YOUR GUIDE TO: STEPPING BACK, NOT STEPPING AWAY.
Stuck in service? If you’re running or leading a food business, you need to be working ON it, as much as FOR it. This means it is imperative that you take the time to step back from the everyday, in order to focus on the big picture.
It’s all too easy to get engrossed in the immediate, day-to-day tasks that need doing; they’re right in front of our noses, and the outcomes are often easier to measure. In addition, there are some very real reasons why we find it hard to step back. Some of them are practical: perhaps you’re short on staff, or maybe your operation is a small one with no other managers apart from you. Often, those reasons are also emotional. Maybe you fear that standards will slip if you are less involved, or you find it hard to let go of “your baby” and to trust others to care for it in your stead. Perhaps you feel guilty that you are leaving the “hard graft” to everyone else.
But ask yourself THIS: what will the impact on your business be if things carry on as they are? Madeleine Geach of The Good Life leadership coaching provides some essential answers to help you STEP BACK.
THE SHORTCUT
- Stepping back means getting better at delegating everyday tasks out to others in your team.
- Start by getting clear on the direction you want to take your business.
- Get clear about what you can and can’t control.
- Define your role in the future of your operation, and identify where stepping back from the everyday is necessary.
- By coaching your team adequately, your presence will still be felt, even if you are less hands-on. You’ll feel better about trusting them.
- Remember that stepping back is not the same as stepping away, and that it is an essential step in bringing your business forward.
1. START WITH THE BIG PICTURE
Where are you now? Where do you want to be in 12 months? What is getting in the way?
When we are caught up in the everyday it’s hard to even contemplate the longer term. What’s more, when we are under pressure, we fall prey to a phenomenon called ‘tunnelling’: our mental bandwidth narrows, as if we were in a tunnel, and we can only deal with what is right in front of us. In our industry, immediately pressing demands such as someone calling in sick, the constant flow of WhatsApp messages, and the demands of service can be all we see.
That means that visualising the future of your business needs to be the very first step you take. Practice taking a moment and letting go of the here-and-now to picture those ideals. Then identify the ‘blockers’ – these are the obstacles preventing your operation from getting to where you want it to be, and you from stepping back. Don’t worry about how to overcome them yet, just get clear on what they are.
2. FOCUS ON WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL AND INFLUENCE
What is outside my control? What can I control? Is there anything I can do to influence some of the things that feel out of my control?
To address those blockers standing between you and your goals, you’ll want to differentiate between the ones that are realistically within your control, those that are within your influence, and those that are out of your control. Write them down, so you can better visualise them. This will help guide your plan of action, and help you focus on the essentials.
3. SPEND TIME ON WHAT IS IMPORTANT, NOT JUST URGENT
What is urgent? What is important? How can I make time for the important as well as the urgent?
Think about everything you do (or would like to be doing) in a week. To help combat the effects of tunnelling, try listing which activities are urgent for the day-to-day (and those which are not) and which are important in the long-term (and those which are less so). It is easier to overfocus on all of the urgent tasks because they are right in front of us, which means that the important but not-so-urgent tasks can get neglected. If you are permanently focussed on the urgency of service or on firefighting operational emergencies, this is especially relevant to you. You need to dedicate enough time to work on the longer term activities that will contribute to the success of your business, such as your marketing strategy or an expansion project.
A helpful approach can be to DO what is urgent and important, and DELEGATE what is urgent but not so important longer term. PLAN, schedule, and protect your time for what is important but not urgent. And finally, if you are spending time on things that are neither urgent nor important you should question why you are doing them at all and you may need to ELIMINATE them.
Step BACK from the urgent, step TOWARDS the important.
4. MANAGE YOUR EMOTIONS
5. YOUR NEW ROLE – TIME TO GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE
How am I feeling? How is this affecting my thoughts or actions? What would be a more useful thought or action?
Our emotions are linked to our behaviours and thoughts. Whatever unhelpful emotion you may feel about stepping back, start by identifying what the thought or action linked to it is, and what a more helpful thought or action would be.
I often see my business owner clients feeling guilty when they shift to being less hands on during service. The feeling is that they are neglecting their team, or not pulling their weight. But you need to remember that your role is to be working ON as much as FOR the business.
FEELING guilt > THOUGHT I’m not pulling my weight > NEW THOUGHT = I am working to make sure that the business is successful
Others feel fearful that stepping back could lead to a decline in standards from not being present, and lack the necessary trust in their team to be able to deliver. Think back to what you can influence, and consider what you can do to tame this concern. Clear communication, thorough training, and regular feedback make all the difference.
EMOTION fear > BEHAVIOUR If I step back, standards will slip > NEW BEHAVIOUR = more training + feedback for team
What’s my new job description? The one my business and team needs from me going forward?
As well as visualising the right direction for your business, it’s also important to define what your new role in it will be. Think of this like writing a new job description for yourself. This will vary greatly depending on the size, stage and nature of your business but may include some of the following:
- Financial director – crunching the numbers, planning the financial strategy for the next 12 months
- Coach – setting goals, creating accountability, giving feedback
- Project manager – driving new ventures e.g. an opening, a new product line, a side business, an exciting project
- Chief marketing officer – promoting your business so people know who you are
- Face of the business – PR, speaking on platforms, in the press or to social media, networking
6. EMPOWER YOUR TEAM
Step back from the everyday and trust your team to step into the space you free up; but be careful to not conflate stepping back with stepping away. You may be away from the action, but that doesn’t mean you should disappear completely. To make this new system work, you need to retain presence even though you may be less hands on.
A coaching approach may help. This means setting your team up for success with clear communication and training, achievable goals, and regular feedback in frequent 1:1s and team debriefs to support them. As they grow in confidence and competence, ASK more questions to help them find SOLUTIONS rather than simply telling them what to do. This will help develop your team and decrease their dependence on you.
Some good coaching questions:
- What’s been going well this week?
- What do you need to focus on now?
- Where could things be improved?
- What would help things run more smoothly?
- What have you tried? What else could you try?
- What do you think is best?
- What support do you need?