Hiring experts is a great way to grow your business. 

In her book, What the Most Successful People Do at Work, author Laura Vanderkam suggests that you should be willing to let go of some tasks to have more time to focus on those that only you can do. That means you need to be able to say, “I hired you because I know what you do and I’ll let you do it.”

But that isn’t what happens all the time. Often businesses hire internal or contracted experts only to micromanage every decision. 

Are they an expert, or aren’t they?

If you’ve done the work upfront of vetting your expert hire, you should already know how much more they know about the task at hand than you. You have to trust the person or team you hired at this point. Let them live or die by their work without being able to say, “we would’ve been more successful if we were able to do our job.” 

By all means, ask questions and have accountability. But micromanaging is not the same as checking in or starting with a question. Asking your experts questions is the best way to learn more about what they are doing and how it will help you!

You shouldn’t have time to be in their way!

Simply put, why hire others if you are still trying circuitously to do that work. You should not have time to be in their way. Let your business grow by bringing on a team of specialists and getting out of their way. 

We have worked with countless businesses in the last decade, a common thread is that the ones who grow slowly have leaders in the highest positions who bottleneck change. You don’t need to fear change. 

The easiest way to grow via positive change is to hire experts and let them do their work. It frees up your time to do work that you could never outsource! 

When you bring in a specialist, you say, “my time is too valuable for this task when someone else can do it better.” It is an act of respect for your time. Ultimately approaching the hire from this perspective is an act of respect for your team as well. 

No one likes being a button pusher – especially if you are a bonafide expert. 

The biggest reason to get out of the way of your expert hire is not to throttle their work. If you are consistently in the way, you will impact the work quality – even if the team you hired doesn’t realize it. 

Have you ever been stuck behind multiple cars on the highway going well below the speed limit? It can be a blood-boiling experience. 

Recently I was on a walk with my family, and my three-year-old was walking alongside me. Every time I went to the sidewalk’s left side, he zigged to that side in front of me. And every time I went right, he zagged that direction. He wasn’t trying to be in my way, but he was. It meant that every few steps, I had to slow down and make room. Don’t be like a meandering three-year-old!

Give your expert hires space and freedom to do their work. Please give them parameters and goals and set them loose. You will find that the upside is enormous; more time for you to focus on your work, more growth in ways you wouldn’t have conceived. The downside is minimal; you check in occasionally – if it doesn’t work out, you move on. Irreversible harm is not likely to come to your business.

Hire experts and then let them work – free them up to grow your ideas in ways you can’t develop them on your own!