How our DIY mentality holds back our purpose

“If you want something done right, you’ve got to….”

“It’s easier and faster to….”

You know how this ends,  right?  

Many Kiwi’s proudly embrace the #8 wire, Do It Yourself mentality. Heck, I love the good feels I get when I fix, or build something myself or make something work that just didn't seem possible.

If you are a for-purpose leader who is trying to help change the world, I strongly believe we have to change this Kiwi DIY attitude in our work.

Why? Because as a leader, DIY doesn’t serve you or your cause!

For far too long I embraced the DIY mentality. Do Good Jobs has been around for 11 years (gulp!). If you didn’t know about it in its early years, that’s probably because it started as a side/ passion project for me – to link good people to vacancies at great organisations through a jobs board. 

It is proof that when you work in a DIY way, it can take a looooooong time to get anywhere!  

A few years ago I proudly had an email signature with my work title as the “All-rounder and Founder” of Do Good Jobs (it even rhymed!), for years I prided myself on being the Chief Do-er. Read this article on being the Chief F#$@ing everything officer.

I was stuck in the weeds, DOING the day-to-day tasks for Do Good Jobs - jumping from customer service to website management, newsletter writing to account reconciling.

After 8 years of this on rinse and repeat I was burnt out and over it. My passion was waning, and I *almost* threw in the towel.

What I did at this crossroads made all the difference

Three years ago I started on a learning journey that shone a very bright light on the fact that I was running full steam – but wasn’t really sure of the destination – and was making very little time for strategy and big-picture dreaming.

I slowed down to take time to assess where my time was going and whether the things I was doing added the most value or not (spoiler alert: I was doing a huge chunk of things that were low-value tasks). 

After this I started to delegate, brought on my first team member to free up my time to focus on the things that really helped Do Good Jobs to grow. Learning to delegate well has made the BIGGEST difference. 

When we don't delegate we make less impact...

“It’s easier/faster to do it myself”
“No one can do it as well as me”

This kind of thinking often leads to burnout - and that’s really not what we need when we are focused on making some big changes in the world. 

We NEED to delegate to ensure we look after ourselves, but also our cause and our teams.

It definitely takes time to put in place good systems and pass over your knowledge, but know that when you do this you are making an investment in the long term, and making your future easier.

Over the past few years, I have delegated a load of things off my plate, including all the basic admin. I now have a massive file of Standard Operating Procedures from how to reconcile Do Good Jobs Xero accounts, to dealing with common customer enquiries. Today, most of the recurring activities that once took up ALL my workdays, are now off my plate – and I am not taking them back!

Having systems in place frees you to grow your organisation – and its impact – with ease, so invest in this process now.

Some key points as you start on your delegating journey:

• Assess: If you manage a team of people, or even if you are a team of one and plan to grow your organisation, start taking a full inventory of what you do in your organisation (a time audit over the course of a week is helpful too). Start making notes of what tasks you could delete, automate and delegate – and decide what needs to be documented. 

• Slow down to speed up: Once you know the things you need to delegate, it’s time to slow down for a bit, share your knowledge and train others on your team. Yes, it can feel easier to just keep doing and staying in DIY mode - but it all adds up. One task that takes you an hour a week to do is 52 hours a year - what could you do with that week instead?  Now imagine if you could delegate a few more hours of work you do each week. You start opening up lots more space in your calendar to work on the needle-moving activities. 

• Communicate: Delegating requires brushing up your communication skills to take what’s in your head and transfer it to others. If you’re not sure where to even begin to communicate or document your systems, I have put my learnings around making simple, easy, and quick standard operating procedures into my Delegate for Impact workshop. If this is something that is of interest to you, let me know here and you’ll be the first to know more when I release more information. 

• Consider the risk of NOT delegating. If you don’t learn to let go of some of the tasks that bog you down day-to-day there are a few risks you face. #1 you risk burnout and breakdown, and without you, I am sure your cause will be worse off. #2, if you are the only person who can do a certain task in your organisation, you are not only the single point of knowledge, you are also the single point of failure. If something happens to you, how will your organisation fare? 

• What’s the true cost? When you are stuck in the low value tasks, what’s the cost to your organisation? Usually it’s growth and impact. Less time for strategy and prioritizing often means less of the things that help drive change. 

If you find delegation and documentation hard, complex or expensive, I want to help you fix it!

It took me years to learn what I have about delegation. In my Delegate for Impact workshop, I am taking my learning from the past 3 years and condensing it into a 3-hour workshop. I can also guarantee you that if you can commit to delegate one regular low-value tasks, you’ll get your return on your investment!

Shortcut your learning and be the first to hear about the doors to our Delegate for Impact workshop opening soon. 

This is our final round of Delegate for Impact in a live workshop format – so don’t miss your chance.

As a sweetener, those on the earlybird list who commit to take action on the open day will also get access to my mini-course on “Winning back time..” Does this sound interesting to you? Add your name to the early bird list here.

Your cause needs you to be the best version of yourself – and to show up as your best, you need to get rid of all the things that are slowing you down - and release some of our DIY mentality.

Interested? Get yourself on the early bird list to secure one of the limited spots. Register your interest here.