I work 70 hours a week because I cannot find staff that do the job as good as me. What shall I do?

Please find below an answer to a business owner’s question I responded to in a national newspaper recently.

Question
I work 70 hours a week because I cannot find staff that do the job as good as me. What shall I do?
John

Hi John,

A few clients came to me with this problem and I helped them solve it. If something is learnt by you, it can be trained if the right person is hired, managed and led properly. You will not get to 100% as good as you but you can get to 85% on the most difficult tasks. You will need to lose the “super hero” syndrome. (Nobody can do it as good as me, so I will do it).

You will need to be very open minded to make these changes. For a number of business owners, this is crucial as working too hard causes health and relationship issues.

First thing to do is record what you do for one week. Add up the hours for each type of task (e.g. buying 25 hours, selling 10 hours, liasing with IT three hours).
By each task, rate them 1-10 for skill level and 1-10 for your enjoyment level. The tasks that are low on skill and enjoyment need to be delegated first to either current staff or will create a job spec for a new hire.
This is a starting point to get you thinking on how to tackle this issue.

If you need help on recruitment, management or delegation, either give me a call and / or read the following books: