#15a: DELEGATE – Your Work Life Solution

Updated December 6, 2018 by @KathyKormanFrey.

Texting while in labor

There Xandra sat …in her car.. in the parking lot…outside the hospital. “I’m in labor,” she texted to her consultant from her Blackberry. “I’m trying to get out a few more emails before I have to go in.” Part of you – right now – is thinking, “Really?”  while another part of you is like, “Oh yeah, that’s me.”

P.s. Xandra is alive and well today.

If the CEO gets hit by a bus, will the business continue?

Businesses often prepare for worst case scenarios. Most MBAs study the “hit by the bus” case in school: What if the CEO gets hit by a bus?  Lesson: Get “key man insurance.”  However, this gets one thinking:  How SEVERE do things need to get for you to “let go” and pass off responsibility?

Back to Xandra…

She’d had a lot of prep, as had her team, in anticipation of the baby day. Boss-lady was gone – for a while.  But that compulsion, it was there…you know what it is..to get out those last few emails, take care of those last few things.

The achiever in us: It both works for us, and haunts us.

Said another way: We both freaking love and hate this person.

Do this: The “If I Died” List (dark..but…it gets the job done)

A) List everything you do:

1. around the house, from laundry to cleaning
2. with the kids
3. with your older parents
4. the playdates
5. birthday gifts x __#__?
6. the carpooling
7. the groceries
8. the dinners and dishes
9. the lunches and more dishes
10. the dog
11. the overall household schedule
12. the big maintenance
13. organizing
14. the small maintenance (e.g., light bulb changing)
15. the financial planning
16. paying bills, depositing checks
17. dealing with the cars
18. vacation planning
19. fixing what you can, and calling for handymen
20. anything else for which you are the head honcho

B) WHY you do it? (Does it “just need to get done” or is it a “core value,” for example)

C) Discuss the list with someone objective. Say, “what items would you keep, outsource, not do at all?”

D) What goes on the “To Don’t List”? This is where it really gets fun.

What to the most successful people do? There’s a “they.”

Hot Mommas Project research done with the support of the George Washington University School of Busines, Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence shows that successful women who feel balanced (i.e., high drive, high balance) have one big thing in common: Support…at home, and at work.

Who is the “THEY” in your life and work? Is there someone, or a team, to whom you can delegate? If you don’t have it, it’s time to create a THEY in your life.