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Dan\nSullivan is the founder of The Strategic Coach, Inc. and the creator of The\nStrategic Coach Program . . . a program that helps already successful\nentrepreneurs become even more successful. \nHe is also the author of more than 30 publications including one\nentitled \u201cWhoNotHow.\u201d In this particular\npublication, he teaches that procrastination is not about being lazy or\nunfocussed or overly cautious. Even\nthough most of us grew up believing that procrastination is a bad thing, Sullivan\nbelieves procrastination is actually our inner wisdom warning us that, while\nour goal may be a worthy one, we may not be the right one to achieve it. As Sullivan says, \u201cYou come up with a new,\nbetter vision of what\u2019s possible, but you don\u2019t have the capability to pull it\noff . . . so you put it off.\u201d Taken in\nthis light, procrastination is a valuable management tool that tells us when we\nneed to seek out others who have different capabilities than our own, and whose\nsupport we will need to achieve the goal we see in front of us. For more on procrastination as a useful\nmanagement tool, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf you procrastinate when faced with a big\ndifficult problem . . . break the\nproblem into parts, and handle one part at a time.\u201d <\/strong>~ Robert Collier<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dan Sullivan and Robert Collier view\nprocrastination in much the same way. \nCollier would have us break knotty problems down into smaller parts to\nbe solved one at a time. Sullivan would\nalso have us break tough problems down into smaller parts, but would then\ndecide which parts he should handle and which parts should be delegated to\nothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his publication, \u201cWhoNotHow,\u201d Sullivan says when we procrastinate in the face of a daunting task, our instinct is to ask ourselves, \u201cHow in the world am I going to get this done.\u201d The better question he says is, \u201cWho can I call on to get this done for me.\u201d So in Sullivan\u2019s view, the entrepreneur should be focused on who<\/span><\/em> has the right skills, aptitudes, and capabilities to get the job done . . . and leave the how<\/span><\/em> up to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When an entrepreneur opens a business, there is\nno large workforce to help get stuff done. \nThere is only the entrepreneur and maybe one or two others. Necessarily then, the entrepreneur wears\nmost, if not all, the hats. But if the\nbusiness is successful and flourishes, the entrepreneur will be faced with a decision. \u201cDo I continue to wear all the hats? If I do, since I\u2019ve reached the physical\nlimit of what one person can handle, the business will stall and will never\ngrow any bigger than it is right now.\u201d \nHopefully, the entrepreneur chooses the other course whereby he or she\nbegins turning over some of the hats to others who are better qualified to wear\nthose hats than the entrepreneur is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gino Wickman is the author of \u201cTraction,\u201d and\nthe creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS). He offers some help for the entrepreneur who\nrecognizes the need to delegate some of his or her hats to others . . . that\nis, selecting the right \u201cwho\u201d for a given task. \nHe suggests we ask ourselves three questions about the \u201cwho\u201d we want to\nselect. Does the candidate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wickman also advocates an organizational\nstructure whereby there is a \u201cVisionary\u201d at the top who is a big picture person\nand who can see where the company needs to go, but doesn\u2019t have the planning\ncapability to lay out the strategies and tactics necessary to achieve his or\nher vision. Immediately below the\nVisionary is the Integrator who doesn\u2019t have the Visionary\u2019s gift for seeing\nthe company\u2019s future, but does have the planning and organizational skills needed\nto move the company toward that future. \nWe might liken the Visionary to the company\u2019s CEO, and the Integrator to\nthe company\u2019s Chief Operating Officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, when an entrepreneur reaches the limit of\nhis or her capabilities and is locked into a cycle of procrastination,\nWickman\u2019s EOS provides an escape in the form of an Integrator who has the\ncapabilities the entrepreneur lacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trick here is getting the entrepreneur to realize that he or she can\u2019t wear all the hats forever. Sooner or later (preferably sooner), the entrepreneur needs to stop worrying about how<\/span><\/em> to get stuff done and start worrying about who<\/span><\/em> will get stuff done. That\u2019s what team-building is all about. But if the entrepreneur fails to build an effective team, it\u2019s unlikely that the company will grow to be anything more than a \u201clifestyle company\u201d for the entrepreneur. On the other hand, if the entrepreneur is able to assemble the right team, the path will be open to build a company that can be as large and successful as the market will allow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dan Sullivan is the founder of The Strategic Coach, Inc. and the creator of The Strategic Coach Program . . . a program that helps already successful entrepreneurs become even more successful. He is also the author of more than 30 publications including one entitled \u201cWhoNotHow.\u201d In this particular publication, he teaches that procrastination is<\/p>\n