How Many Different Hats are You Wearing Right Now?
Most of us get into business because we are passionate about a particular product, service or clientele. We fall in love with heady visions of having a positive impact on people’s lives and our broader community by doing what we do best. But along the way, we find out that there is much more to running a successful business than just doing what we are passionate about and before we know it, we are wearing the hats of:
- CEO
- Director of Marketing
- Head of Accounting
- Chief Counsel
- Director of Information Technology
- Customer Service Rep
- Many others…
But we’re supposed to, right? I mean…c’mon…we are smart, capable passionate people, right? We should be able to do all these things…shouldn’t we? We are supposed to be frugal, watch every dime like a hawk and wait until we can REALLY afford it to hire help, right?
The answer…in my opinion…is an unqualified NO on all accounts!
What is Your Unique Personal Brilliance Zone?
I firmly believe that each one of us is imbued by our creator (God, The Universe or whatever your tradition is) with a set of skills and strengths that is unique…that no one else on the planet has in that exact combination. Further, I think it is imperative for entrepreneurs who want to create sustainable success to discover what their Unique Personal Brilliance Zone is and to focus 80 – 90 percent of their time and effort in that zone, while outsourcing, delegating or deleting everything else.
Entrepreneurs that fail to embrace this exploration process and – more importantly – ACT on what they discover are like an 8-cylinder auto engine that is only hitting on 1 or 2 of those cylinders. They are destined to struggle, feel frustrated in their business and not enjoy the level of success they could attain if they fully stepped into their brilliance zone.
In my experience of working with scores of entrepreneurs and small business owners, most of us have 2-4 activities/tasks that we both excel at and that we are passionate about…yet we often only spend 20-30 percent of our working time focusing on them!
Just stop for a moment and think what you could achieve in your business if you focused 80 – 90 percent of YOUR time on what you love, where time seems to fly and you are truly “in the zone”? How would that be?
How to Discover Your Brilliance Zone…
There are lots of great resources out there to support this discovery. The 3 Simple Steps to Total Business Transformation special report and audio is a wonderful place to start (just to the right of this blog entry). We are also big fans of the Kolbe A Index and the Strengthsfinder 2.0 book.
If you are serious about delving into this in a deep and meaningful way, feel free to contact me at phil@totalbusinesstransformation.com to arrange a complimentary 15-minute strategy session around your Unique Personal Brilliance Zone.
To Your Success!
Phil
So Phil, what are you doing inside my head? I was discussing this very thing with my husband over dinner tonight. I’m almost full up and spending less and less time on my creative stuff. This won’t do, time to get back to organizing my time and putting more on my VA’s plate and less on mine. Thanks for the push!
Lynn
Lynn – If you haven’t done so, download the free audio and action guide on this our site. The “3 Column Exercise” I take you through on that is very, very helpful for moving things off your plate!
Good luck,
Phil
the funny thing about being an entrepreneur is all the hats we have to wear.
It is very wise to take notice of what hats actually fit and which ones don’t.
When we take off the hats that are really ‘not us’, and delegate them, everything becomes easier, smoother and A LOT more fun!
Great observation, Laura…love the hat fit analogy!
Phil
I love this post Phil!
The more I can focus on what I do best, the better it is for me, for my clients, and for my team.
Great post!
So true, Terry! It is amazing how much doing things we don’t like or are not good at saps our energy!
Phil
Phil,
Thanks so much. This post is quite thought provoking. So, what do we do when we LOVE everything we’re doing but know we need to narrow focus at some point to maintain sanity? Have you found a quick fix yet?
Write on!~
Lisa
Lisa – I sent you a private FB message responding to this in detail…but my expereience is that there is something else at play here…a story you are telling yourself about a particular service line or product that may no longer be true.
I would be glad to discuss in some detail with you…
Best,
Phil
Hi Phil,
Great reminder! I encourage my coaching clients to delegate those things that don’t feed their creative spirit. Time to listen to my own advice in a bigger way
Thanks for sharing!
Ellen Martin
Ellen – This is so often a case of “Physician, Heal Thyself!” We also tend to teach or coach people on things that we need to focus on as well.
The problem? We are too close to our own situation!
Phil
This post couldn’t have come at a better time. I have been wearing too many hats and over the past 6 weeks I have been taking them off one at a time. Delegating the jobs that don’t fit into my PBZ is much easier than trying to be and do EVERYTHING.
Hooray for taking off some of those hats, Christine! Isn’t it amazing how there are so many things we think we SHOULD be doing…and feel guilty if we let go of them? The good news is the freedom we receive in return is wonderful!
Phil
Phil, I have been struggling with this for some time and JUST decided to take the (financial) leap and outsource implementation of my next launch; thinks like bridge-line setup, email reminders, follow ups. I have one lead for a VA team who can do it, but at $95/hr. I’m struggling to release it. You’re so right when you say we all have activities/tasks we are passionate about, yet “we often only spend 20-30 percent of our working time focusing on them!” Thanks for illuminating this point again and reminding us to focus on our blessing/gifts.
Yvonne – Thanks so much for your thoughts! First…I strongly encourage you to “just do it”! Second…I think we can find you help that is much more cost effective, especially for what you laid out…I agree that $95 per hour is pretty steep!
Let us know if we can help you…
Phil
100% agree with your post, Phil. And not only in business but in personal life, as well. This week I hit the wall with finishing up the house renovation, running two businesses, preparing to put the house on the market, making a zillion doc appointments, getting ready for 3 new teleseminar calls, coordinating cleanup of house now that the workers are gone and coordinating moving back in upstairs (and more). I now have a new second personal assistant, a new additional gardener, a new and more frequent housekeeper, a clean-up crew all hitting the house next week. And the new assistant is managing ALL of that. I may even get some sleep, LOL!
Sue Painter
Sue – Are you my long-lost sister? that looks like one of my “to do” lists! Bravo for getting help!
Phil
Phil,
Thank you for the great reminder to focus on doing what I’m best at. Sometimes being the orchestra leader becomes the role instead of focusing on my strengths and doing what I love. Excellent advice.
Linda
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