Accelerate your business growth by delegating tasks.

Every small business owner hits a point where their business stalls. No matter how hard they work, progress slows, and they begin to feel like they are working too hard for the results they are getting. When your progress starts to stall, it is a great opportunity to reassess who is responsible for different tasks within your business.  Shifting tasks off your to-do-list, and giving them to your employees helps everyone grow within your business. Your employees can gain new skills, take on higher-level assignments, and become more invested in the company’s success. You gain more space to think strategically and allocate your energy toward activities that can accelerate business growth. 

Delegating tasks triggers business acceleration.

When I was a Business Consultant working with 7-Eleven, I had a Franchisee who was looking to expand to a second location. For this story, we will call him Tom. Tom had been a single store operator for 10 years. He wanted to expand to a second location but could not pass 7-Eleven’s multiple franchisee requirements. Within the 7-Eleven system, you must consistently operate your store at a specific level for over 6 months to qualify for an additional store and demonstrate that you have the infrastructure to support multiple locations. Tom’s biggest challenge was not trusting his employees to order products or make decisions without him being involved. Tom was intelligent and had high standards, but he did not feel his employees could be trusted to do things as well as he could. 

Get out of the trap.

At the time, Tom did not realize he had built a trap for himself. The trap was that he had to be in the store six days a week for the store to run well. The store's image and customer readiness dropped when Tom took time off of work. The leadership at 7-Eleven believed that Tom was not ready to run more than one location because of the performance inconsistency. He had to learn how to delegate and empower his team to do more. This would reduce business risk because the store performance would not be directly linked to Tom being in the store daily. It would also free up his time and energy to do things outside the store, like network with the community and spend more time with his family. He was spending too much time on low-value tasks that someone else could do. 

Change of mindset

When I first told Tom that he was not approved for a second location, he was emotional. He knew he was one of the top-performing franchisees in Baltimore. His staff was friendly, his store was clean, and he felt he did everything we asked. Tom was 90% correct. The one thing he failed to see was that he did not invest in developing his employees. It was not until he traveled overseas for two weeks and came back to a store that was a complete mess that he understood 7-Eleven’s point of view around business infrastructure. Once he accepted that he needed to build more infrastructure, it became easier for him to devise a plan for delegating more tasks to his employees.

Identify the solution

Shifting tasks to employees was a multi-step process for Tom. First, he had to assess his employees' capabilities and determine which tasks they could take on. Next, he needed to outline what he wanted them to do. Then, he had to provide them with training, communicate his expectations, and guide them on what to do if problems arose. Finally, he needed to identify how he would follow up to ensure tasks were completed. 

Solicit help

Tom and I developed a plan for transferring more tasks to his employees. I encouraged him to start small. We identified low-value tasks that people could do without harming the business. We allowed them to execute those tasks for two or three weeks before we layered in higher-value tasks. This process worked for two reasons.

1. The employees were new to making decisions and executing tasks without direction. They needed a safe learning environment, the opportunity to fail, and coaching to help them build confidence.

2. Delegating tasks was new to Tom. He had to learn how to access employees' capabilities, explain his expectations well, provide learning space, and step in when needed.

Going slow allowed Tom and his employees to become comfortable with change and build momentum towards the ultimate goal of delegating all non-financial tasks to employees. 

Reap the rewards

Delegating tasks to your employees is one of the most beneficial actions you can take as a leader. When you delegate, you have the opportunity to master new skills, free up your time, and expand the capabilities of your organization. Research shows that employees want to be developed. When you teach them something new and trust them to do it, their confidence, self-esteem, and self-efficiency grow. They will make mistakes sometimes. That is part of the learning process. However, even a mistake provides a teachable moment where you can help them grow professionally and develop a trusting relationship with your employees. Tom went on to become a 3-store multiple Franchisee. One of the first employees he developed into a store manager became a 2-store multiple Franchisee. One person can only accomplish so much. When you are willing to share your workload, teach, and inspire others, you unlock their potential and yours. 

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Thank you for reading this blog. If you have any questions about leadership, please email me at dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com. Becoming a better leader is easier when you have a guide. To learn more about my coaching and consulting programs, schedule a call.

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Your Path to Business Success #15: Three Fundamentals of Business

When I was a little boy, my mother would take me and my sister to church every Sunday. Church within my home was an all-day event. We would wake up early on a Sunday morning; one of my parents would make a big hot breakfast, and I would put on my dress shirt, tie, slacks, and fancy shoes. I would come downstairs, eat breakfast, and listen to gospel music during our 30-minute drive to church. As a child, I had mixed emotions about going to church. It was long; I had to sit quietly and still for longer than any child should be asked to sit, and I frequently found the sermons boring. Church did have its benefits. I loved the rhythmic gospel music, awe-inspiring stories, and, most of all, being the Sunday School Treasurer.

Even at a young age, I loved numbers. Numbers made sense to me. You could add, subtract, multiply, or divide them, and they always came out the same. They never lied. Because I loved numbers, my mother encouraged the Sunday School Superintendent to let me be responsible for taking the offering plate around to collect money, count it, and report to everyone how much was given.

My time as the treasurer taught me three fundamental lessons about business that I carry forward today. When I was young, I did not truly have the words to describe my learning, but as I have matured as a business owner, those lessons ring true within every business, non-profit, or church I have ever helped financially.

3 Fundamentals of Business

The more people you serve, the more potential you have to earn.

All people do not contribute the same.

Prior experience influences future behavior.

Lesson 1: The more people you serve, the more potential you have to earn.

If you have ever been a regular churchgoer, you know that all Sundays are not created equal. Special Sundays like Easter, Mother's Day, and Christmas tend to have more attendees. On these Sundays, there was always more money to count. If you think about it, it makes sense. If you have more people in church, there is great giving potential. The same is true in business. If you want to earn more money, focus first on serving more people.

Lesson 2: All people do not contribute the same.

Every church has a few people who give more than others. You might assume that wealthy families give the most, but this is not always true. Individual decisions to give are based on many variables beyond than wealth. The people who appear to be the most wealthy often have the least liquid cash. Also, part of the reason they appear wealthy is that they spend money.

In contrast, the people who give the most have the most liquid cash (potential) and faith that giving will positively impact their lives (incentive). Knowing people's spending potential and incentives are essential variables business owners should consider when picking customer segments to pursue. Just because someone has money doesn't mean they will see value in giving it to you. To hit your revenue goals, you need to find people who believe they will benefit from your product or service and have the disposable income to pay for it.

Lesson 3: Prior experience influences future behavior.

When we first started attending our church, it was a small country church. Over the years, it grew. The Pastor modernized many things about the church. We began to have guitarists and drummers, TVs were added to the sanctuary, and young, dynamic ministers were brought in to provide new ministries. Our membership grew as the church evolved, and more people began attending Sunday School. As our membership grew, many people saw more value in the church, and offerings increased.

When people enjoy their experience with your business, two things happen: One, they come back and spend more money, and two, they tell others about your business. Providing exceptional customer service has to be a business's #1 priority. Your company makes revenue by fulfilling people's needs and desires. The more value you provide your customers, the more value they will provide to you.

Find what your passion is.

Throughout your life, you have been the same person at your core. For me, I have always been someone who loves numbers. As I got older, I went to school for business, earned my MBA, got a job as a business consultant, worked my way up the corporate ladder, became an executive, and then launched a mental health and coaching business with my wife. The advanced degrees and experience gave me fancy words, frameworks, and better ways of communicating, but I am the same person at my core. I love serving others. I love dealing with numbers. I love helping organizations grow.

If you want business success, you need to rediscover your passion. Looking back over your career:

• What made you want to get out of bed?

• What has pushed you to keep going when others stopped?

• What have you incurred pain pursuing because you knew accomplishing your goal would be the effort?

Running a business is one of the most challenging things you will ever do. It will have peaks that bring you some of the highest highs and valleys that make you feel insecure and unworthy. For you to persevere, you need to be willing to go through pain today so that you can have joy tomorrow. In pursuit of this passion, you will experience trials and tribulations that will give you the clarity and strength that you need to grow your business.

I hope you have enjoyed this 15-part series. Next week, I will take a break from writing something new, but I plan to summarize the material I have shared over the last 15 weeks. I hope you have seen value in these writings. Each is a step towards improving the profitability of your business. I know these steps work because I have helped over 1000 Franchisees throughout my professional career and the hundreds of independent small business owners I coach, mentor, and consult. Running a business is complex, but having frameworks and support can make it easier. What I have provided you over the 15 weeks is a do-it-yourself manual for growing your business.

If you have started using this knowledge and feel stuck, schedule a call with me. Within 30 minutes, I will help you determine if my coaching and consulting can help you accelerate your business's growth.

Let's talk business

I wish you the best. I am cheering for you and here if you need me.

Your Path to Business Success #14: Improving Performance by Creating Psychological Safety

Do you find yourself working harder to manage your employees than you feel you should? Low trust negatively impacts organizational performance in two ways. First, it creates a situation where your employees are scared to make mistakes. Secondly, it can produce situations where employees hide errors and information to protect their status. Both waste valuable time, money, and resources that should be put towards solving customer issues or improving business efficiency. One of the best ways to make work more manageable is to reduce the inefficiency that low trust creates in your organization.

Why Psychological Safety Matters.

I recently worked with a small business owner who grew frustrated with his team due to how they responded to his leadership. He felt their slow response to direction and lack of engagement negatively impacted sales. He sought coaching to understand better how his current behaviors were getting in the way of driving results. Through coaching, we discovered that low trust was the primary issue. The solution? Creating more psychological safety within his organization.

4 SIgns of Low Trust

Sign 1 of Low Trust: Unasked Questions

I helped the business owner see that some new employees felt uncomfortable coming to him for guidance. During meetings, he would set expectations for the week. He thought they understood his expectations, but there frequently were gaps between what he said and what they understood regarding key tasks. For him to improve team performance, the employees had to become comfortable asking clarifying questions and proactively asking for help when needed.

Sign 2 of Low Trust: Lack of Collaboration

Low trust between employees made the situation even worse. Competition for status, advancement opportunities, raises, and bonuses created an environment where employees did not share tips and best practices outside group meetings. This meant that most communication and talent development fell on the business owner, which slowed down employee development and created incremental stress for the business owner.  For employees to develop faster, he needed tenured employees to help newer employees learn new skills and how work is done within their organization.

Sign 3 of Low Trust: Lack of Feedback

Through coaching, he also identified that employees hesitated to point out business improvement opportunities. When he started hiring staff, he envisioned them helping him develop new ideas for growing the business, reducing costs, and improving efficiency. While all his employees had opinions about how things could be improved, it was rare for employees to suggest ways to improve. This stagnated organizational growth because the owner did not have time to ponder and evaluate potential changes. Instead, he spent too much time following up with employees who were not executing tasks to his expectations.

Sign 4 of Low Trust: Feelings of being Unvalued

Finally, we identified that some of the employees felt undervalued. They were unhappy about certain aspects of the job but did not feel comfortable voicing those concerns. The business owner only heard complaints when employees were under a lot of pressure and would overreact with emotional outbursts. This typically made the business owner furious at the employees because of their poor communication and failure to emotionally regulate themselves.  

How Did We Improve Trust?

We teach business owners the Power6 Leader framework's success equation: process multiplied by culture equals results to help them improve trust within their teams.

Processes help employees and bosses manage the complexities of work by reducing the number of decisions that must be made before action is taken. For example, if a status meeting is held every Monday, employees know that at least once a week, they will have an opportunity to discuss what is and is not working well within the business.

Organizational culture is essential because everything cannot be managed through processes. When novel situations occur, having norms, guiding principles, and values helps guide decision-making. For example, if a norm within your company is to challenge the status quo, then employees know that it is safe to question why a task is being done a certain way and suggest alternative ways of completing a task.  

Make Meeting More Meaningful

Few things are complained about more than meetings. They can take up a lot of time. They pull people away from doing other work, and most leaders never go through effective meeting training. Within the Power6 Leader coaching program, we challenge business owners to evaluate:

·       How frequently are meetings held?

·       How to generate more engagement?

·       How to gain feedback to keep them fresh and valuable?

There are four types of meetings we encourage all business owners to have.

1. One-on-One Meetings: designed to build relationships, provide opportunities for support, and ensure employees are getting the direct feedback they need to perform.

2. Group Meetings: designed to build relationships between team members, facilitate cross-pollination of ideas, and ensure that group members are focused on shared goals and understand interdependencies.

3. Business Reviews Meetings: These meetings are designed to ensure key stakeholders are aware of key performance indicators and variances to goals and to develop plans to close performance gaps.

4. Quarterly Strategy Reviews: designed to get key stakeholders to pause, consider current priorities, and evaluate whether they align with long-term organizational mission and vision.

We discussed these types of meetings, who should be invited, what the agenda should be, and how to ensure that they help to support trust. Every business is different, and you need to customize the approach that will work for you and your current stage of business growth.

Reinforce Organizational Cultural Expectations

After optimizing the meeting cadence, we focused on defining the norms, guiding principles, and values employees should use when making decisions. We discussed how each meeting should reinforce the organizational culture the business owner desired to build. Through consistent discussion of organizational culture, the seeds of values, norms, and guiding principles take root.

What was the outcome?

At first, the employees were skeptical. They thought the business owner was going through a phase and things would revert to normal. After 6 weeks of the business owner focusing on improving processes and organizational culture, the employees started to accept that this was the new way they would be doing business. They became more engaged and trusted the business owner and their peers more. The business owner noticed employees asking more questions, collaborating, and providing suggestions for improving the company; many communicated that they were starting to feel like valued team members.

What you should do next?

Consider the four signs of low trust. Identify if you see any of these signs within your organization. If they are present, develop a specific plan for addressing the issue. Start first by looking at your meetings. How can they be improved? Make minor tweaks and ask your team about the impact of your changes. Next, reflect on how you want your team to treat one another, customers, and other stakeholders. Make your expectations known, and consistently find ways to help your team understand how things are done here.

Thank you for reading the latest version of Your Path to Business Success. Over the last 14 weeks, we have shared tips and best practices that small business owners can use to make 2025 their best year yet. If you have any questions about this or any other business topic, email Executive Coach Dorian Cunion at dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

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