I’m always exhorting my audiences to stop working IN their businesses and start working ON them and the title of this blog is just another clever way of saying that. How can you focus on long-term goals and objectives and be a big picture thinker when you’re consumed with putting out fires and micromanaging?
I recently read about a restaurant owner/chef who didn’t trust her staff to handle anything other than daily, routine chores. When she suddenly became ill, although she tried to keep up, exhaustion finally forced her to let go of the reins. When she was able to return to work some weeks later, she finally realized everything didn’t need her hands on attention to still run smoothly and now she gets to spend her time on more creative and value-added endeavors.