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It’s all a choice, I remind myself as the work piles up and I start frantically going through it. This is the busy season. I am coaching, training, planning, creating, talking to clients. And it’s all good, don’t get me wrong. I love it all. And if I continue to do it all I will not keep the standard of service I am so proud of. So, enter my wonderful team. They are competent, willing, there. And I need to give away more of what I am doing so we can thrive together.
So, first, I put myself on the task of deciding what I will NOT do. If you are ever faced with an impossible TODO list, this should be on it, before all else. High achievers have a hard time getting things OFF the list, even if they resent the time spent going though it all and even when they experience the frustration of never completing it fully. Letting go is harder than it seems. Just this month, two of my coaching clients were struggling with this very experience. Used to getting everything done, they were both drowning in unsolved issues and incomplete lists of things that should get done. Though each one of them finally moved forward in a slightly different way, I want to share some of the learning that is prompting me (yes, me and not a friend of my coachee) to create my NOT TO DO list effectively.
1. What can my team do just as well as me? It might be more than I had thought. They’re hotshots, too! 
LOL
2. What will my team be honored to do, challenged to try, happy to excel at? After all, I do love giving people jobs they cherish, experiences they feel excited to try and willing to pursue.
3. What would benefit someone in my extended team and our work at the same time? Expansion is the name of my current game. So, reaching out to people I have not yet hired but would love to work with, on a project basis has worked for me in the past. Also, bringing some old colleagues back is refreshing. Some of them are even more awesome now than I remembered.
4. What do I not do well? Gasp! Yep…there are quite a few things. If they are not taken care of by someone else on the team, those are better outsourced, automated or really experienced if what you want is to learn more about them. Asking for help can take some time, so maybe I’ll bump a few of those right into that TODO LIST, and add them as a learning experience and expert help combo.
So, that’s that! My current thinking on not to do’s and how I am going about it. More ideas, anyone?
Related articles
- The Art of Letting Go (threestarleadership.com)
- Get To Work By Meeting Procrastination Head-On (fastcompany.com)
