If you can’t let go of the work, you’re probably not a control freak.
On Monday I sat in the guest chair on the “Behind the Agency” podcast (hosted by David Hoos) and he asked me a question that’s worth unpacking.
“Why do you think agency owners won’t let go?”
I answered that based on what I’ve seen, most owners I talk with have some fear tied to letting go. And it’s a little embarrassing to admit out loud.
Fear sounds like:
If I hand this off, it’ll fall through the cracks.
It has to be done right.
It has to be done my way.
I know that voice all too well. When I co-founded an agency in 2015, I held onto work I should have handed off years earlier. My partners and team were extremely capable. So why didn’t I just “let it go!” <cue song>
OK, deep breath, and admit it out loud. “I’m scared to let this go.”
If the only thing you’re picturing is the disaster of a handoff, of course you’ll hang on.
You’ve also got to accept that whatever you hand off won’t get done exactly the way you’d do it. There will be some variance, and (gasp) sometimes something will slip.
You and your right-hand person are both learning new jobs at the same time. Mistakes come with the territory.
Most handoffs fall apart right there at the mistake. Something slips, and then you panic about how it looks to the client.
So you grab quietly grab the work back. And in blink of an eye, your right-hand person learns the lesson: next time, ask first.
If you’re scared to death to tell your client the truth, remember that:
Your client’s life doesn’t look like that.
Yours doesn’t look like that (and neither does mine!).
And neither does their business.
When something slips during a handoff, try saying something like this to your client:
“Sorry about that. We’re testing a new process so I can focus on [the thing that matters most]. Here’s what we’re doing to fix it.”
Apologize.
Fix it.
Move on.
Clients can handle a human agency, but what they can’t handle is silence, because silence lets them fill in the gaps. And they never fill them with good news.
When you hand off the work and back your person through the first mistake, you get room to think about where the business is going instead of who’s sending the invoice.
And your right-hand person stops asking permission. They start making calls, and nobody had to give them a pep talk to get there.
The first mistake didn’t end in punishment, and they noticed.
👋 I’m Clint. I help agency owners and their right-hand person step into confident decision-making, freeing up space to focus on the agency and big picture.