Welcome to Retail Checks and Balances, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the bustling world of commerce and culinary delights to help you grow your business and win. Join us as we explore the fascinating stories, trends, and challenges that shape the retail and hospitality industry, from cozy corner cafes to sprawling shopping malls and everything in between. And now, here's your host, Kevin Spencer. 

So back once again, retail checks and balances baby. Um, I've been offline for about two weeks and it's cause I was very ill. Um, but I'm much better now. I would say I'm 95%, but this brings me to what I really wanted to discuss today, which is, you know, leading for the long haul, you know, the art of delegation and leadership longevity. You know, we talk about this as leaders and, you know, sometimes we realize as leaders that, you know, our business cannot function without us. And that's not a good thing. In my experience, I've seen leaders get severely ill and then the business starts to fail or leaders pass on and then there's no more business. From my perspective, I don't want to be ever in that position. because I want my legacy to live on. And, you know, it's a trying process to explore, you know, how leaders can sustain their effectiveness over the long term by mastering this art of delegation we talk about, you know. And you know, the importance of longevity in leadership, how it matters, how it impacts the organization of success and stability. You know, you got to understand what delegation is. We got to understand the challenges and pitfalls, meaning there are common challenges that leaders are going to face in delegation, such as micromanagement, trust issues, and the fear of losing control. And that is significant because, you know, me being away in the last six, seven days, you know, not everybody knew I was sick until I had to tell them I was sick. And the thing about it is that it was so easy to just rest and be assured that day-to-day operations would have gotten done and the strategies that we can put in place to understand that we don't really need as leaders to be too much involved in the day-to-day operations and I've talked about this in the past of what leadership really is. We got to put things in place as leaders to ensure that if something were to happen to us as a leader, the business can go on. Employees can be assured that, you know, a significant part of the business was lost, but the business can strive on. You know, I've seen this In recent times, a large company lost their CEO to a heart attack and no one saw it coming. But I think what I saw was a transition into a new CEO quite quickly. I'm not saying that the old CEO was irreplaceable quickly, But it showed that, you know, all of that was a big loss because everybody loved that guy. However, you know, as we all say, business has to go on, you know. And cultivating leadership longevity, it's about creating habits, practices, mindset shifts necessary to sustain that, the effectiveness and relevance over time. And then there's balancing the delegation. Delegation is so important, you would not believe, you know, and as a leader, you need to make sure, right? The power of delegation of authority and the anatomy of it, it's really about trust. You gotta, people are going to make mistakes and even if they do, we have to guide them along the lines of those mistakes. And everybody is not going to be, going to be you, you know. and it's significantly important to understand you know how we navigate this intersection of leadership and delegation it's key you know and You know, one of the things that I want to make sure we understand is that this is essential for several reasons. First, you know, the important and the focus on stability, it's going to be consistency within the organization. And this is crucial for fostering trust and confidence among team members and stakeholders. Your team members, your managers, whoever that reports into you have to understand that, you know, they are aligned with your vision. Your vision is always going to matter to them. And they're going to push for that success. It's going to be in their blood and veins. as to what the organization's culture, history, any challenges, enabling them to make more informed decisions and drive meaningful change over time. And, you know, when we focus on, let's focus on delegation, it's like a leader's superpower. It allows them to leverage the skill and talents of other team members. You get a free up time, a mental boundary to focus on high impact task and strategic initiatives. And this is why I'm saying you push aside day to day things for your managers to take care of. Where you focus, as I mentioned before, on vision and the empowerment and accountability of the organization. We're going to make sure team members can grow and develop while relieving the leader of unnecessary burdens. And that's what it comes down to, because if you get involved, and I've mentioned this before in the day-to-day operations, you're not going to have time to even show the vision and look at where your company is going, you know. And delegation is indeed a critical skill for leaders to master. Because sometimes we're going to hold things to our chest and say, no, I'm not going to give them that to do because I don't trust that they will do the job properly. And that's where there will be a significant challenge that you need to navigate as a leader. And some of the common obstacles that leaders encounter when it comes to delegation, you know, one challenge is most, as I said, is that relinquishing of control. You know, many leaders struggle to trust. They struggle, they struggle, they struggle. For the team leaders, handle task and responsibility independently. And now it becomes now what we call micromanagement. Who likes to be micromanaged? Nobody does. In a world now that we have to make sure that we trust in employees, managers, or whoever that reports into our office to understand that this delegation empowers them to help grow the organization and don't worry and we don't want to worry about one significant thing you know sometimes we may enjoy we may love we don't want we we love doing it day to day and we enjoy excelling at it, right? And we fear that if we don't do that anymore, it's going to diminish our value or relevance within the organization. And that's not something that's easy to do, I must say, but something we may have to do because we have to shift the mindset and the approach. Because you're gonna maintain control and accountability when you delegate. Because people are going to say, he's empowered me to make this decision. And you gotta guide them in the sense of how you do things. And they're going to adapt to do it their own way of executing a task. And it cannot be, line by line of what you want. It's not going to work like that. Not everybody thinks the same way. Not everybody is going to do the exact same thing the way you do it. And they're going to develop their own style. But once the end result is there, we got to make sure that we understand that, you know. And one of the key strategies on outcomes rather than processes. And as I said, you know, instead of dictating how tasks should be completed, we as leaders should clearly communicate the expectations and the desired outcomes. As I just said, employing team members to use their creativity and initiative to achieve these goals. You know, and additionally, it's very essential to provide adequate support and the resources to ensure that team members have the tools they need to succeed. And they got to know that they also have to come to you if they're stuck on something or, you know, guide them along the way of finding that method of success. So I just want to make sure that you understand the importance of leader longevity in the art of delegation. And I want to encourage all leaders to embrace delegation as a powerful tool for fostering growth and sustainability. Trust your team members. Empower them to take ownership of their jobs or their work or task. And by providing ongoing support and feedback, and leaders can position themselves and the organization for long-term success. Me, personally, as I said, you know, I was happy to see that. I mean, I didn't die, thank God. although it felt like death at some times but you know i can joke about it now but sorry but i can say that it was very refreshing to see that everybody whether they knew it or not and me sitting back or i would say as i like to say sitting at 10 000 feet and looking down and seeing things getting done without very little intervention and it's refreshing to see that. I mean it was an amazing feeling to see that within the last week. So thank you very much for listening as always and this has been a great episode. I hope you enjoy it and as I always say God bless you all and keep you safe. 

Kevin Spencer

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts, so we'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Until next time, friends.