Latest / Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love / The Real Reason You Aren’t Delegating

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The Real Reason You Aren’t Delegating · Wealthy Woman Lawyer Podcast, Helping you create a profitable, sustainable law firm you love

• 0:05
  Davina Frederick: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the wealthy
• 0:08
  woman lawyer podcast. I'm your host, Athena Frederick. And
• 0:10
  today I want to talk with you about delegating. Of course, by
• 0:15
  now I am sure you've heard a lot about the importance of
• 0:18
  delegating. There isn't a business coach out there, who
• 0:22
  won't bring up delegation and tell you that you should be
• 0:25
  doing more of it. And why because it's great advice.
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  Still, despite it being great advice, I find that many women
• 0:32
  law firm owners really still struggle with delegating. So I
• 0:36
  thought today, we could get to the heart of the matter. And
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  find out why that is that even though you know, it's good for
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  you, you still don't do it enough. And I know that this is,
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  you know, it's the same effect in a lot of other areas of our
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  lives. But today, we're really going to just focus on
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  delegating. First, I want to talk to you, though, about the
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  signs of someone who is not delegating enough. And we're
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  going to call them red flags. Since red flags are so popular
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  right now on Instagram, we're going to talk about red flags,
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  right flag number one, you are working a 12 hour day, only to
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  go home and start a second shift at home. And then maybe even a
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  third shift after you put the kids to bed. So if that's you,
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  here's your sign your red flag that you're probably not
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  delegating enough. Red flag number two, you say things like
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  it's just faster. If I do it myself, then take the time to
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  teach someone else. Red flag number three, you don't have
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  time to work on strategy, management, growth, if you're a
• 1:40
  law firm business, because you're too busy working in your
• 1:44
  business, answering the phones doing all the consultations,
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  being the attorney on all the cases go into court answering
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  client calls, day and night always being available to your
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  clients. Red flag number four, is you're still doing your
• 2:00
  bookkeeping, your payroll, your social media marketing, your
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  mean making your video editing, which I know you don't really
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  do, because who's got the time to do that, but you fool
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  yourself into thinking you will do it. Maybe you're drafting all
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  your court appearances and so on, there is no backup for you
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  if you get sick. If you need a mental health day, if you need
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  to deal with a family emergency, or you want to go on vacation
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  and not worry about everything while you're gone. Red flag
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  number five, you're making money. But you can never leave
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  your business without worrying. There won't be anyone there if a
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  client wants to hire the firm. Or if there's an emergency
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  situation with an existing client or team member. So
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  basically, new money coming in stops when you're on vacation.
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  Red flag number six, you never have time on your calendar for
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  any big picture thinking about your business or for you time,
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  you don't have time to meet with a coach, you don't have time to
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  sit and work on a strategy, you don't have time to take the
• 3:02
  afternoon off and go to the spa. There's never any time on your
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  calendar because it is your filling, filling yet with all
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  this working in your business. So any of these sound familiar?
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  I can really sit here and do this all day because I have
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  heard it all there are a lot more red flags I could talk with
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  you about. And quite frankly, I used to that used to be me some
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  of these red flags for sure. So the reasons why we do this to
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  ourselves when we know better right can see really complex, we
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  might think it's a really complex reason why like we have
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  some something wrong with us that we do this. But it usually
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  boils down to some very simple concepts. So the reason we don't
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  delegate when we know that we should is comes down to things
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  like number one, we don't like we like to control all the
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  details. So at our heart, we're just little happy control
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  freaks, and we want to control all the detail. I want to have a
• 4:00
  coach say to me, Divina, you can control all the details or you
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  can grow, you certainly have a right to control all the
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  details. If that's what you choose, you could do that or you
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  can grow. And that really stuck with me. I was like, oh, while
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  I'm really holding myself back from growing by trying to manage
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  all the details. Number two, we don't trust others to not screw
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  up. And this is a big one. We we are worried that if somebody who
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  works for us screws up, it's going to come back on us. And
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  there is a fix for that. But that at the heart of it is we
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  don't trust number three, we are perfectionist, and things take
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  us a lot longer than they should and longer than they think they
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  we think they will. So perfectionist take a lot longer
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  to do things because we have to get it perfect, right? And we
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  know Nothing's ever perfect, but we're trying to get as close as
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  we can. So oftentimes we take way longer to get certain things
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  done. That we don't need to and that really messes up our
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  calendar, right? We think we're the best person for every job in
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  our firm. Um, that no one else can do it better. We don't have
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  a plan for delegating. This
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  is a big one, we don't have a plan. So we think, yeah, I like
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  to delegate, but we don't take the time to create a plan for
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  doing it. We take never take the time to sit down and think
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  strategically about what we can easily delegate, right? We don't
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  have systems set up to help us delegate. That is a huge one, we
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  often think like a delegate, and then we start thinking about,
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  well, how would I do this? And what do I do first, and then we
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  go, Oh, screw it, I'm busy, I don't have time. We don't have
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  enough people, or the right people to delegate to. This is a
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  huge problem for a lot of people. And I do have a brand
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  new training that I have just put out on this subject. I'll
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  include the link in the show notes, if you want to access
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  that training. Number nine, we are just functioning on
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  automatic, day after day, week after week, until things get
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  better. And we don't have more time. And, and we'll have more
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  time. And that never happens. Because every week is like
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  Groundhog Day. So we just continue to react the same way
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  over and over week after week, thinking that next week is going
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  to be better. And it never is. And we're expecting a different
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  result. That doesn't happen, right? The very definition of
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  insanity. Number 10. It doesn't become it hasn't yet become
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  painful enough for you to take action. As soon as you miss a
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  critical deadline, you drop the ball, you have an upset client,
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  you get grieved, you get sued for malpractice, or, you know,
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  any of these kinds of things happen, you will begin to
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  rethink trying to do everything yourself and even most things
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  yourself. So which of these reasons that I named resonate
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  the most with you? Is there one more than another jumped out? Or
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  did all of them sound like you, I know there was a time in my
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  life that I was in that place. And it can be very painful to
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  realize that. If I'm speaking to your pain, I want you to know
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  right now, I want you to go right now and get a copy of my
• 7:04
  report. It's called delegation secrets for women law firm
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  owners who do too much, and I've got a link for it in the show
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  notes for you. I created this with you in mind if you are
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  having trouble delegating, because I've spoken with so many
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  high achieving women who are going through this or who have
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  gone through this, the report that I've prepared for you is
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  super short read. I think it can have a big impact on you on you
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  personally and on your blog for our business if you take a few
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  minutes to read it and absorb it. In this episode. If this
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  episode has got you thinking delegating is now at the top of
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  your priority list, which I hope it has, then there's a very
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  simple exercise I want you to do right now, if you're someplace
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  where you can write. If you're listening while you're driving,
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  or you're running or you're walking, then do this when you
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  get home, it should only take you less than an hour, maybe
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  even 30 minutes and all you need is a legal pad and a pen. Or you
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  know your computer if that's what you like to do. On your
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  legal pad, I want you to draw three columns, I want you to
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  label column A, the highest and best use of my time, I want you
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  to label column B, things I'm good at but probably should not
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  be doing because I'm not the best person for the job, or
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  because I don't really care to be doing it anymore. And label
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  column see things I would not pay someone my hourly rate to do
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  things I hate doing or things I suck at, but I'm doing it still.
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  Once you've labeled these columns that I want you to fill
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  them in accordingly with everything on your to do list.
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  And then tomorrow morning, I want you to delegate everything
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  in your C column. Over the next month. I want you to work on
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  delegating everything in your B column. Lastly, just a reminder
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  to grab a copy of my delegation secrets. The link is in the show
• 9:02
  notes. And I really hope you've enjoyed today's episode of the
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  wealthy woman lawyer podcast. I hope you have a wonderful week.
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  And thanks again for being here and being part of the wealthy
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  woman lawyer community. I so apprec