Don’t Get Too Good At The Wrong Thing
“Nobody frosts the cookies like I do!”
It’s the siren song of the self-employed: “I’m the best around.”
Most of us opened a business because we WERE the best around. We had some local authority or renown, and wanted to capitalize on our expertise. So we bought ourself a job. We became self-employed.
Then we realized that we couldn’t possibly work hard enough or fast enough to pay our bills AND ourselves. So we hired a staff person. And since we’re only good at one thing, we tried to hire a duplicate.
Instead of hiring a manager, or a bookkeeper, or a cleaner–all the stuff we’re bad at–we hire someone with the same skillset we have. But, of course, we’re THE BEST, so they can never be as good as us…and now we have to do our own work AND look over their shoulder all the time. We need to hold them to the impossible standard of being our exact duplicate without ever surpassing our expertise. That takes a lot of energy. And it doesn’t grow our business.
In the “Harried Hostess” case study, Roberta was really good at all the wrong things. No one could set a table as quickly as she could, so she set all the tables. No one could polish the silverware, or take a reservation, or mix a drink like Roberta, so Roberta did those things while her staff stood around and watched. Roberta was very, very good at all the wrong, wrong things.
In the Founder Phase, it’s enough to be the best babysitter in town. But when you open a daycare to earn a better living, you enter the Farmer Phase. Now your job is to be the best entrepreneur in town, and your staff’s job is to be the best babysitters caregivers.
If you’re always doing their job better than them, you’ll never do your job well.
The best coaches develop athletes who are better than they ever were. The best Farmers build specialists who coach better classes, give better haircuts and file better tax reports. The best Farmers get over their egos, get over the Icon problem, and get over themselves to build the best business for their families. That’s more than a pivot of strategy: it’s a pivot of mindset. And it’s necessary to move from Founder to Farmer.
Specialists work for generalists. Be good at everything in your business, but don’t be the best at anything–except being the business owner.
