear this up.

Yeah.

So many times we say something and don't actually get a response in return or an acknowledgement in return, and we expect it as received just as we delivered it. It's a game of telephone, right? Yeah. Okay. So the duplication means understanding there doesn't always have to be an agreement on the other side of it. Now, that's ideal. Right. Like you, I would ideally love for you to agree with the PTO policy.

Yeah. And knowing you used to give space for your team to be really vocal about whatever it is that they. They had, but you couldn't. You didn't always make decisions based on complete uniformity of approval.

You quite honestly can't right. It would be out of balance with what is appropriate for the. For the clinic and the company. At most often, if we're making decisions solely based off of what is right for the employee, then the company is ultimately going to lose.

Yeah, we're making prioritizing the team over the company, which is two separate entities.

Right, right. But if we make decisions based off of what's bets for the company and the company is prospering more often than not, if not almost every time. Every time. Let me just erase that. Every time, the employee is going to win.

Yeah, totally.

Every every time. So essentially what I am trying to say is that agreement, you can disagree and commit.

Yes, got it. So you've already cleared the policy of it. Now you're giving me a delegation of just how to communicate that.

Okay, so once you have. So essentially what I would have you do is. Okay, Will, I need you to communicate to the team during the team meeting this week, Wednesday.

Sure.

That we're going to change a new the policy of pto.

Oh, the one that we went over last week.

Yep, the one that we went over last week. Here's the written policy. I want you to make sure that every team member has a written copy of it.

Okay.

Okay. So present it to them on Wednesday.

Okay.

I do want a signed copy of them of that policy so that I can put that in their employee file.

Got it.

Okay. Deadline for that is not until Friday, so please allow them space to ask any questions that they might have of you in between now and Friday, but we'll need those collected by end of day Friday.

Got it.

Okay. So make sure that every single team member is communicated. This PTO policy on Wednesday has a written copy and signed return by Friday.

You got it.

Okay, great. Any questions?

Ah, yes. So am I supposed to. What about people who are sick that day?

Yeah, that's a really good question. So you can reach out to them via email and then we can try and make a new agreement that works out for me and you can just put me on a CC with them.

Okay. What if they don't like it?

That's a really good question as well. So unfortunately, this is the policy that we have decided is going to be best for the company moving forward. If you're unable to answer a question that they might have based off of conversations you and I have had. I'd be happy to discuss that.

So I would answer that and then I'd give it to you if I can't handle it. I feel pretty good about that.

Okay.

Yeah, I think I got it.

Okay. Very good.

Okay.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Great. And then how would you follow that up in terms of anything in writing? Like, what would you do? Would you do anything in writing?

Yeah. So generally speaking, if there is a delegation like that, we were in the practice at Rise Rehab where we would follow up. Hey, this is a written follow up to the verbal communication that we had regarding the PTO policy. We would write kind of like a summary of it with what I had said verbally. And then at the bottom I'd say just return acknowledgement that you've got this.

So having something. I like that you have that piece there. So, yeah, that's a great example of how to delegate. And I wonder how often we take those. The time for that step. I think what most people would probably do is it's like, hey, listen, we, you know, Michelle, we just went over this PTO policy. Here it is. Would you mind going over that with your team on Friday, on Wednesday? And without any of those other details? Space for questions, room for disagreements, clarity, understanding. Those elements make a big difference. I can see that.

Yeah. Deadlines and acknowledgments, too.

Deadlines and acknowledgments. Why? What do you mean?

Yeah, so if we're not attaching a deadline to that and I just say, I need you to deliver this PTO policy. It's becoming effective on July 1st.

Yeah.

And you're delivering it on June 29th.

Yes.

And not leaving any space, you know, like that. We're just like pushing the deadline. Right. When I'm trying to give enough time and space or whatever it is that, you know, it's just. It doesn't. It's not good.

Yeah. My biggest, my personal experience and the biggest thing that happens in my world when I'm trying to delegate something to have it go wrong is I forget to give a deadline and it totally changes the urgency, the clarity, the necessity of it to the point where oftentimes I get into that mode of like, didn't I give this to somebody?

Yep.

Didn't I ask somebody to do this? And then I start going to that place of like, well, no one can do it better than me.

Right.

I guess I'm the only one who has to do these things because I'm so amazing. Like, that kind of stuff that just start to float up for me, but.

It also miscommunicates, you know. Okay, let me backtrack a little bit. So, like, our level of urgency will likely be different than that of our Team members. Right. As a business owner, as a clinical director and things like that. So we have to recognize that unless we communicate that they're not going to understand that.

Got it.

And so for us to realize that like we need this by a certain deadline for us to be able to continue along our work or our next cycle of action to be completed, we have to at least let them know what, what it is that we need in the timeframe that we need it.

I see.

Otherwise they're just like, okay, well they told us to do this and they didn't tell me that it was a 10 out of 10 urgency. So I'll just do it on my timeline. Yes, I'm busy. I've got notes, I've got 10 evals this week I'll do. That's taking priority in their mind when we're really needing to do this for an insurance thing or whatever like that.

Okay. So yeah, really powerful. Let's talk now about how this all applies to the VA AI, these two fastest growing trends in healthcare piece. So how does this change, if at all for virtual assistants? Let's start with that.

Yeah. Well, I think it's really important in terms of knowing what you have and what you want to delegate in order to be effective with a virtual assistant. It kind of goes back to the thought that we had previously around. In order for a VA to be successful and be as powerful as I know them to be, they have to know exactly what is being required of them. Now they can work tons of magic independently on their own.

Yeah.

But the more that you give them, the better they're able to successfully adhere to what it is that you're looking for and also probably next level it to what you're expecting.

Interesting. What you've worked with VAs, what barriers in delegation of tasks have you found in working with someone remotely versus someone in person.

Underestimating how much they can get done?

Interesting. Talk to me about that.

Yeah. I've been so surprised at the level of quality of work that they've been able to accomplish in the time that they've been able to get it done.

Interesting. So the parameters that you're used to giving to a virtual assistant shift because of the just the necessity and the urgency around what they're putting into their work.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Huh. What about. Have you noticed and I'm being very serious, like I don't know if you have and if you haven't, that's fine, Fine. But have you noticed any, any delegation issues that have occurred up from the Cultural differences from having someone work in a different country.

To my. I, you know, not to my. In my experience, as of right now, the only difficulty that I think that might occur sometimes is just being clear on time zone differences and when you expect them to be online and when you expect them to be facilitating work. Sometimes people like them working US hours and some people are like, I love to wake up to completed work that I delegated the day before.

I see. So that is a factor they have to consider. Because another thing, I guess in being clear on delegation, like, I need at 5 o' clock on Friday, done by 5 o' clock on Friday. Are you talking about us?

Us? Which side? Yeah. What are we talking about?

If it's the Philippines? We're talking about late Thursday night if it's Philippines time.

Exactly.

Interesting. Okay, very cool. And then what about AI? You know, as. As you're learning how to delegate tasks and responsibilities to AI? I don't know if you have a lot of insight on that, but do you have any experience in terms of, like, what that's like to delegate to people who are using AI? Like, is there anything that you've shown up as kind of like an issue or something you should be aware of?

You know what? You know my experience with AI, I've leveraged chat GPT to kind of help facilitate some, you know, processes that I put into place and things like that. Yeah, I don't know if I'm fully answering your question, so you can.

That was a bad question. I think it was. I was thinking, wait for. Here's where I was going. The first, the first question I was going to ask was, what AI have you used to help you in delegation? Let's start with that one. Because the second question I had was more about when you delegate to people and they're using AI, does that change any of it? Does it help? Does it hurt? But let's start with this one. How have AI tools helped you in this thing called delegation?

Yeah, so for all of my meetings, my coaching calls and things of that nature, when I work with practice owners, they're key leaders and directors or admin team members. I really leverage Read AI. It's a software that actually records the meetings. I found them to be really helpful because they not only transcript and record the video of what's occurring, they also put action items on there.

Oh my gosh. It has like the delegation tools on it.

Yes. Oh my gosh. So what that does is not only assist me, like when I'm running back to. Back to Back, I can go back and reference that and know what I've promised other people, so I can make good on that. But it also allows me to follow up with anybody that I have asked something of them. So if I have, you know, delegated to one of my clients, you know, that they need to have a crucial conversation with someone and I need to follow up, then I can now go back and follow up with them or put that in my calendar, things like that. So it kind of keeps me honest with the things that I have communicated. So it just makes me more effective as a coach, and I think it makes me more effective as an accountability partner for my clients.

It's interesting you say that because, like, for me, I think we all have organic strengths and weaknesses around this thing called delegating. Because delegation is totally the empowerment of another person.

Sure.

It's an expression of leadership. So for me, I suck at detail. I'm really bad at remembering details. She knows all this, by the way. This is like, Michelle could.

We could have an episode just going.

Best practices of how many details I forget because of the speed in which I like to operate. But it's one of those where I love when we have notes in our meetings to just be able to have it there. And like, for me, on a delegation sense, to copy and. Or download the transcript through it in a chatgpt and be like, yeah, send out three emails, create all the emails needed to delegate all the things that were covered in this meeting and then copy, paste, send. Like, it talks about reducing to eliminating the time of delegation.

Oh, I've also leveraged chat GPT to also be like, what am I missing in this? Oh, yeah, like in this. In this outline. Like, what is it that I'm missing in making this an effective process?

Interesting.

Yeah. And so I found that to be like, well, you could make it a little bit more clear if you did. It's like, okay, great. That makes it next level.

So interesting. Okay. You know, it's. I have like five questions that hit me at the same time, and I've lost all of them because the idea of, like, using this tool to open up our capabilities for delegation and empowering others is so great because it doesn't forget the details. It allows us to do these steps in a very quick and efficient way. And I think that's so empowering. And then my thought was about, on the VA side of things, it's just knowing how to empower these other people who are, like you said, so capable of stepping in and doing more than you could imagine.

Yeah.

So it's in this debate of which is going to be more powerful. I'm curious to see where you land. Let's go to this other thing that I did have this idea.

Yeah.

And this is me kind of leading you a little bit.

Okay.

Because I've had experiences where I've delegated to people to do things and they use AI.

Sure.

Oh, we have someone in mind, you and I. We can't mention their name.

No, we won't.

But like, literally, I was trying to. Because I think that's why it came to mind, Michelle. Because you and I worked with somebody who would ask, get something done, and they leveraged AI and it wasn't necessarily always the most effective way.

No.

So let's talk about, like, what is an effective way for someone to work with AI versus not.

Yeah. So I find that AI can be such a great tool. Like. Like you and I have countlessly said that it can take us faster. Right. But I find that it can be detrimental when it starts to lose our voice.

Interesting.

So. So I think that there's a tendency for it to then like, adapt in a way of conversating or communicating that is inauthentic to how we express ourselves or historically have represented ourselves or how we as an. Even as an organization, how we communicate or how things have previously historically gone. And it's like, man, that's way formal, or man, that's really lighthearted. Or that's like. It just doesn't feel right. And you can feel there's an automation behind it that isn't.

Yes.

Authentic.

Yeah. I love how you said that. That was so much more articulate than what I was thinking. Here's what I was thinking. It feels like they didn't try.

Right. That's true.

It's like when I can tell someone has chatgpt things. I've been doing this gratitude thing on LinkedIn where I've been typing things in and I might use a little bit of like, editing software for like, grammar because otherwise, you know, no one could understand what I post. But apart from that, I actually put the bottom from the heart, no AI. Because I want people to really know that I wrote that with my intention of my heart because AI is getting better. But back in the day, I mean, people who just like rockstars, be mindful of just copying and pasting in. I got a. This is true. I had a letter from. From somebody. It was. It was like a high stressful situation and they forgot to delete. You know how chat GPT will at the end say, do you want me to also offer this in French? Like, they'll give you such suggestions. So it was like that and it had the chat GPT prompt. And I just remember going, first of all, it was super weak. I remember having lots of judgment on the person for not caring enough about it. It just came across as super unprofessional, despite the amazing letter. And ultimately I felt like, oh, this is not a great showing of personal integrity is how it kind of came across to me.

Yeah, which. Which is unfortunate because that's probably not the full encapsulation of that human being, but that, that shows up right in that moment. Right. It's like in that moment, a heated conversation or a maybe stressful, you know, conversation. There wasn't even enough, like, behind it that you wouldn't authentically.

It didn't seem like there was effort, and it doesn't seem like their heart is in it.

Yeah, exactly. It's like, I, I understand that completely.

Because, yeah, it kind of reminds me of clothes we wear. Like, we shan't, we shan't, we shan't, we shan't, we shall. We should never judge someone based on their appearance. But if you're. And if you're showing, if someone shows up to work in a swimsuit, then that sends a message and you have to be mindful of that. And frankly, in that case, that's a bad example because there's standards and things, but just on the streets, like, we have to recognize that we are choosing to come across a certain way and what we decide to communicate is part of that piece. So AI can be a limitation in that regard. So it's interesting that you were able to balance the pros and the cons of AI and delegation and empowering, because, you know, if we delegate something to someone and they come back with a ChatGPT response, it can either accelerate the impact or completely nullify and underwhelm the person who did the delegation.

I find to be most successful when I actually create something on my own and then put it in for refinement. Okay, right. So it's like if I have a process that I've written or even an even an email that I've written, and then I say, okay, help me refine this, or help me make sure that this is communicating all the things I need to do and give it an appropriate prompt and it can refine it for me, and then I can then edit it further and say, that's not a word I'd ever use. And kind of make sure that it's mine. Right.

I think the number one prompt I put in ChatGPT is make this better.

Yes.

I'll copy something I put in there and make it better. But if I don't know where to start, I will do it the other way where I'll say, hey, write a letter, you know, yeah, terminating my lease.

Or, yeah, sure, that's fair.

And then, like, they write that and then I might, you know, and I know it comes across a little chat GPT, but at the same time, it's. It is hitting the legal bullet points, which is cool.

There's some formal letters that are. I mean, you could certainly leverage for that regard. Now, if I'm going into a personal relationship type of communication, then that's going to be a little bit different than how I leverage AI.

Yeah, right.

I'll probably take a stab at it before I go in and just use AI. But I mean, everybody has a way of using it, and that's my personal take on it.

Okay. I love it. So this has been a fantastic interview. I don't even know what time it is. Okay, let me see where we are.

Okay.

Oh, this is good. So we're going to do the rapid fire questions. Are you ready for these?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, Michelle, rapid fire.

Okay.

Top book that's blown your mind.

Six types of working genius.

I love that book. I love that book. Okay, what's your top time saver hack?

Egg cooker.

Egg cooker. I'm not laughing because it's a bad example. It's how you said it.

Egg cooker.

You literally were.

That's the first thing that you literally.

That's a great hack.

It is.

Why do you. Why is that a top sale?

Well, I just find that I can make so many meals with my egg cooker.

That's a great. This is what this is for. That's a beautiful example. But the way you delivered it, I thought you were in pain.

I just didn't know, like, this kind of podcast is going to get an egg cooker response, but here you go.

I love that because it's like real useful things. Some of my favorite things I do are on the personal side of things that are like, save me time in my personal world. I'd love that.

Oh, my gosh. If you guys need recipes, let me know.

Michelle is an expert. Number three, what's one thing you wish you'd stop doing way sooner in your business?

Oh, self judgment.

That's an episode. Hey, rockstars. As you're listening to these Things. Go to the comments if you like. I want an episode on how Michelle stops self judgment. We'll do an episode.

We'll do it. Yeah.

Number four, most time consuming task you secretly enjoy. This is like a dirty organization. I feel like you should push up your glasses. What do you mean by organization? Because I know what that means, but.

I just love organizing stuff. I just like putting things, tabbing things, like, I don't know, filing things.

Like for people who are excited with you on that, they're losing their minds right now.

Like take me to an office supply store.

I feel like this is like a deep undercover reality show on who you really are as a person. All right, number five, latest thing you delegated.

Oh.

Or empowered others to do, I should say.

Oh. I had a really, really powerful conversation with one of my clinical directors on a dismissal that I'm really proud of that person and very, very nerve wracking for this individual. And I think they hit it out of the park. It was one of their first. It was their first. And I was just really proud they didn't wait on it like they thought they were going to. And just having that communication create. Creating some real realities. And I couldn't be more elated with who. Who they showed up to be.

What a beautiful example of how delegation is empowering. Because, you know, you were coaching them, so it's not like you were giving it to them to do, but you were doing what a great owner, a great leader of a company would be doing. That's what we do with, with coaches.

Yeah.

This is why people love working with you is because they're so spread thin and maybe they don't even know how to do it well. So they work with you to take the role over of the empowering section of delegation by teaching them and empowering them. How'd that person feel afterwards?

Oh, I think.

I mean, not the first who got fired. The person who did the firing. We know how they feel.

I think relieved. I think kind of shell shocked still at that point. But immediately after they, they did it, they poloed me. So I think that there was a sense of like, you know, like satisfaction and wanting to share it with their coach. And I felt really excited about that and really proud of them. And I'm gonna call them a little bit later. They were still in treating hours when I was headed over here. But. But that's exactly right. What you talked about, like their, their owner. It was in a position where they delegated that to me and I was able to delegate and coach that individual to take that on and. Yeah, so it was really a really good experience.

Yeah. This is a hard sell into the camera if you want. If you're wanting to have someone else to take that over for you and delegate it. Michelle, you can talk to her about Rockstar. There you go, number six. This is the ultimate rapid fire question of the season. This is where it all comes down to it. What is it? AI or Vas?

Vas?

Really? That was even a hesitation. Why do you say that?

I just think that Vas have this humanistic component that I still love working with people. There's never gonna be a space where I don't love people over technology and I think they have the capability of leveraging the AI. So I will always take my people.

You are the heart of a business. You are the heart of hearts. I can see why you always are going to pick the more human element of this in that debate. So you heard it here, Seth, for those of you who are listening, since we film these things not in order necessarily. I don't even know where we are by the time we get to episode eight, which will be you. But Seth, can you please show on YouTube or the people who are watching what the score score is of who's winning AI versus VAs. Michelle, you've been awesome. Let's give you some final words. We'll put in the show notes, everything to get a hold of you and how they can learn more about Rockstar. But parting thoughts?

No, Just a joy to be with you and enjoy this conversation and happy to support anything that anyone needs.

I love that. Thanks for tuning into the Willpower podcast as always. This is Will Humphreys reminding you to lead with love, live on purpose, and never give up your freedom until next time.