delegate

I'm often asked by people...

It's one of the most asked questions 

I get on small businesses.

How can I get my business...

How can I get people
where I can delegate?

How do I delegate? 
How do I delegate?

How do I delegate? How do I delegate

?

And really you can't even
ask that question

until you've done
a whole lot of preparation.

And you've got the right people
in the right seats to delegate to.

Organizations that delegate well

are fanatical about
a bunch of different things.

Hiring and firing

to create an environment

and the right kind of people
in the seats to be able to delegate to.

Compensation. Unity. Loyalty.
Communication. Recognition
.

You create a culture

.

You create an environment
inside the organization

that is delegatable.

That is predictable.
That you can follow through on.

Delegation 

is probably
one of the most 
misunderstood

and abused areas of leadership.

We think we can delegate
to someone based on their talent.

And that's not it.

Talent is part of it.

But there's a whole process
of going on with this.

The process of building a team
that concepts can be delegated to

is lengthy.

You can't just hire someone,
sit them in the slot,

and delegate to them.

You can delegate, you know:
Make copies... Make coffee...

but I'm talking about delegating
entire business systems

and sections to someone.

You can't do that without spending
some effort and some time on this.

Hiring and firing.
Take time to find thoroughbreds.

And have the courage
to get the donkeys out!

I tried to mix thoroughbreds
and donkeys for a while

and they don't like each other.

Donkeys don't like thoroughbreds around

because the very presence
of a thoroughbred

exposes a donkey's "donkeyness".

Thoroughbreds don't like
having donkeys around

because... well, they're donkeys.

They don't care.

They're lazy, they're bullheaded,
they're belligerent.

And they don't care.
Did I mention that they don't care?

Thoroughbreds don't want
to hang around that!

See, you get a couple of talented people
in a stable full of donkeys,

They will leave!

Because they don't wanna hang out.

Thoroughbreds don't wanna
hang out with donkeys.

We do a thing called 90 at 90-day point.

Once you've been with us 90 days,

we all get in a room, and buy
chicken fillet wraps, whatever,

and we all sit around
and do "Wrap with Dave" we call it.

And the new people, I sit and talk
with our new team members.

50 or 40 of them,
whatever there is in the last 90 days.

And I'm sitting with them...
This last Monday I did one of these.

And they ask me questions about things.

Then we ask them what their AHA moment is.

What's something that
kind of called you to go:

"Wow! I didn't see that coming!"

since you've been here.

Tell me what your AHA moment is...

And you'd be amazed
at the number of them go:

The other night it was a developer.

And he goes "I thought
I was gonna come in here

and this is a company
that's all about financial stuff

and radio and all this...

and I didn't think
the developers would be up to par.

I figured I'd be kind of, you know,
better than all of them.

And he goes: It didn't take me
about three weeks

to figure out they were
all better than me!

And they got me on my toes,

I'm running with thoroughbreds.

And the AHA moment is often:

I get to work with smart people
that care. Wow! what a cool thing!

And that requires
the hiring and firing process.

Accidentally sometimes you hire a donkey.

And you have to have
a "donkeyectomy" then.

You've done it. I've done it.

I mean, you hire somebody,
you thought they were right,

and then you find out
"This is just... it was a bad idea."

Compensation is a reflection
of your value system.

If you value thoroughbreds
plan on paying them well.

I've checked the marketplace,

and thoroughbreds cost more than donkeys.

You do get what you pay for.

Most of the time, not always.

There's no guarantee

that just because you pay a lot
you're gonna get a lot.

But there's pretty much a guarantee
that if you don't pay a lot,

you're not gonna get a thoroughbred.

You're gonna pay a little more
to get somebody

that really brings the water.

Really knows what they're doing,

and that really cares deeply,

and thinks critically.
They think above the problem.

They're not just trying to get by.

And they don't say
"take it easy" and mean it.

"Thank God it's Friday!"
"Oh God, it's Monday!"

How quick can I get out of here
and how late can I come.

You know? Right?

It's a different world
when you hire a thoroughbread.

But they cost a little more

because they have
a little more expectation of you

and of the organization
and they need an upward trajectory

that they can grow with the company.

And as the company grows
maybe their income grows.

You know, you have to be generous,
this is what it amounts to.

And it's great ROI though,

because you don't have to hire
as many thoroughbreds to do the work

as you do donkeys.

People are only loyal
when you're loyal to them.

Creating loyalty, creating unity,
is a constant battle.

It does not randomly occur.

People are not loyal to corporate America

for one simple reason:
corporate America is not loyal to people.

That's what's going on.

And you have the ability,

particularly those of you
that are leading in small businesses,

owning and running small businesses.

You have the ability to be different.

To actually be loyal to someone.

I was actually...
I jumped out of a plane,

jumped into a car service
in another state 

not long ago.

And the guy driving the limo thing
,

that little black sedan thing, the limo,

you know, the limo service,
whatever we call it, the car service,

he's telling me a story driving me over.

I asked him:
How long you've been

He said: I just started driving
for these guys

about six weeks ago,

I used to drive for another company
and they fired me.

And I went: "That's comforting"

Well, why were you fired? Pray, tell.

and he said:
My wife and I are separated
.

And she lives in New Jersey.

He was in a different state
over in the Midwest

.

He said: "My daughter got kidnapped

and was missing for six weeks."

And I asked for time off

to go participate with the police
and the searches.

And they finally found her in a park.

This guy dropped her off

after he had carried her around
for six weeks.

A horrible story...
this young 13 year old girl...

And this company because he took time off

to go find his daughter, fired him!

You know?

Like, you did what?

You know, maybe
they didn't believe his story.

I don't know. I mean... who does that?

Companies do that.
They do that all the time.

They have no soul.

And you have the ability to have a soul.

To go: My gosh! I can't even imagine...

of course you can take time off

and I don't know how long I can not pay you

I mean I can pay you to not work

but at least you can not be here for sure!

Your job will be here when you get back
.

And how can we help you?
And how can we...

oh my gosh,

what if my daughter
or my granddaughter, 

I mean...

how would I, you know...

You treat other people
like you want to be treated.

That's how you create loyalty
.

Do unto others
as you'd have them do unto you.

Why is that hard?

Why is that hard?

Communication and recognition.

Organizations that delegate well

are overly intentional
about communication.

And they are generous with recognition.

We over communicate.

I tell our team all the time...

We have a staff meeting, all 700 of them,

every Monday morning for an hour.

That's an investment in payroll.

That's how much
we believe in communication.

Because if the right hand
doesn't know what the left hand is doing,

people don't know what's going on.

If people don't know
what's going on inside your company

You know what? They assume.

They assume the worst.
They assume it's bad.

They automatically think there's a secret.

There's a bad thing.
There's a conspiracy.

People never go:

"Well, I don't know what's going on,
but I'm sure it’s awesome."

They never do that.

It's not human nature, right?

And so you have to over communicate.

You have to give them
too much information.

Information that makes you feel
a little bit uncomfortable.

Because you went so far into the details.

And you know, you're not insulting people,

we're not trying
to throw people under the bus,

but we tell people what’s going on

you're grownups, this is not
a kindergarten class.

We're gonna have
an adult discussion here.

Here's some stuff that went on,

and here's the result of what went on,

and you need to know that
you're gonna read this on Twitter.

and you're gonna see this coming

And you're gonna hear this
about Dave Ramsey.

And here's what really
did happen out of that.

Here's what really
didn't happen out of that.

And you need to know that

because you work here.

instead of wondering:
Well, I read the article

and I don't know...

I work here but I don't know
what they really did...

You know? I just tell you, it's not hard.

Over communicate. Over communicate.

A lot of people are so afraid
that if people have information

that they will somehow
misuse that information.

Now, we don't tell people's secrets

we don't tell individuals people's stuff

and shame someone or harm someone

I don't mean that kind of thing

but you know...

corporately as far as information goes

we give you too much information.

It's ok for them to have information

it's not going to destroy them.

Lack of information 

will destroy them
more often than too much information

.

But our tendency is to hold back and go:
"
I don’t know if they can handle that."

What will all that do to morale?

Well I'll tell you what it'll do to morale.

It'll destroy it if you don't tell them
what's going on.

That's what it'll do.

You create an environment
that's not delegable

because they don't trust.

A lot of companies use
mushroom communication:

keep everybody in the dark
and feed them manure.

You gotta use real communication.

You know, in order for a leader
to completely delegate

they have to come to trust
the team members integrity

and their competency.

Circle that. Put stars around it.

That is the thesis statement
of this lesson.

That is how you delegate, right there.

When you can trust someone's integrity

and you can trust their ability to do
what you're asking them to do

you don't have to check it.

You'll just check the results.

You don't have to micromanage anymore.

And that takes time.

You cannot hire someone off the street

and in six seconds go:
I trust your integrity,

and I trust your competency,

now that you just got past your resume.

No way, not unless you're a fool.

And the more time you spend with someone,

and the more you see them
accomplishing it,

the more you can trust
their integrity, right?

The more you can trust
their competency.

So someone that has been
with me for 20 years

and is running a 50 million dollar
section of our business,

one of our EVPs as an example,

obviously I have a lot more trust

in that lady or that man's integrity
and in their competency

than I do a new leader
who just started with us six weeks ago.

There's no possible way
.
I don't have a track record with them
.

I don't trust them based on their resume
or what they did at 

the other place.

They get a shot at me trusting them

based on what they did
at the other place
.

But they earn the trust here.

They prove their competence here.