5. IT Issues
Knowing everything about your business may be a source of pride for entrepreneurs, but when it comes to fixing a bug or downloading a virus patch, call for help. "When there's a computer issue, I don't hesitate to pick up the phone and call my IT guru, who has been working with computers for most of his adult life," says says Laura Stack, a productivity consultant and author of SuperCompetent: The Six Keys to Perform at Your Productive Best. "I'm sure you could probably learn to troubleshoot errors, write HTML, create WordPress sites, and more, but it's not worth your time and frustration to figure it out."
6. Customer Concerns
There's no doubt that any business owner needs to spend time doting on their key customers – to a point. But the more a CEO steps in to handle a complaint from a dissatisfied customer, the more they can disenfranchise their employees. "You cannot look over the shoulder of your client relationship managers," says Gary Bahadur, CEO of KRAA Security, which is based in Miami. "This assumes you have hired someone who knows what they are doing. If so, then you cannot confuse the client or the manager in how to deal with the client. This does lead to having to put out an occasional fire. But the benefits of letting that manager really get to know the client and build trust with them outweighs the risks."
7. Meetings
Meetings are another area where entrepreneurs tend to get stuck looking at the trees instead of the forest. Rather than attending strategic meetings, they are too often tempted to attend tactical ones as well, says Steve Schmieder, CEO of s2, a marketing and communications firm in Chicago. For instance, Barbara Roch who is an executive coach and lecturer at Wharton, refers to an entrepreneur client of hers who will not let his team hold a project meeting without him. Yet, he comes late, wants to be caught up, and then dominates each agenda item. "The progress on the project is slow at best and he can't see that his involvement is to blame," she says. "When I bring it up he says that the team doesn't fully understand what he wants, how he wants them to go about it and that if he is not there then they will get stuck." As a solution, she is trying to get him to agree to receive a briefing by the project leader every week and only to sit in on meetings once a month.
8. Creativity
Many entrepreneurs like to express their creativity by participating in things like brainstorming sessions or dabbling in graphic design. But by doing so, they may in fact be stifling the creative output of their employees if they get too involved. "Once you shoot for more creativity in your business, you must allow your team to deliver this creative juice, their own ways, untouched, unpolished at first," says Armelle Cloche, founder and CEO of iStayYoung.net in San Francisco. "The best new ideas come from there. Then, it can be finalized as a team."
9. Purchase Decisions
Keeping tight controls on costs is essential to the success of any business, especially these days. But micromanaging every purchase decision can easily alienate your employees. The alternative, then, is to figure out what dollar amount you're comfortable with and allow team members to make financial decisions on their own as long as they stay within that bracket, says Tania Luna, co-founder of SurpriseIndustries.com in New York City. "This means you don't have to be involved in selecting things like toilet paper, and your team members will feel good about their independence and your trust in them."
10. Tracking Time
Entrepreneurs tend to be hard workers, of course, which means they are often the first to arrive and the last to leave the office. But, making it your priority to check in on each of your employee's schedules is a mistake, says Steve Harper, a consultant based in Austin who's the author of The Ripple Effect. "One of the easy traps a business owner can get caught up in is tracking people's time – making sure they are showing up on time, doing what they are supposed to, not taking extra-long lunches, not leaving early etc.," says Harper. "There is no need to install temperature gauges in the chairs to make sure the live bodies are putting in their full eight hours. In fact, not micromanaging an employee's time and placing the trust in them to appropriately manage their own time, workload and priorities often encourages the employee to have even more ownership in their work life. My experience has shown me when you give people the trust and the flexibility to get the job done they will usually end up putting even more hours in than they ever would have thought to do if you were micromanaging them."
