Dan Sullivan, the greatest business coach in history, is also part of my Genius Network Group. Recently we were having lunch and I told him my favorite book he's written is Who Not How. That book argues that you should stop asking how you do things so often and start asking who can do it for you.
Stop Asking How
This is intended to free up your time so you have more time to think and just have more personal time. It is also intended to make the time you are working much more productive and valuable to the company.
Double Punch
Combine the idea of Who Not How with Dan's Unique Ability work and you get an awesome double punch that sets you up for some big success jumps. This is something we use with every single business with which we work. We work on understanding the owner's unique abilities and then devise a plan to remove things from his plate that are not within his unique abilities.
Finding Your Who's
We are always splitting the owner's responsibilities off by hiring "who's" to do part of what the owner does. Often that means finding more than one "who" to replace the owner's work. And we do this with key employees too.
You are much more profitable if you keep the expensive, skilled labor and management working only on that for which they are uniquely gifted. These other tasks can be done by people who are uniquely gifted to do those other things, and they tend to be less expensive people to hire.
Our Role
Other times we serve as "who's" ourselves with clients. And because our backgrounds are wide, it can lead to interesting and unique work for our little consulting firm. It makes every company we work with a unique experience, and that keeps me loving my work.
Start Today
So, start thinking about your roles in the business and start finding who's to do work that you should not be doing. That will be a great first step towards Who Not How and working more in your Unique Ability. You will be happier and more profitable.
Final Thoughts
The core idea is simple: stop asking how and start asking who. Identify your unique abilities, remove everything else from your plate, and find the right people to fill those gaps. Do the same for your key employees. The result is a leaner, more profitable operation where everyone is working in their zone of genius.
When you align people with what they are uniquely gifted to do, the whole business runs better. Costs go down, output goes up, and the work becomes more meaningful for everyone involved.
Start by taking a hard look at your current role and asking yourself: what on this list should someone else be doing?