Leading technical experts
All of us in business love doing the things we know. Growing your business and investing your expertise into building a business that can grow sustainably. Yet, no one can be an expert at everything. To be able to grow your business, you will need to outsource some of those tasks to the experts. To be able to grow your skills and the technical aspects we don’t yet know how to do, we need to outsource. That involves delegation to the leading technical experts.
53% of business owners believe that they can grow their business by more than 20% if they delegate only 10% of their workload to someone else. Developing these skills, and building tools to support effective delegation is vital. Especially when you’re looking at delegating to the leading technical experts in a particular field. But how do you manage experts doing technical work you don’t understand? These outsourced tasks still need to be managed effectively.
“94% of problems in business are systems driven by only 6% are people driven.” W. Edwards Deming.
If you’re hiring an expert there are a few things you can do to keep things well managed and in control. Ways to stop things from getting away from you. Also so you don’t find yourself at the mercy of an expert who says that things should be done XYZ when you would prefer them done a different way.
The Desired Outcome
Firstly, of course, you need to clarify the final desired outcome as best you can. Document it. Make sure the goal and the delivery of the goal are crystal clear. Set up deadlines and project milestones to make sure those things stay on track. Every task has phases to work through, even the most technical.
Once you’ve got that well established, you can ask the expert themselves to help you with two things:
Document the Key Steps
Firstly, they can help you write up the steps required for the task you’ve asked them to do. I’ve got a fabulous website developer who does this for me. Whenever I ask them to do something new on my website, they give me a little diagram or some simple steps so my team can continue here in the house. If you’re working with experts that are not willing to do this, you should find someone else who will. This way you can retain control of your business.
Improve the Instructions
Another thing they can help you with is clarifying the steps of your instructions. You want to be able to use them directly, without needing to modify or interpret each step. This will mean you need to write up those steps as best you can, then you ask them some questions. For example, “Is this how it’s meant to be done?” “Is this how you’re doing this work?”. This way you don’t need to learn that expert skill yourself, but you have an insight into how it should work.
Know Enough to Understand
Just a reminder. You don’t need to become the manager of everything with your thumb in every pie. You do need to have an idea of the skills and steps involved in the work you delegate or outsource. This way you can manage the experts effectively, and retain control so you can lead confidently. Ultimately this determines what success looks like in your business.
The leading technical experts have spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of the work they do. You cannot be expected to have the same understanding. What you can do, and what you should control, is how you manage the processes and outcomes they are involved in. Because you care more about your business than anyone else possibly could.
