I used to resist asking for help.
After all — I studied Emerson and Thoreau in college and fancied myself a modern-day Transcendentalist for awhile. I believe in self-reliance as much as the next red-blooded American!
And as a woman?
Even more important culturally to prove I have my shit together. That I can do “it all.” Whatever that means, right?
Leadership Excellence and Running a Business
Leadership excellence is an on-going process. So is running a business. Both are hard work.
In the first few years of building my business, I stubbornly did everything myself including:
-Content creation
-Website management
-Social media stuff
-Sales
-Marketing
-Client delivery
-Bookkeeping
-Networking
…all while simultaneously raising two kiddos and keeping up with their lives.
The list goes on and on. Funny thing is — hiring someone to clean my house or watch my kids when I needed help wouldn’t phase me, but boy I battled the idea of hiring help for my business.
I now understand the presence of imposter syndrome was hard at work on me. “Who am I to have a business that needs hired help? I can’t be a real Entrepreneur if I hire out!” were two of the most often played refrains running through my head.
OMG! The scripts we write for ourselves are mind-boggling!
Help Wanted for Leadership Excellence
Today I’m 7 1/2 years into running my current business. At the beginning of this year, I dug deep into my business and looked at where I needed to shift things around if I wanted to meet my goals.
“If you’re going to exemplify what leadership excellence looks like,” I told myself, “you’re going to have to let go of some control.”
Doing that wasn’t easy and definitely eye-opening.
I realized that first, I needed to take better care of myself. Which I’ve done an 8/10 job so far. Still room for improvement in that category but definitely improving.
Next, I saw that getting help would be critical if I were to have any sanity left.
I asked small biz colleagues, podcast guests, and clients what kind of help they hired to help them run their businesses and keep them sane. I discovered the kind of help people hire runs the gamut — social media manager, money coach, copywriter, personal trainer, personal assistant, and personal chef, to name a handful of answers I heard.
What I Learned
Help comes in many forms and is chosen strategically at different points in a small biz’s growth cycles.
No judgment about any of the choices individual business owners make to help them keep things in check. What works for one small business owner may not be the right fit for another.
Conclusion: leaders get help and what kind of help will change during the various cycles of business growth and stabilization.
No shame in that. No imposters need apply.
Leadership excellence is predicated on knowing what kind of help to get and then finding the right people to get the job done.
Have you ever resisted getting help for your business or an important project? What changed your mind? How has hiring help changed your business for the better?
Share your story in the comments 👇
