The 5 Rules of Delegating with Ben Pickard

[00:00:00] Hello, my friends on this episode, I’m speaking with Ben Pickard, my fellow business unicorns coach, and we are talking about our five rules for effective delegating. So if you are a gym owner or anyone who works on a team and you would like to delegate more. To get, build your capacity, get more things off your plate.

Maybe you’re a gym owner who’s trying to grow your gym to a place where it can run without you. This is an important episode for you because delegating is a critical skill that no one ever teaches us, but it’s absolutely essential for growing and scaling a gym. So if you want to delegate more and clear things off your plate, keep on listening, my friend.

Welcome to the Business for Unicorns podcast, where we help gym owners unleash the full potential of their business. I’m your host, Michael Keeler. Join me each week for actionable advice, expert insights, and the inside scoop on what it really [00:01:00] takes to level up your gym. Get ready to unlock your potential and become a real unicorn in the fitness industry.

Let’s begin.

Hello, fitness, business nerds. What’s up. Welcome to another episode of the business unicorns podcast. Before we jump in today, I wanted to make sure you all know that we’re heading to Boston for a unicorn society retreat and you’re invited. We have a handful of extra spots for our retreat, which is happening September 14th and 15th.

So if you’ve been dying to spend some time with me and Ben and Mark and Pete and the rest of the business unicorns team, come join us for this amazing two day retreat. We also have a special guest speaker, Kevin Carr from Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning and CFSC, who can be talking about program design.

It’s going to be a fantastic. Two days in Boston again, September 14th and 15th. If you want more information, click the link below the show notes or head over to our Instagram and just DM us the word Boston and we’ll send you all the information, but space is limited and we [00:02:00] hope to see you there. Moving on to today’s episode.

Welcome Ben. Hello. How are you, my friend? I’m doing great. How are you? I’m good. Can I, is it okay if I share a little bit of your personal life on this podcast today? Yeah. You’re getting married soon. I know. Can we say that? Can I just say officially pre congratulations? It’s coming up around the corner and I’m so excited for you, my friend.

Thank you. Yeah, we are. It’s been a long time coming for those who know us. We are getting married on the 16th anniversary of the day we met, which is super romantic. Wow. That’s amazing. That’s amazing. Good for you. I really like weddings, even though I’m not a traditional in very many sense of the word. I just, I love that idea of gathering people and celebrating our relationships.

Congrats to you and Katja. I’m excited for you all. Let’s, let’s talk about today. We decided we’re going to talk about delegating. And delegating is a topic I’ve covered before on this podcast, and I’m gonna keep [00:03:00] talking about it on a regular basis because it’s one of those skills that no one ever teaches us, but is absolutely critical for leadership and entrepreneurship.

And so can you just talk a little bit, just generally speaking, Ben, about what’s been your experience learning how to be a good delegator in your gym, ? Um, I think the whole. Like many people who show up on the podcast, my experience was that I was awful at it and didn’t know how to do it properly for a long while and screwed it up for years.

Probably just taking multiple years, screwed it up a lot. Let’s go with that. And then since learning how to do it better has absolutely transformed my relationship with my gym. Let’s linger on screwing it up for a little bit longer because I have plenty of stories. What, what were the kinds of ways that you screwed it up the most frequently?

My default was just to be like, Hey, Michael, can you do this thing for me? You’re like, yeah, I think so. I’m like, great. Thanks. And that was the entire delegation conversation. [00:04:00] So for the, we’re going, as we’re going to get to, there’s a lot of elements that we’re missing in that, but inevitably what would happen is it wouldn’t be done on time because I kept the timeline in my head.

So I set them up for failure because I wasn’t trying to be an asshole, but that’s how I’m sure how I showed up to them. It definitely wasn’t done the way I thought it would be done because I didn’t give any instructions about what success looks like and what to do when it’s finished. I definitely didn’t explain the why maybe sometimes it didn’t like, Hey, we need this.

Can you do it? But it wasn’t like, here’s the importance of this and how it’s going to make our lives better. So it led to a lot of shit that was. I guess technically done from their perspective. Like it’s rare that a human will be like, I completed that task and actually didn’t like they’re, they’re not lying to us here, but from my perspective, nothing, nothing got done and it was 100 percent my responsibility.

I have to take over. I think those are such common pitfalls, and I’ve experienced all those too. You’re not clear on a timeline, so just no one knows when it has to be done by. You’re not clear on why it matters, like why does this task even have to be done in the first [00:05:00] place? Or why me? Why am I doing it?

Or you’re not clear on how it’s meant to be done. What are actually the steps? Do you have any preferences? What’s the end product? When you go too fast and you’re just shouting out tasks to people, that’s not really delegating. It’s not really delegating, right? The promise of delegating well is that you get someone to take something off your plate, maybe for good, at very least for short term, that you get some extra capacity for a little while, and you don’t add your capacity or get things off your plate when you don’t train people well.

We don’t give people clear instruction over what they’re expected to do by when and how. And so I think, I think the, there’s one kind of tip I’ll start this conversation with is that no one can delegate well, quickly. I think it takes a little bit of time. I have to think about delegating like an investment, right?

Like an investment in your team and investment in a specific team member investment in your capacity. And it’s almost all the mistakes I’ve made, which are so much yours were around me having expectations [00:06:00] in my head that I never articulated it to someone. All right. And then they would go and do a thing and really be helpful to me.

But then I’d be like, shit, this is not what I wanted because I never told you all the things that were in my head about what I was hoping for. And so if I was to slow down and do it a little more thoughtfully, I would have gotten better results. So let’s talk about how to do it. I know we have a playbook for this.

It’s basically five rules for effective delegating. So walk us through the rules, Ben. Okay. Yeah. So the first rule is be patient. Yeah. The second rule is pick the right people. The third rule is make sure they know why, plus a little bit more, which we’ll talk about the fourth one is make sure that you train them well, that’s the step that I know I missed many times.

And then the fifth, which is it’s a rule in the sense of becoming a good leader and acting the part. is express gratitude when they do the thing. Thank them for their work. Give them specific positive feedback. We’re going to dive more into that. But those are the five steps. Be patient, pick the right people, make sure they know why, train [00:07:00] them well, and express gratitude.

Yeah, and you can see just by thinking through those five rules, that is not, Hey, Ben, can you do this for me? Okay, thanks. Like, that’s not delegating, right? That’d be useful once in a while, right? There might be, you might have a shorthand with some people and they can grab something off your plate that they know how to do well, but most of the time, You’re delegating because you really need someone to take something off your plate and get you more time back.

And so these steps really matter to be able to do that well. So let’s talk about, we talked about this a little bit already, but start with us. Be patient, say more. Yeah. So this is, I think, probably the most important step, or at least the most important first step for most things. And I know how hard it can be if you’re, One of the gym owners, like I was, who was everything fell on your shoulders.

Your systems mostly relied on elbow grease. You had to check other people’s work, particularly challenging if you’ve been burned in the past. So you have, you’ve created a very compelling narrative of why you don’t want to invest in your people because they’re not going to last very long anyways, and it feels like a waste of [00:08:00] time, but it’s really around like not expecting people to nail it right off the bat, because if you’re, if you have a preconceived timeline in your head, And sometimes it’s like more subconscious than conscious.

You didn’t write it down. You didn’t say, I expect everyone to get this immediately. No one would agree with that statement, but maybe in your head, you’re like, man, I really need this off my plate in five days, but you aren’t, don’t have the skillset or the materials in order to train somebody even 80 percent effectively in five days, when you get to day six and you’re like ants in your pants, you have a really old reference and having that anxiety and that urgency in the training process, you’re probably stressing the hell out of your people and people, uh, Don’t always do well under stress in the first place, particularly if they’re dealing with the owner one on one and particularly like they’re going to come up, they’re going to get the vibe that like you’re, they’re doing something wrong when the reality is you’re just tired of doing this thing.

But you’ve kept it for too long and that’s your, like you, that’s your thing. You gotta, you gotta accept that. I [00:09:00] think you’re right that this one is pretty critical that you really have to be realistic about how long it takes to learn a new skill, to learn a new task. Change takes time. So if you have an unrealistic timeframe for delegating this task, right off the bat, you’re setting yourself up and the other person up for failure.

So I think being patient and realistic about how long it will take to truly delegate this task, I think is. Pretty critical first step. Yeah. Said my friend. How about number two? So number two is picking the right people. And there’s lots of ways you can do this. It could be as deep as doing like a disc or like Gallup strengths assessment, but it can also just be going off your gut a little bit that if you’ve got something that involves like admin work or data entry, or just generally being organized, you probably already know who on your team is more organized and who’s not.

Yeah. You probably don’t want the person who like frequently has computer issues and doesn’t know how to use things properly to be the person that’s like setting up filters on spreadsheets and creating [00:10:00] SOPs and recording screen shares. Conversely, the person who is going to be stereotypical here, who’s like really good with all the technical side of things, but isn’t the best communicator, you might not be the one to be like running in services or fielding phone calls from disgruntled clients.

So you want to give some thought to, is this person like the right person? In the right seat is probably the way to think about this. Yeah, I, I think this one, I think these are all important, which is why there’s five, five of them. This one, I think the thing that I know I’m guilty of in the past is I would just find like the closest warm body who was, had some time available.

I’d be like, great, you’re alive and you’re available. Do this. And I would often not give any thought at all to, are you the right person? Do you have any experience doing this? You have skills doing this? Do you want to do this? Something that I could give you repeatedly, right? And listen, from time to time, people are going to have to do things they’re not good at and do things they don’t want to do.

But if I can, if I have a luxury of choice between [00:11:00] who I give this task to, or who I delegate to, I’m going to try and pause for a moment and ask myself, who is the best fit for this? And all too often we just don’t pause at all and we give it to the first person we make eye contact with who walks in the room.

Which is understandable if you’re operating in a world of like totally 100 percent reactive and not proactive. And I guess the part way through mini lesson here is if you’re operating in reactivity, And you want to get out of reactivity and into being proactive, you’re going to need to take a little bit of pause to be patient and pick the right people.

Otherwise you’re just continuing to throw shit at the wall to see what sticks. And sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t, but as Michael already said, I’d argue that’s not real delegation. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Love it. Let’s keep going. What about number three, which is making sure they know why? Yeah. So the way I think of this is if you want someone to be successful at something, you It’s often more impactful to enroll them into the vision of like, why is this important?

How does it need to be [00:12:00] done? By when is it do it? I would argue if you don’t have a by when it’s not actually totally delegated, but like people into the vision, they’re probably some people on your team might be working for you because they need a part time job and that’s totally fine. That’s how jobs work.

You do work, you get money, but there’s also people on your team who are probably committed to helping people and making an impact health and fitness wise. And maybe they’re here in the fitness industry instead of in a corporate job because of their personal benefit through fitness and spend some time explaining like how this is going to happen.

So as an example, if you needed your coaches to get better at asking for referrals, which is something that I think a lot of gyms can improve on. Being like, Hey guys, here’s the referral script. I need you to practice it. And everybody asked for five referrals this week. Cool. Yes, that’s technically delegated, but it’s a lot different than to be like, Hey everybody, or Hey Michael, you specifically told me you’re looking for a few more hours.

Like I shared with you, our sales aren’t exactly where we want them to be this time of year, but you’re in a really unique position to be able to help with this and get more of the [00:13:00] right people who you love working with and be a perfect fit for our community. Would you be open to asking for some referrals if I, if I Taught you how to do it.

Role played it with you and set you up for success. That way you can get some more hours when those people refer you or for a bonus, wherever it works at your gym, but we both get more of what we want. Would that be cool with you? Like the latter is something that you can actually give a shit about. The former was something that was just like, well, my boss needs me to do a bunch of crap, but I don’t get it.

And I didn’t sign up for this job to do sales. I’m a trainer. Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s a really great example, Ben, and really well said. And I think any task that is worth delegating has a why behind it. That’s worth knowing whether you’re delegating someone to take out the trash or clean up the studio afterwards.

Cleanliness of the gym is really important to get the task of taking out the trash is not. Just about to get the trash. And so I would say to someone like, did you know that like cleanliness at gyms or lack of cleanliness gyms? It’s like one of the primary reasons people leave gyms is that they’re just gross.

So this task, while [00:14:00] maybe not the most sexy is really critical to making this feel like a safe, clean space that people want to be at every day. And so no matter what the task is, there’s often a why behind it that you might be very clear to you. As the owner, but it’s maybe not clear to everyone else. So I think sharing that why is important.

The other thing I’ll add to this is like another color of this rule of make sure they know why is it’s also sometimes useful to make sure they know why you picked them, right? So not just why the task matters, but I could also interpret that as why. Why them? And I might say, Hey, Ben, I’m giving you this task because I know you are really good at attention to detail.

Last project you did for me, where you did that spreadsheet, you did such a good job of catching mistakes. And I really want you to bring that expertise to this project as well, which is why I think you’re the perfect person and that level of why is also, I think, important here. Anything else on this one before we keep going?

No, that was thorough. I’m going to use the why them as well. Yeah, I think it’s a nice extra kind of [00:15:00] bonus to that rule. Number four is train them well. And by that we mean be specific about what you want. And this could be its own separate podcast, honestly, but in a nutshell, how do you do this? How do you train someone well, when you’re delegating?

Yeah, so there’s four steps to this. It’s tell, show, do, apply. So in very brief, cause you’re right, this could easily be a podcast. Tell is tell them what’s expected of them. That would be the what, the why, the how, the by when it would be. Here’s the relevant SOPs. Here’s the tools you’re going to need for success, but make sure that they’re starting off, here’s what I need you to do.

Here’s what success looks like. And here’s how you get from A to B. The show is then going through that with them. So for instance, that could be like, I’m just going to use the taking up the trash, for example. If it’s my first day at Michael’s gym, I don’t know where all the garbage cans are. I don’t know where the garbage bags are.

Do we separate recycling here? Do we give a fuck about that? Where’s the dumpster? Where does this actually go? What day do I need to do it? I’m probably like, even though I’ve taken up trash before in my life, I [00:16:00] probably would benefit from a once over of Michael actually just like showing me how to do this.

Here’s how it all works. The do is then get them to do the thing. So that would be, Hey, I’ve been fully trained on taking out the trash. I do it every Thursday. Michael’s probably going to want to check in with me a few times on that to make sure I’m actually doing it properly. That could look like spot checking all the trashes to make sure I didn’t miss any, it could look like seeing if I remembered to ask if when we run out of garbage bags, like you get the idea here.

And then the apply is my favorite part of this, and this is giving people autonomy to improve the process. So back to like picking the right person and the be patient. I know picking, this is where the taking out the trash analogy probably breaks down a little bit, but you want that person to feel some ownership of the thing.

And it’s understandable, especially when a lot of our gyms rely on technology or progressive training methods or new equipment or all sorts of different things that change on a daily, weekly or monthly basis in our gym. Once I’ve been doing this thing for a while, [00:17:00] I probably know how to do it the best of anyone in the studio.

And if I find a better way to do it. Michael wants me to be empowered to make changes to that process so that one, he doesn’t have to do it, but two, it doesn’t get outdated. Yeah, even for trash. Like I know it’s a silly example we’re using here, but like even for trash, if they realize, for example, every Saturday when we’re busy, these trash cans get so overflowing by the middle of the day, can we just get bigger trash cans or these trash bags often break apart and are cheap.

Can we get Better ones or, or our neighbors keep filling the dumpster. There’s no room for us. Should we talk to them about that? Like, even with trash, there are ways to improve the process and pay attention to make sure that the task is getting done well over time. So I think even still, I think this is a really great one, which is if you slow down and you tell them, Show them, watch them do it.

And then over time, give them the kind of autonomy to really own that task and improve it. You will be a much more effective delegator. This [00:18:00] training piece is really the key to making sure that someone is really empowered to take on a task repeatedly at the gym and maybe take it off your plate forever.

Let’s dive into the last ones. I know we’re a little pressed for time today. The last one seems like the most basics. Seems like we shouldn’t even have to say it. The last one is express gratitude. But Ben, why do we have to say this is one of the rules? Why do we have to say thank you? Because we’re polite human beings.

No, but seriously, you know, the ratio better than me, but it’s like, if you want to have a three, three or more to one ratio of positive feedback to negative feedback. And I think, you At least in my experience, not, I think, as entrepreneurs, we often are, what makes us good at what we do is that we’re looking for the errors.

We often don’t even see the wins in our own life. So making this part of the process as being a good human being is one going to help us give more specific, positive feedback to our staff so that when there is something that’s missed, they don’t get the impression that we only call them into their office when they’re in trouble.

No one likes to go to the principal’s office, but more importantly, it’s [00:19:00] also going to reinforce that person that they’re doing a good job. They’re going to be getting that specific positive feedback. They’re going to feel good about what they’re doing. We didn’t fit to something as simple about taking out the trash or cleaning the gym clean.

And if I made, if I was making an intention to do a good job on that, not just check the box, I’m like, okay, I’m like, Hey, I’ve seen your hard work of taking out the trash. You’ve approved our system for this. The gym always looks spotless because of you. All the team are now keeping it clear, cleaner. I just wanted to say thanks to you.

I’ve had five comments from members talking about how good the space looks like. Thanks so much for really taking ownership of that. I was saying that to myself in a hypothetical situation, and I still feel a little bit good. I am doing a good job in my hypothetical story. It was the specificity. I think that really makes it feel special.

And then every time you mentioned it, you said specific positive feedback. And that’s the thing we often miss. It’s not like, good job today. It’s, I saw every time you take out the trash, I see you do it with care. I saw you wipe up that spill the other day. All that goes a long way. I notice it, the clients are noticing.

So thank you for helping this place stay clean and tidy. Like that is so much more specific than [00:20:00] good job today, Ben. It doesn’t that doesn’t resonate. That doesn’t actually move the needle. But even just saying the other specificity out loud makes you have feelings. It makes you feel like warm and fuzzies.

And that’s so important. If you want people to do good work, I don’t have a whole lot that I think we’re super, I think we crushed it. Do you want to just go through the five one more time and recap for us? And we’ll, then we’ll wrap it up here. Exactly. So it’s be patient, especially if you’ve been trying to delegate things off your plate for a while, and you’re feeling that urgency and anxiety, take your time and do things.

Well, it’ll pay off in the long run. The second is pick the right people and of course let them know why they’re the right people. But making sure you’re giving things to people that have the skillset to do that. Make sure they know why do they need, why does it need to get done in the first place? Why are they the right person to do it?

What does success look like? How did they get there? But really enrolling them into the vision of this for is train them well using the tell show do apply method we discussed. And then last but not least is express gratitude and I’d even change that to be like express specific gratitude. Yeah, we should change it.

Yeah, I think that’s [00:21:00] really smart. Yeah, great summary. Awesome. My friends. I hope you’re taking notes Go apply this right away if there’s stuff that’s on your plate That just really should not be on your plate as the owner or whatever your role is get some help start to delegate It’s a great you do it.

Well following these steps. You’re gonna create a culture where people are really Willing and able to help each other out more often when, you know, when the help comes with such a thoughtful ask, such a thoughtful training with such a thoughtful handoff, this really is something that can improve your team culture.

Thanks. As always, Ben, I appreciate the conversation friends of don’t forget. If you want to join us in Boston, September 14th, 15th, click the show notes down below, or head over to Instagram and DM us the word Boston. And we’ll send you more information about joining the few spots we have. Thanks, Ben. See on the next one.

Thank you.