the unfair advantage

Using both Stanza to 'read' the e-book of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons as well as iTunes and Audible.com to listen to it while I am out and about, I came across a notion that moved me along.

You may well know that I am working on a Strategic Coach program and as a result I have learned that delegation is a very big deal.

By combining Dan Brown with Strategic Coach I got the motivator that most of the great artists in the Renaissance and Baroque periods were massive delegators. Bernini, Raphael et al all ran shops where they would take a project, setup the routines and then support juniors in the work.

If Dan Brown can be believed the Vatican has 500 Bernini works. All completed in a working lifetime. If he was doing the work himself he might have produced say 30-50 works? Maybe?

Their artistic genius was leveraged not by working all of the 24 hours in a day and on 7 of the days in the week (although I am sure they were busy), it was done by focusing their energies on the areas of a project that they were truly 'best'.

The coach calls this a 'Unique Ability'.

An entrepreneur has the freedom to design a team. It's their show. Not only should the entrepreneur be seeking to find their own "Unique Ability' but they should also seek to help their team members find theirs.

Imagine you do a particular thing 10 times better than anyone else. Somethings you do twice as well, and many things you do just as well. (never mind those things that you suck at). If you spend you time doing that particular thing that you are 10 times better at, you should get great results.

Well, if the wheels don't fall off your life - the other stuff needs doing too - somehow.

So you delegate to your team those other areas.

Now imagine a team of people each doing the thing they do 10 times better than anyone else. You get the obvious leverage from maximizing your contribution. But think about the contribution you unlock when you help your team find their 10 times zone?

5 people doing 10 times better is WAY MORE PROFITABLE than 1 person doing 10 times better.

As a leader - spending your OWN money - it only makes sense to

a) seek your 'Unique Ability'

b) Delegate everything you can to your team (or stop doing some things all together)

c) Helping your team find their 'Unique Ability'

d) Work toward getting your people's assignments matched to their special skills

Bottom line?

There is no sales/marketing program, advertising campaign, technological innovation, market timing strategy, monopoly position that could be more profitable in the long run than maximizing the leverage you get from your people by applying them to the right tasks.

Think of Bernini, up late at night, all alone, chipping away at a a sculpture. 499 more sculptures to go, before he gets to the painting and architecture....

Now think of him sketching out an idea, communicating with his team and monitoring the progress - it's an unfair advantage.