Episode 15: How to Unburden Yourself as a CEO

Transforming from Chief Everything Officer to Chief Executive Officer

"I was drowning. I couldn't make decisions, I couldn't focus on the work at hand, I felt like all of the tasks that were piled high on my desk would never be completed."

Does that sound familiar?

Sadly, it is a reality for far too many business owners. That feeling of overwhelm is a constant companion.

As a busy CEO, you're continually being pulled in a million directions at work and at home. But, let's face it, today, those two locations are often the same.

How do you unburden yourself as the CEO?

How do you fully step into being the Chief Executive Officer and not the Chief Everything Officer?

Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you seek to lighten your load.

1. What is your why?

2. How aligned is your current work with it?

3. What is your ideal week?

4. How are you spending your time?

5. What are you doing that you need to delegate?

Ready to begin the process of unburdening?

Grab your workbook below 👇

Podcast Transcript:

0:01 Kiva Slade

Hello and welcome to collab with Kiva. I'm your host Kiva, Slade. From the marbled halls of the US Congress to my racing themed office chair. I've learned that there is no perfect path to the life of your dreams. My journey over the past 20 years has included being a legislative director for a member of Congress, policy director for a nonprofit, stay at home mom, homeschooling mom, jewelry biz owner, and now the owner of a service based business. Whether your journey has been a straight line, or full of zigs and zags. Join me and my guest as we share insights hope in lessons learned from our email entrepreneurship journeys. May the collaborative sharing of our stories be the tide that lifts your boat? Let's dive in. Hello, and welcome to another episode of collab with Kiva. Today, we are going to talk about unburdening yourself as the CEO. And I know, CEO can mean Chief Executive Officer. But for many of us in an entrepreneurial space, it seems to mean chief, everything officer. And that's why it's important to unburden yourself, to really step into your ce o role. So I want you to do an exercise with me. Think back to why you started your business. Maybe it was to make an impact, create a legacy. operate in your zone of genius, have more freedom, whether of time, money, or both? What was that why for you? I also want you to ask yourself, How are things as they exist today. aligned with that, why? Remember, this is a no judgment zone. There may be times when things feel more aligned, than at other times in your business. Let's be realistic. That's a part of life. But it is so important for us to remember back to that why. So that we can find the alignment that works for us. And when we do I think it's important that we consistently move towards that alignment. Be intentional about it, be focused on it. So that not only are you achieving your y but you are doing so in a space that feels at ease with who you are, where you are in your life and what is important to you. So if I were sitting next to you and I said What does your ideal deal day look like? What would be your response and I know it would be ideal to maybe be on a warm beach enjoying the sound of the waves crashing against the sound. Or for some it might be taking a hike in the mountains and hearing the birds or maybe the leaves as they crunch underneath the sound the weight of your foot. Home what does your ideal day look like as it relates to your business? What is your ideal week look like? How do you see yourself showing up as your best version of you? What, if anything, is stopping you from showing up as your best friend Have you?

5:04

For many of the business owners that I've worked with, and spoken to, they are burdened by all the things in their business. That feeling of being the only one who is thinking about everything. They have so many tabs open, that it impacts not only them, but their family, their relationships. And let's move on is their health. Trying to sleep at night and get a good night's rest. When you feel that you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, is hard. There's not enough melatonin tablets gummies chewables that we can take when that we feel that way. In addition to that the revenue that comes in from our businesses, pays the bills, supports our families supports our lifestyles. So it's hard to close those tabs. It's hard to have that burden lifted from your shoulders. Which is the weight of all the things in your business. In no I don't have a magic elixir, nor a magic potion. I have no fairy deaths to sprinkle. But I do have some tips and I'm going to walk you through some of these unburdening steps. Be mindful. I am simplifying maybe over simplifying some parts of this for the purpose of this podcast. But if you follow the steps, and realize some of them have a bit more pieces to them, or may need to be repeated, you'll find yourself in a different place. So the first step is, I want you to define your ideal week. It is important as you step into that role of CEO of your business that you define the week and not have the urgent matters or what seems as the urgent matters in your business to define the week for you. Okay, so I want you to define your ideal week. In a perfect world. How many hours do you want to work in that week? And this is going to be different for everyone. It depends on the season, you're in the type of business you're in. But what are is your ideal week? What hours do you want to work? You might say, hey, Kiva, I want to work 30 hours per week. But I want my work days to look like this. On Monday and Wednesday. I work from eight to four. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays I work from nine to three. Okay. And okay, and Friday is what I have left. Super, that's your workweek. What fills your days? Because a part of defining your ideal workweek is also tapping into when do you see yourself at your best. Maybe you are an early morning meeting person. You like to have meetings while the brain is still fresh, and get them out the way. And that's when your creative ideas in juices are flowing. However, you might be someone who I need that afternoon for meetings, Kiva, I can not be creative in the morning. So, when defining your ideal week, I want you to block off your Mornings or afternoons for meetings. How many meetings do you want to have in a day? At what point do you know? And trust me, each of us knows our point. We've had too many meetings. We didn't give us ourselves enough space. We didn't create enough buffer and we're running off of fumes.

10:05

That's not in alignment with our why that's not unburdening ourselves as the CEO. So how many meetings do you want to have in a day? Are there maybe you have a desire to have Friday's off? Maybe your desire is to have Monday's off. And every week is a three day weekend. Maybe it's no client calls on Monday, because you're focused on internal business work. And you're focused on planning out the week. What is that week looking like for you? Now, if we were all sitting together, no looking to the left, or to the right, to what someone else has defined their weekends, I want you to define your week for you. Okay. And make sure you check the show notes because I'm sharing some resources to help you with these processes. As you continue to unburden yourself. So step two, what is your time spent doing? What are you doing in your business that you absolutely love? Or what are you doing in your business that you absolutely loathe? What are you doing in your business that could, and in many instances should go to someone else on your team. Once again, that's gonna look different for each of us. Your team may be a l e, XA. Because I have to spell her L, she'll start to talk. Maybe that's your personal assistant. Maybe she's your executive assistant, she remind you of different things. You can speak notes to her. That's okay. That's where you are in your business, no judgment zone. Maybe you have multiple people on your team. And you're doing things that you really should let them do. Okay. So in order to have our ideal week, in order to unburden ourselves as CEOs, in order to align with our y, we have to take note of how we are spending our time. Because as we step into our CEO role, we will have more time, we have to make sure we're managing that time well. So that when we have those blocks of much like more concentrated time to do things in our business, that we're using that time effectively. Okay. So I want you to take inventory of how you spend your time. If you've ever done any budgeting exercises, whoa, eye opening to write down every single penny that you've spent. Same with minutes. When you write these out, you start to see things that aren't readily noticeable until they're written out. Okay, so number three, because remember, we've already started talking about defining our ideal week. Now we've taken inventory of how we spend our time and what those things are. Now it's time to start clearing our plate. Okay, it's time to start that process of documenting what we do in our businesses, and also delegating. Yes, I heard a collective sigh of relief there. Okay, process documentation and delegation are what will lift the weight off your shoulders? That's what unburdens you. That's what gives you back so much needed time, so that you can get to your ideal week, you can get to being in alignment with your why. And you step powerfully into your role as chief executive officer in your business. I'll be honest with you, This step takes time and that's okay. That's okay.

14:56

Because if you rush this, bad things can happen. And it's morning music Don't rush this process, okay? It's okay. If it takes time. It's okay. If you are a slower delegator, then your friend Sally, it is okay. Because a huge part of delegation is trust. Okay. So when I want you to think about this about what's coming off your plate, who does it go to? In what do they need to be successful? In your might say, okay, Kiba Like, seriously, what could they possibly need? Maybe they need access to a tool. Maybe they need a password, a login. Trust me the frustration you feel when you give someone something to do, and they have to come back to you. They're frustrated as well, that they weren't given everything that they needed in the beginning. And what I see happen far too often, is that we're in a rush to clear our plates. So we drip in drab. You know, it's like if the dog was under the table for those who've had pets, and you're just kind of plucking a pea at a time not realizing, Oh, I just really don't like peas and should have offloaded all the peas. Okay, so you want to think through what do they need to be successful? Because not only will they possibly need access to a tool, you also have to convey your expectations. I'm going to say that part again. You have to convey your expectations. Far too often as highly driven, successful people. We think that other people think like we do. To Newsflash, they don't. They don't. They don't. They don't. And it's truly unfair for us to think that they should. Because could you imagine a world where everybody thought like you did? I know. At first, you might think even that would be ideal? No, actually, it wouldn't. It really, really wouldn't. There's definitely no spice and variety in that. So think about what they need to be successful. That includes access, that also includes expectations, okay. If there's no documentation for what you're offloading, then I want you to record a loom. If it's multiple looms, that's fine as well, on you doing the tasks, so they know how they also know what is that desired end result. Okay, so often, we feel that those we delegate to are not going to perform at the same level that we would like. In many instances, we don't tell them where the mark is. So you can't be upset that they don't hit the mark, when you never told them where the Mark was in the first place. So what do they need to be successful, I need that to be laid out for them, as well as for you. Because by laying it out, you actually have a benchmark in which to measure success. Super important, okay, this process is going to have to be repeated for each task that you are looking to offload off your plate. Okay. And as I shared, it's crucial that it takes time, but it's also crucial that you have trust. Yes, you may have been the only one doing this process since the beginning of your business. And I hate to say this, so I'm going to say sorry, not sorry, before I say it. It doesn't mean you were doing it the best way. I'll say that again. It doesn't mean that you were doing it the best way. You were doing it the way that you thought it needed to be done for it to get done. When we start when we start delegating to others who are subject matter experts in those areas. Many cases, they have a better way to do it.

19:57

Don't hold on to your way, if they have a better way I let them own it, let them own it. Except that your way may not have been the best way. It's okay. That's how your business gets better. That's how you grow as a leader. That's how they own their space, and their role. Okay? Really important. So I want you to make sure that you are practicing time, and you're practicing trusts trust, okay? And with time, things will get better. What do you do, though? Now, as more things come off your plate? What are you going to do with your time? I've had CEOs ask me, Kiva, what do I now do with my time? They want to know how to purposefully use that time? And that's a fairly good question. Because that's the time I'm going to need you to focus on the deep work in your business. Okay, the things that only you can do. And I need you to schedule those in. So you resist the urge to take back those tasks. Because the first time that you see someone not doing it the way that you thought, you're going to be like, oh, I need to go grab that bat. No, no, no, no, no. Stop yourself, share what needs to take place. Ask again, if there are questions, how can I help you complete this. Don't take the task back and fill your time up with work that only you can do. And I know this is going to feel like a lot. Don't worry, head on over to my website, because as I shared, there's some resources to help make this process easy for you. I want you to know that remembering your why is important as you unburden yourself as the CEO. If all of your business, how to stay in your head, how are you going to grow beyond you? How are you going to make the impact you start to make How are you going to create the legacy you want to create? You can't, how to run your business has to come out of your head has to be documented, documented in order to be delegated in order for you to show up as your best self and as that unburdened C, E O. So stay tuned for next week, when we will delve into how processes lead to consistently high standards. Trust me, this is something your clients will not only rave about, but will love you for. And for those that are concerned, my clients only want to work with me, creating these documented processes, allows your other team members to show up in excellence. And that's what you want. Because that serves your clients well. And that keeps you from being a burdened CEO. So there you have it. Those are your tips for this week, make sure to head over to the website, get those resources. And I want to hear back from you on what those ideal weeks look like for you. Talk to you next week.

24:13

Bye. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of collab with Kiva. You know my heart and it wants you to know that you are uniquely made and that your business path is unique to you. I hope that now you have some clear takeaways from this episode that have left you inspired and motivated to keep pressing forward on your unique path. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And of course, your reviews on Apple are greatly appreciated. If you are a small business owner and you are ready to build out your business playbook and you're ready to document and delegate what takes place in your business so it can grow beyond you. Make sure you visit Get me on my website the 516 collaborative.com and let's schedule a time to talk I'll see everyone next time. Bye.

Meet Kiva Slade - the Founder and CEO of The 516 Collaborative. With a unique background in high-power politics on Capitol Hill and sixteen years as a homeschooling mama, Kiva found her calling in the online business world as a trusted guide for entrepreneurs looking to build the business of their dreams.

Kiva's work began behind the scenes, orchestrating the back end of businesses and managing teams. But her inner data diva couldn't help but notice that small businesses needed help harnessing the power of data for growth. So she and her team set out to uncover and tidy up the data required to enable clients to grow their businesses confidently and easily.