One of the toughest things to do as a business owner is to step away and let the people you have put in charge make key decisions and take control of your business. Business becomes part of your life, maybe not your entire life, but a big part of it. You still value family and friends, but for shop owners, business becomes an integral part of one’s life. As a shop owner, your thoughts are never far from family and from your business.

 

This is not the first time I have spoken about how hard it is to let go, and it will not be the last. I have put people in levels of management and built systems to take care of the tasks that should not be done by me anymore.

 

But, in order to have real control and to keep moving the business in the right direction, we need to ignore certain things, and trust not only the people we employee, but the systems that we have put into place.

 

The other day I walked into the shop at 11:50am and saw two techs having lunch, while the other techs were working. Normally lunch is a 12noon. I was annoyed and visibly showing it. My manager made the decision to have these two techs take an early lunch since their ordered lunch had arrived early. I made no comment, just walked away.

 

While I may not be in agreement with his decision, it is his decision. I must not and cannot undermine, prejudge and take away his authority by stepping in and forcing my opinion on this matter.

 

As business owners, we need to build the systems, polices, and the procedures that will allow our businesses to run and grow with or without us. We need to put into place a system of checks and balances to insure success. Most of all, we need to hire the right people, assign them to the right position, train them, mentor them and then leave them alone and let them do their job.

Source: Effective Leadership Sometimes Means Ignoring Certain Things