A message for women in business

A message for all you beautiful women out there, stop what you are doing and make a cup of tea, seriously, it’s time for a RESET.

As a woman in business myself, and a veteran coach of women, I’m amazed at our resilience, resourcefulness and the rod we make for our own back!

We take on way too much, do it to a standard that isn’t required, and then continue to help people that quite frankly should be sorting out their own dramas. Then we wonder why we are absolutely exhausted. I see it time and time again, women are their own worst enemy, they are way too resilient for their own good, they drive their business, encourage their staff, support their partner, care for their children, help their parents and still have time to bake a blooming cake for a fund raiser.  It’s OK they say to me; “I’ve got this …”

Enough!  Stop trying to be everything to everyone, instead be a savvy business woman in it for the long haul, who has time to enjoy life along the way.

Here is what I want you to do.

Firstly, list all the tasks you do.  Yep, sit down and write out a list, I know it’s going to be a long one but do it anyway. Do a list for your business and home life, maybe start with your business first and next week do your home life, it’s the same exercise, list all the tasks large or small.

Now, go through every task and ask yourself which task can I delegate, simplify or dump? Then follow through on those actions.

Easy huh?  

Well conceptually it’s really easy, the follow through is the tricky part, as our conditioning gets in the way, things like:
“I’m the best person to do that” – I hate to tell you this, but this might not be the case, you can either delegate and empower a team member or outsource to a specialist, remember you are a business, not a one woman band.

“I’ll overload my team if I delegate too much” – again I hate to tell you but what I hear from team members is that they feel you don’t trust them because you don’t delegate.

“I can’t simplify, that would mean I would be dropping my standards” – in this fast-paced business age, ‘good enough is good enough’, I see more perfectionistic clients burn out instead of thriving, let it go.

“I can’t dump a task” – you’ll be amazed what you can dump, just ask your team, they’ve been waiting to tell you for ages.

Now for the important bit, with the time you have saved, even if on your first pass, it’s only one hour a week, use that hour wisely on you, a massage, a walk in the park, afternoon meditation, you’ll feel empowered, you’ll feel like you again, back in the driving seat, and in control of your life.

This post was written by Tracy Ward and republished here with permission.