Good managers don't hire assistants

Empowering Leadership: Beyond Assistance to Ownership

Very frequently I see managers trying to hire people that will handle the work they think is too boring, repetitive or mundane. They think is a way to accomplish the job they need to do. This is wrong. Don’t hire people that you think are going to make you productive. Hire people that can own part of the the job you do without interference or micromanagement from you.

If it is boring, repetitive and mundane; automate it. If it needs intelligence and skill then hire someone and get out of their way. Don’t hire someone to do the leg work. Hire someone who can own the task. Take a part of your role, break it off entirely and hand it over. Don’t micromanage their charter, it’s their charter now, not yours!

If it is tedious to run and manage the CRM don’t get a “CRM assistant” to do the leg work of managing the CRM. Automate it. If the CRM needs upkeep beyond that and requires intelligence hire someone who will manage the revenue process not the CRM.

If you are feeling naturally drawn to hiring people to “assist you” rethink if you are ready to be a manager. Your job as a manager is to be selfless and help other people be great at what they do. Their job is not to help you, your job is to help them!

If you need a gut check on if you are hiring an assistant or assigning them part of your role, ask yourself if you would be okay if they reported to someone else. If the answer is no you are hiring an assistant.

This was originally a post shared internally on the Nanonets slack. We help businesses automate manual processes. If you need help automating tasks try our product out at nanonets.com