One of the more costly misconceptions in business is the belief that an owner or manager must have an answer to every question. They don’t.
Finance, law, technology, sales, marketing, taxes, and people have long since become too complex for any one person to understand equally well.
That’s why running a serious business means working with people whose knowledge complements your own. You still need to know who to ask when you don’t have the answer. But there’s another side to this. Just because you’ve entrusted something to an expert doesn’t mean you should stop trying to understand what they’re doing.
You don’t have to be an accountant to understand your balance sheet. You don’t have to be a programmer to know what you’re paying for. You don’t have to be a lawyer to review a contract before you sign it.
Delegating doesn’t mean giving up on understanding.
That’s why, as you build your team, you must also build your own business literacy. Not so you can do someone else’s job, but so you can evaluate what others propose, ask the right questions, and recognize an answer that makes sense.
An owner or manager must understand the answer well enough so that the final decision is truly their own.
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