I’ve always been the smart one…
In fact i’ve taken great pride for most of my life in being a very smart person – the one that people turn to when they need answers. (I distinctly remember in grade 3 deciding I was going to be smart and had straight A report cards all throughout school after that.)
I exceled in any job that I had because I was smart – I can figure things out and get the job done. My business is built on a foundation of being smart as an Online Business Manager helping my clients and now training other people to do the same.
And now for the first time in my business (and in my life really) i’m no longer the “smartest of the bunch.”
I’ve had some moments lately where I was no longer the one with all the answers – the people around me have been coming up with some great stuff, and quite honestly stuff that is much better than I ever could have come up with myself. I’ve been very purposeful in this whole journey – being a control freak by nature i’ve been consciously working on letting go and letting my team take over these past few months. And yet I didn’t realize that part of this shift would be about me letting go of having to be the “smart one” as well.
For example, we opened up the next OBM Training for early bird registration in June… and the application process requires that we talk 1-1 with people to ensure the program is a fit for them. As always I was going to do these calls myself but my OBM Tiffany gave me a good ole slap on the wrist and said “you have enough on your plate right now, why don’t I do these calls?”
I’ll admit, at first I was quite resistant – it felt tough to let go of that and quite honestly a bit risky as this was a new thing for Tiffany to take on – but I was super busy and I know Tiffany rocks so that’s what we did.
Well let me tell you – along the way Tiffany was seeing things in the entire process that I wasn’t seeing and came up with some awesome ideas (including our super cool OBM Summer School.) Not only does she love doing these calls and talking to our potential trainees, she’s really really good at it… and yes, probably better than me. 😉
Because of this and a few other cool things that the people around me have come up with (including a doozy from my OBM Mentorship gals… stay tuned for that one) i’ve had many moments lately where i’ve thought:
“Why didn’t I think of that?”
And at first it felt a bit ick… some ego bruising if you will. Cause i’ve always been the smart one right? I should be the one coming up with all these cools ideas! I’ve actually had moments when I wondered if I was becoming “dumb” and losing my edge (kinda like having pregnancy brain – i certainly had some dumb moments then!)
But it occurs to me, literally as i’m writing this, that because i’m releasing things to my team i’m no longer the one on the front lines anymore… and therefore i’m not the best person to come up with the ideas from the front lines. In fact, if I tried to that probably would make me dumb… as i’m not plugged into what’s going on there anymore and would basically be guessing.
So yes, my team is smarter than me and will continue to be in many ways i’m sure… and i’m learning how to embrace that even when my inner smarty pants is resisting. I’ve heard people say over the years “hire people who are smarter than you” but I never really understood why they recommended that until now… because now I get to have awesome people moving the big vision for my business forward and I don’t have to do it all myself! I’ve understood that from a ‘doing’ perspective for a long time – no one can DO it all – but now I get that it’s also important from a THINKING perspective. I don’t have to be the only one coming up with cool ideas for the biz – and I feel really blessed to have a team that allows that to be or otherwise my head might explode.
Where is your team smarter than you? Or let me ask another way… where COULD your team be smarter than you if you gave them the space to do so?