Why You Don’t Want to Be Your Own Chief of Staff

It’s hard to outsource tasks when you’re just starting out in business. Either because you don’t have the capital to hire or you don’t want to let go of your new “baby,” you resist bringing others into your business.

Today you will discover why you don’t want to be your own Chief of Staff.

This is totally understandable, and I’ve been there myself. But you started your business because of a passion or a skill you have that you want to share with others. And there’s a limit to your competencies, which will start to show as your business grows. In short, no one has the skills to do everything perfectly, or even do everything well.

As the chief executive officer of your business, it’s your job to focus on the things that make the money in your business. Whether that’s building courses and programs, working 1:1 with clients, creating physical products or something else, that’s where the revenue is. Focus on that and let your chief of staff, when you’re ready for that role, worry about the people.

So what exactly happens when a business owner tries to act as the chief of staff in their business?

Supervision lacks.

I hate to say it, but CEOs aren’t good managers. They’re visionaries, idea people. And they usually don’t have the skills needed to coordinate multiple projects and team members. When CEOs try to maintain the role of staff leader, things start to slack in the business.

I may be generalizing, but CEOs simply aren’t task-oriented. They’re big-picture people who have so many ideas floating around in their brains that they tend to overlook the little things. (And I can say all this because I’m a CEO too!)

Customer satisfaction drops.

Because CEOs are big-picture thinkers, they tend to say yes to everything. They want to help everyone and take on all the projects that come their way. Heck, they come up with most of the ideas themselves and try to implement it all. In return, clients are met with empty promises because the CEO has overcommitted.

If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of an experience like this, you know it’s not a best-case scenario. The busier you become working in your business, likely the more difficult it is to maintain the customer experience you want to deliver.

Burnout ensues.

CEOs usually end up in burnout mode when they try to keep tabs on the front-end of the business and the behind-the-scenes work. Because they’re not task-oriented, they’re not made to do the administrative work in their business. So they put in more hours than they should because they don’t have the process-oriented mindset they need to keep everything running smoothly. And they’ve overcommitted.

CEOs start out by doing all the grunt work in their business, working the long hours and doing it all. I don’t know of any business owner who was able to gallop out of the gates with a team intact to take on some of the support pieces. It’s hard, but necessary, work to build a business. But as the business grows, the stakes are higher and the expectations are greater–for the business owner and customers alike.

If growth is on your mind, it’s so important to start identifying the tasks in your business that just aren’t in your wheelhouse and start creating a plan to outsource. You won’t be ready for a chief of staff right away (and some businesses won’t ever need this role), but you do need other folks on your team who are ready to take on some new tasks.