You know why you’re in business. You know what you want from your business and you know what you want for your business.

That’s great, pretty key stuff for you to get from here, where you are to there, where you want to be.

However, there’s other people working in your business. Have you thought about what they want from their work, where their ‘there’ is?

Everyone is different, we all know that. Some people want to blaze trails, some want to help, some want to create, some want to be business owners and some want to be workers.

Each of us has a different starting point in life and that impacts on what we want from our work. It’s really important to find out where the people who impact on your business the most, your employees, are in their life and learn where they want to go.

Then you have to look at what your business needs and how quickly the people you have can fill those challenges, and indeed are they the right people for your plans?

And you have to invest time and energy and even money in bringing your people on. Because otherwise, you’ll be trying to do everything yourself and covering for people who were never encouraged to step up and fulfil their potential. And when your people live up to their potential, so will your business.

The pain that comes from our challenges is what makes us grow and strengthens us. We all need some pain for growth; however we don’t need to always pass that pain on to others.

When a chick is struggling to crack open its shell, it gains strength and endurance that helps its survival. If we help the chick to hatch, we remove its initial opportunity to strengthen itself. Without that struggle, the chick would emerge weak and may not live.

So the pain is necessary for the chick. However, in your business, not everyone has to break the same shell over and over again. If you’ve cracked it, then you can share that experience and train your staff and they’ll find different challenges to overcome.

So how can you help your staff, lighten the load, and yet leave the learning and share your experiences?

We have all taken work from others at one point or another; it’s easier to do ourselves isn’t it? Rather than invest time, effort and energy in training and demonstrating. I am sure we have all resorted to this at times because it was felt like the easiest decision at the time.

And your staff would only be happy with this situation if they are lazy, but let’s assume that they are keen workers and want to learn and progress within your company. If you do everything yourself, especially the tricky and challenging work then your staff may be left feeling not good enough, not capable and on top of that not able to solve those isues the next time they arise.

If this is your normal plan of action, you’ll be left wondering why you pay people at all as you have to do all their work for them anyway.

If you take time to understand your employees’ issues and work through the work dilemma together then you both appreciate there is work to be done, learning to be gained and the importance of setting aside time to do it.

When you take the work, you are leaving yourself open to your staff then chasing you for an outcome, the tables have turned and you are effectively reporting to them, “Have you completed that task I gave you yesterday?” and the embarrassment of, “No, because I have my job to do and four others gave me their problems too – and I stayed late to get my own stuff completed” Sound familiar? Me too, I’ve done it in the past but not anymore, I learned the hard way!!

So take heed, support your people in a way that serves their needs and your own, but let them break their shell. By scheduling time to go through their struggles with them, meet them where they are and support them to break their shell.

I can’t put the words better than James Hunter who says, ‘Be in service to the needs of your people, but don’t be a slave to their wants.’