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Getting What's In Your Head Onto Paper · The Delegation Download Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Delegation Download Podcast, where business owners, CEOs, and leaders learn to work smarter, not harder.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're your hosts, Nicole Hughes and Ashley Carlson, here to share real stories, expert tips, and simple strategies to help you delegate with confidence and grow your business with support.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because you can do anything, but not everything.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Delegation Download.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: This one's called Processes That Power Growth, and it's the series we've been wanting to make.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Series one was all about deciding to let go, making peace with the fact that you can't do everything yourself.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: This series is the how, the systems, the tools, the processes that actually hold things together once you do let go, so it doesn't all collapse back onto you three months later.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're building your first process from scratch or auditing the ones you already have, we want you to walk away from this series running a business on more than what's in your head.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Last episode we talked about why systems aren't a dirty word.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're talking about the harder part, actually getting what's in your head out of it.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's build it out.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So the last episode we ended on that exact question.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: What's the thing you redid this week that only lives in your head?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I think most people have an answer to that question immediately, which is the funny thing because they can pinpoint it.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like they have to think hard about the things that they're doing over and over again.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: They they know.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: We all know.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the gap that I want to draw attention to is the difference between I know how to do this and someone else could actually do this without me.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like sometimes those things feel like the same thing, but they're not.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're two very different things.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, not even close.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the real cost of it shows up actually when you're out, when you're sick, when you actually want to take a vacation, or when you're genuinely just too busy.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: You've got too much and you're spread too thin.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the moments that can throw everything sideways.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that, and this is my honest pushback is that doing the task is much faster than explaining it to people.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a big holdup and a resistance that a lot of people have when trying to get it from here onto a piece of paper.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think it is, it does feel faster in the moment for now.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's probably exactly why people skip it.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, coming from you, because you have built a small business and then you had to delegate things off.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: How did you get past that?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or how do you explain to people like this is how you can do it?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is how you can overcome that.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to accept that documenting it once may cost you a little extra time now in order to save a huge amount of time later.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: So the ROI on that is huge.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: The opportunity for that is huge.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's also a bit of a perfectionism trap in this.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: So people want the, we talked about it last episode, want that write-up, that document for handing this off to be perfect before they'll even start.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's especially when it's your business, your baby, that perfectionist trap will prevent you from doing that, from handing that process off to someone else.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: When, and like you were saying about the having the document be perfect with all of the details.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need all of the details right up front.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: We just need a rough draft so that we can build onto that and we can figure out how to make it work.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And do we see anything that can be added to it for efficiency, for productivity?
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like just give us a rough draft and let them go.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we've said it before in several episodes, but tell them the the what, not the how.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Tell them what you want to do at the end, like what your end goal is and and how to get there with those little baby steps, but don't dictate how everything is done within that process.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh rough and real beats perfect and never finished because we all know this, right?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: If we really reflect on it, we all know that if we're seeking perfect, it's never gonna be finished, it's never gonna be complete because perfect doesn't exist.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: I actually had someone tell me something sometime and it really stuck with me.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's establishing the the good versus good enough.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: So just just knowing to yourself this is good enough to hand it off and also having faith in knowing that maybe this good enough framework is could be even better once someone else is able to get in there and use what they're really good at.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna probably hand this off to someone who's really good at things in their own way.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So they may even be able to take your good enough version and make it better than you even imagined.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I totally agree.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if we're talking about the rough draft, like what does that look like in practice?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so one of my favorites is just screen record yourself doing the task once and narrate it out loud.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Narrate it like you are explaining it to a sixth grader who's gonna take this over.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why I say that is because you're already doing it, right?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about things right now that you're doing yourself that you want to hand off.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're already doing it, adding loom and recording it as you do it is not gonna take you any extra time.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: And narrating it very, very specifically and as if it's to someone who has no idea, has never seen these platforms or done these things before is really important to keep that in mind because I think I mentioned it before, but there's so many things that we do when we've been doing these processes so much that we don't even realize we do it.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Certain areas we click or certain things we say or don't say, and certain things we filter, whatever it is.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: So being really clear and descriptive about narrating as you go is important, just so that person who is looking at this has all the details if they need them.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one less opportunity for them to ask you questions that you're you might kick yourself later and say, gosh, I could have just answered that in the first place.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's probably my favorite go-to answer to people who are maybe hesitant about getting things written down.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And on the flip side, if you're more of the type of person that likes to teach the thing, you can always do a live walkthrough with somebody and record the meeting so that they can reference that at a later date so that they can ask live questions, get clarifying answers, and they can take notes alongside you as you're walking them through it.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: But again, record it so that that reference is there for the future in case they need to go back for whatever reason while they're creating that pretty version of the SOP.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: They can refer back to the recording as they build that out.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think that one's underrated.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you're not actually writing anything down, you're not taking the time to write this manual.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: You're just talking, they're capturing it.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I love the point that you had of they can ask questions in real time.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And again, it's being recorded.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's no a note taker on the call.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it's all going to get turned into a really great resource.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And it just took one walkthrough meeting.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, like when I build out SOPs for the clients that I am supporting, I make a rough draft and it's usually a checklist.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like it is not pretty at all.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is chicken scratch on a piece of paper, written down step by step on what I need to do.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then once I've done it and mastered how the how and like what I'm actually doing, then I will actually document it because I do need to figure out what that process looks like before I create something that's a pretty version to look at.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I need to really understand what the process is so that I can document it accurately with all of the steps that are needed in order to get to that end goal.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then once you've got that rough version, once we've got, you know, some of the examples that we've given of what a rough draft of a process can look like, the next important step is making sure that it actually becomes the one source of truth for this process.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's sometimes also another step that is missed when what what I've seen.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because otherwise you end up with four or five different versions of the same task or the same process, but it's all done a little bit differently by each person.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So having one document that everybody follows to complete the same task is ideal.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it almost could be worse than not having it written down in the first place, having no one know which version to trust.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because if they all, you know, if rough draft A just gets duplicated to this other one, but rough draft A still exists and now this other one exists with different uh edits, it can become very confusing.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think clarity is very important, especially when you're delegating.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: When you're the one, again, we talked about this is your baby.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: You have perfectionism sneaking in, you have maybe some inks anxiety around this, around handing it off.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: You want to make sure that the one source of truth that you have written down, that process is clear, you will have security, knowing that it's going to go well and done correctly because there is that one source of truth.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: So definitely have to make sure that there's no instance of multiple versions floating around out there.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's definitely a key part of this process.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: And within that process of building out these systems and documenting the systems, you also want to review things as you go.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So build in a review point from the start of this.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you're delegating to a new EA that you're working with, once they've done it once, like check in with them.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you have any questions on this?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And also be willing to answer questions.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've already explained it once, but maybe they just need to clarify what that point was that you had and why it needed to be done within the process.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So build in that review within the delegation of whatever you were handing off.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because everyone's brains works differently.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone approaches things differently.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes what made sense to you as far as laying out the how of this task, it just they need a little bit more clarifying information, especially if it's a brand new tool to them or process to them.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: So they may just need some extra information to throw on that resource.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that way next time they they really get it.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: They're really speaking the language.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And again, down the road, they're probably going to be able to do it in their sleep, just like you.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: But at first, and for a while, they're going to want, you're going to want them to have this process to refer to.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And to your point about making sure this written process is updated, that's key.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: So whenever it's used, did you do it differently?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Did the you mentioned earlier, systems change sometimes?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's like these tools, I didn't change the process, but now this tool completely had rolled out a new update, and now the button for this no longer exists.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: So making sure that things get updated so that way things just never are inaccurate.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then on that point too, even if even if there are SOPs that I mentioned how sometimes down the road, they probably won't even refer to it anymore.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know you, Nicole, you we have SOPs galore on things and you don't open them anymore because you know it.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: But because of that, because we know that that happens, it's a good thing.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: But we also have then auditing processes or uh like touch points in place throughout the year just to make sure we are opening these SOPs that we we ourselves don't need anymore.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: But we still, it is still our job to make sure it's up to date so that way if and when you need to hand off a process to someone, we know that that process, the document of that process is up to date.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So whether it's touch points of reviewing in the beginning and updating in the beginning, you just have to make sure that those touch points are happening even down the road when the process is flowing without even needing to look at the document.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I I just have to go back to what you talked about about systems updating.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: It could be a whole episode itself because I have some very, very big thoughts on those.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I think that that is one of the biggest things is when a system updates, update your SOP.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you hand it off to somebody else and you have not updated it based on where that information can be found now within that system, they're going to be lost and you're going to get questions.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So be proactive in making sure you're updating the SOP as you notice things change.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Don't wait to hand it off to somebody and then they have all of these questions because the SOP is now out of date or just doesn't flow with the way the system now works.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: So here's one question to sit with for our listeners.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: What is one piece of knowledge that only lives in your head right now?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And please be honest with yourself because we know that there's a lot of things living rent-free up there.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: But what happens if you were to go out of town for two weeks and those things still need to happen?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for joining us for this episode of Processes That Power Growth.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: If something in this conversation is sitting with you, we built a systems audit and build worksheet to help you take the first step.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a full operations manual, it's just a way to look at one process at a time and actually see what's working and what's not.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can grab it using the link in the show notes.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're ready to go further to actually build out the system so your business can run without you, standing in every corner of it, please book a clarity call.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: We'll help you figure out where to start.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: And remember, you've got this.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to the Delegation Download Podcast.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and follow us at ElevateVB Solutions for more tips to help you lead smarter and live better.