Lead Culture with Jenni Catron
Navigating the complexities of leadership can be daunting and overwhelming. With Jenni Catron and her guests as your trusted and experienced guides, your leadership journey can become less overwhelming and more fulfilling. Jenni and the 4Sight team want to help you become a healthy leader who leads a thriving organization. Listen to discover the tools and wisdom you need to gain the 4Sight for success!
Lead Culture with Jenni Catron
216 | Mastering the Art of Delegation and Balance with Tricia Sciortino, CEO of Belay Solutions
What if you had an extra pair of hands, a resource to take over tasks that consume precious hours of your day? Imagine having more time for your family, your dreams, and your work passions. Sound impossible? Enter Tricia Sciortino, the CEO of Belay Solutions, who has figured out the secret: delegation. Tricia shares her journey from climbing the corporate ladder to leading a thriving business, Belay Solutions, all while maintaining her family life.
This week, Tricia reveals the secrets of her success, insights on delegation, and her 'third option' philosophy. Learn how she shifted her mindset from delegating out of guilt to delegating out of trust, empowering her team, and creating a balanced life. She narrates her journey as a woman in leadership, finding the perfect harmony between her career and motherhood through strategic delegation.
As we journey through the world of virtual assistants, Tricia unveils the benefits and practical ways of building a successful relationship with them. She elaborates on how to recognize and redirect ambitious team members who might be straying from the path. We also delve into the complexities of hybrid workspaces, discussing the importance of understanding a leader's delegation language and style. Tricia shares the importance of being intentional and communicating frequently with both in-person and virtual teams to create an extraordinary culture. Join us for this LeadCulture conversation that will shift your perspective on leadership, delegation, and balance.
About Tricia:
As CEO of BELAY, Tricia strive’s to lead and inspire her team to provide extraordinary services while finding great talent along the way. She empowers her team to live their mission: Glorifying God by providing solutions that equip our clients with the confidence to climb higher.
For ten years, Tricia served as District Manager for the retail chain Pacific Sunwear, however, when her first child was born, she – like many other parents – found herself struggling to balance a high-profile career with her new role as a mother.
Enter: BELAY. As BELAY’s first employee and virtual assistant – and then onto serve as Director, Vice President, President, COO, and now CEO – Tricia has spent the last nearly 10 years ‘walking the walk’ of what they call the Third Option: the ability to cultivate a balanced life with a successful career while making family and personal relationships a priority.
As a leader, she is passionate about each of us owning and forging our own paths, careers, and professional development, putting each of their valued employees and contractors in the driver’s seat to cultivate the balance of work and life that best suits them.
Learn more about Belay at belaysolutions.com
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Well, hello, friends, I'm your host, Jenni Catron, and this is the Lead Culture Podcast, where I coach you to lead yourself well so you can lead others better. My team and I at the 4sight Group are committed to building confident leaders, extraordinary teams and thriving cultures. Each week, we take a deep dive into a leadership or culture topic that will give you the tools you need to lead with clarity and confidence and build a thriving culture. So today I'm going to share with you a webinar that we actually did for some of our 4sight clients, our Women in Leadership alumni and our 4sight Leadership Institute students. So we kind of did this exclusive webinar for those groups and, as we recorded it, we thought you know what? We need to share this with a few more people. So we're going to talk about the subject of delegation, and I'm going to tell you about that in a minute, but before we get there, I want to remind you that Culture Conference is just a couple of weeks away.
Jenni Catron:If you're listening to this when it released, we are just a couple of weeks away from Culture Conference happening on August 10th, and so, friends, it is time to get registered, it is time to make sure it's on your calendar. We want to help equip you to build that thriving team, cultivate an inspiring workplace and achieve your mission, and that is what Culture Conference is designed to do. So it is a one-day digital conference on August 10th, and you'll hear from top leaders about how to build that thriving team, and so you want to make sure you are registered to join us for the live event. It is live streamed or you can upgrade to the Culture Conference All Access Pass, which will give you a year-long access to all the content and a bunch of fun extras. So go to cultureconference. org, make sure you get registered. It's free to you because of amazing sponsors like Leadr, Ministry Brands, Thrivent and Clever, and thank them and just know you'll get a little bit of information about them and from them, because they are helping make this possible. But you guys, we're going to hear from Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel. We're going to hear from John Acuff, Annie F Downs, Josh Howerton, myself, Valorie Burton, William Vanderbloemen and several more amazing speakers that are bringing you very thoughtful content on how to build an extraordinary culture. So go to cultureconference. org, make sure you're registered, and we'll see you in a couple of weeks for that event.
Jenni Catron:Okay, so today I'm sharing this replay of a webinar that we hosted, all about the subject of delegation, and I'm joined by Tricia . Tricia is the CEO of Belay Solutions and, if you're familiar with Belay, they are a remarkable company that helps staff. They're a staffing organization that helps you with virtual assistance, bookkeeping services and even social media support, and they are a phenomenal company. I have been friends with the founders and Tricia and many of her team members through the years because we just have a heart connect over helping build great teams, and so they're helping it via staffing solutions. Tricia has a high value on the importance of organizational culture and she really strives to lead and inspire her team to provide extraordinary services. While finding great talent, she empowers her team to live their mission, which is glorifying God, by providing solutions that equip their clients with the confidence to climb higher, and we personally work with Belay.
Jenni Catron:My assistant is a Belay virtual assistant and we love our partnership with Belay, and so Tricia has a fantastic story. I just love her story. She was in the corporate world, she was the district manager for the retail chain Pacific Sunwear, and then she had her first child and, like many other parents, she found herself struggling to balance a high profile career with her new role as a mother, and that's when she connected with Belay. So Belay was just getting started. Tricia was actually Belay's first employee and virtual assistant and then she went on to serve as director, vice president, president, coo and now CEO, and so she has spent the last nearly 10 years walking the walk of what they call the third option, which is the ability to cultivate a balanced life with a successful career, while making family and personal relationships a priority.
Jenni Catron:Isn't that what we all long for as leaders? Like this balance of, I want a successful career, I want to do good, meaningful, significant work, but I don't want to abandon my family. I want to have a personal life, and Belay models that. Tricia models that, and you're going to hear from her today about a topic that is kind of core to their business the subject of delegation. So you're listening in on a webinar. So you'll hear me talk to the webinar attendees and you'll hear me asking them for some questions, and they post some questions that we cover at the end. So you know it's a little listening in, but the content is so powerful that I felt like you needed to hear it as well. So enjoy this conversation with Tricia . Good morning everybody, good to see you all.
:Oh, it's fun to see a bunch of faces I haven't seen in a long time, hi guys.
Jenni Catron:I know so good to see you all. How's everybody's summer going? Everybody good? We were just saying, Tricia and I and Maddie and Kelsey were talking before we got started and we said the summer's already going so fast, it's like it's going by so fast.
:Okay, so we're letting a few more people in, but we have a little icebreaker and you can either shout out or put in the chat. But if you woke up with the superpower to delegate anything on your list today to somebody, what would it be?
Jenni Catron:Oh, I like this.
:I guess I just made magic editing videos for culture conference, which is really fun. That is really detailed, so that would be mine. I delegate, I'll let somebody actually I don't know, I really do enjoy watching them, but maybe the detail part will let somebody else do it.
Jenni Catron:I'll just watch for the fun part of it. Emily's got it. Expense reports I think like everybody wants to delegate expense reports. Jodi, volunteer management K copywriting Yup the good one, oh. Credit card balancing, tani Yup. Oh, now we got some good ones coming in. Oh, carmen, I'm with you shopping for groceries and cooking. I tell my husband all the time that I'm like I will feel like we've made it when I can hire a housewife, like I can hire somebody who does all of the shopping and the cooking, like if I can hire a chef game changer in my life. So I am with you.
Jenni Catron:I think I would eat better, I would like if somebody was, because I actually like healthy stuff. So if somebody was just buying it and cooking it for me, I would do it. I would do it. Alona, children's ministry director yeah, that's a big delegation. Menu plans yes, yeah, angela, I'm with you. I'm not too Good stuff. I'm trying to think, maddie, what I would delegate. I mean, there's so much I need to delegate. So this is why I need to have this conversation with Tricia, and Tricia needs to teach me because I am so slow to delegate. And it's yeah, we'll get into, we'll, we'll, we'll dig into that. But I'm trying to think of what else I would delegate. Carmen Carmen said it for me that was my big one. Maddie, what was yours I?
:mean I would say culture conference. But once you said cooking, I was like that's it. That's 100% what I would delegate to. Yes, for kids. We're like having chicken nuggets every night this week, so it's fine.
Jenni Catron:I, you guys will appreciate this story. My niece and nephew are eight and six and they they now live away, but they used to live like two blocks away from me and now they live in Virginia. But their running joke was they would you know when they would come over for like a sleepover at my house. I think their dad asked him well, what do you think you're going to have for dinner at Aunt Jace's? They called me Jace because I couldn't say Jenny, so it came out Jace. And my nephew was like the only thing Aunt Jace knows how to make pizza, no-transcript. So his, like his interpretation in his first, like five years of life was that the only thing I knew how to make was pizza. Now, I was purposely making pizza because you know they're kids and that's what we have, but in his mind, that's all I knew how to make, which is not far off, like, if I'm honest, it's not far off, so funny. All right, maddie, you think we're ready to get started? Yeah, I say let's do it. Go ahead and get started. Fantastic, all right, you guys, I am so thrilled.
Jenni Catron:So it's a great time out of your busy summer schedules and all the things you have going on. First of all, it's always really good to see all of your faces and catch up a bit. We have a mix of folks here today. We have some of our women in leadership alumni, so all of our women in leadership alumni good to see you guys. And then our Foresight Leadership Institute participants, so the folks that are a part, and some of you are both, some of you are both and. But our Foresight Leadership Institute we launched earlier this spring and it's a leadership development resource for individuals and then teams, and we're having some fun conversations over there with that group, and so we invited them in, as well as some other Foresight clients, and so so we kind of have a mix with us today.
Jenni Catron:But I felt like all of us would benefit from a conversation around the subject of delegation, and so I am thrilled to have Tricia , who is the CEO of Belay. Belay is a long time friends and partners with us. I have worked with and been friends with the Belay team since the very beginnings of the organization. They are just a phenomenal company that's really dedicated to serving leaders, and I'll let Tricia actually tell us how they do that and give us the scoop. But Tricia has such a fantastic story of her own journey in the company and getting to the CEO seat, and she is just a powerhouse when it comes to the subject of delegation. So, Tricia, thanks for joining me, thanks for being here, and I would love if you'd just start out, introduce yourself, give us the background, tell us about Belay, and then we're going to dig into this topic together today.
Tricia Sciortino:Yes, thank you, Jenni, for the wonderful introduction. It's always great to sit and talk with you. This is my favorite topic delegation. So, hey guys, it's so great to be with you today.
Tricia Sciortino:I'm the CEO of Belay.
Tricia Sciortino:Like Jenni said, we're actually a staffing organization that provides fractional virtual assistant, bookkeeping and social media managed support to small business owners and entrepreneurs so that they can take some of that administration off of their plates and put it onto other people's plates, and that is how we elevate ourselves.
Tricia Sciortino:Right is just continuing to look for ways with which we can get the things we shouldn't be doing off of our plates onto other people so we can do the things we're supposed to be doing, and so I've been with your organization since founding, which has been 2010. So it's been 13 years of practicing what I'm preaching and delegating to elevate, which kind of goes into my story, like Jenny said, about how I wound up with the privilege and honor to be the CEO of this organization. I actually started as a virtual assistant and, through understanding what it meant to delegate to those around me, was able to continue to take on more and more and elevate my professional development leadership so that I could have the honor of sitting in this seat for the last couple of years, so that's a little bit about me and Belay, love it, love it so good and friends.
Jenni Catron:I didn't say this at the beginning, but we will leave space for questions. So as Tricia and I are talking and she's sharing, like, feel free to post questions in the end. Maddie will help keep an eye on those and then towards the end we'll leave space to ask your questions and just kind of dig deeper on the points that are most helpful and meaningful to you all. So just a note for that. So, Tricia, there's a lot of ladies on the call today, and so I know that we're going to particularly resonate with your journey as a woman in leadership. And then I know we're going to have guys that are also listening, because delegation matters to all of us.
Jenni Catron:Delegation is a critical skill for every leader, but I would love to hear just your journey as a woman in leadership, something that really can you know, obviously really connects with this group, and a topic that has resonated for us is the idea of setting limits as a leader. So I want to kind of start out just talking about this idea of limits, because I don't know about the rest of the ladies on the call, but like I struggle so much with healthy limits and even knowing and understanding my limits. So we talk about that a little bit of just your career journey, of like that idea of limits and how you've, how you've wrestled with that topic.
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, I mean, it's so foundational for me as just a human and a person as it is, to how we've started this organization so many years ago, before Belay existed, I was a career mom.
Tricia Sciortino:I was working too many hours. I was a career woman, let me say I was working too many hours and then I had my first daughter and through all that experience I realized that the work I was doing was taking away from the opportunity for me to be a great mom and I didn't want to miss that, and so I kind of left where I was just to go, hunt and seek this opportunity where I could find great balance. And I really did believe that there are places in the world and there are things you can do that you can do them so well and be super successful while also having limits and boundaries around your day, so you can't be very present as a mom and a wife and all of those other things. And I feel like I was pulled in those directions where I really love my career and I love my work, but I also really love being a mom and I didn't want to sacrifice either of those things.
Tricia Sciortino:And so you know, belay was founded on the principle that, for women specifically, we would have this third option. So option one is you have your career woman. Option two is you're a mom. And we believe there's option three, which means you are both of those things. And so what it means to have to live this third option, it means of putting a lot of limits and boundaries in place as to what you're going to allow yourself to do, what you're going to spend time on, what you're going to allow to take away from your family, and so that's how delegation entered my life was that I don't want silly things like booking travel or scheduling meetings or expense reports.
Tricia Sciortino:Taking away from that was an hour I could have spent with my daughter, so I really had to quickly figure out, you know, what are the things I must do to do my job really well and then let others do the other things I don't have to do, so that I could have a very limit setting work, week and life and be a very present mom.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, yeah, Talk a little bit more about like. What does that look like? How did you approach this idea of limits, of like. Okay, where, like? What are my limits? Where you know? And then, how did you use those to help you make decisions?
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, in the beginning it had a lot to do about revolving, creating an ideal work week if you will that worked around my life, and so for me what it looked like was, you know, early in the mornings I wanted to get my children ready for school or whatever they were doing, and once I was done with that, I would start my day. So my start of day was very it was a very specific time.
Tricia Sciortino:Even though I'm remote, I don't report into an office, I work remotely but it was like the time with which I was starting and then what the rest of my day looked like also revolved around that. So there were limits around times when I would not take meetings because it would be the hour with which the kids came home and I wanted to spend, you know, two, 30 to three, 30,. I was going to be with the kids and get them set with a snack and prep them for homework or whatever that looked like, and then I might resume a meeting after that, because then they were they were having some downtime post school. So I really looked at what would my ideal work week and day look like for a mom. Now, today it's a little different, because my kids are grown One's in college. I don't know how this works.
Speaker 3:Oh, does that happen?
Tricia Sciortino:I'm 29 and I have a college kid but I do and then, once you know, going into her senior year in high school, so it looks different, but it's helped me create this pattern of what works best for me, Sure.
Tricia Sciortino:When I want to start my day, when I'm going to end my day and all of the breaks I need to take in between you know, mandating that I I pace a limit on I'm taking a lunch break, no matter what. Mandating and putting a limit on I'm stopping by five, no matter what, and really funneling into what worked into my life and then my assistant's job from there is to take my ideal work week and help it be reality.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Tricia Sciortino:By helping me say no to actually a lot of things. I probably don't think we do.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, that's so good. I am a big fan of the ideal work week as well, because I think and maybe a lot of you can resonate with this but especially over the past few years when hybrid work schedules became a much more common thing for all of us. Belay has been doing this for years and recognize this was this is where we were all headed, but now it's become the reality for a lot of us, and I was doing a lot of coaching early on with people saying, you know, just because they hadn't prethought how do I want to use my time, especially if I'm working from home more than I had no boundaries, there weren't any limits on my time or my commitments. And so, you know, all of a sudden you end up frazzled. And when I started foresight and I was working for myself, I realized that, you know, if I wasn't diligent about a lunchtime, if I wasn't thoughtful about when I started my day and when I ended my day, like if I didn't have fixed like commitments on that, all of a sudden everything stretches and keeps growing, and so I think just recognizing the value of limits and those priorities is really really, really critical. So that's super helpful.
Jenni Catron:Any other thoughts there or like things that you've noticed like we people have had to make adjustments to around. I like what you said about almost the accountability piece of like your assistant helping support that. How would you coach somebody who's like, okay, great, I wish that I could adjust some things, but my employer or my manager expects me to be available at this time for this thing. How do we kind of do the both and like know our ideal week and deal with the expectations of our job?
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, I think it has a lot to do with allowing for flex time in your ideal work week so that when there are things that come up that are urgent or important that you have to address, you're not cramming them, in, that you've allowed yourself time for them to see themselves into your calendar when necessary. We see that all the time right, that things will always pop up that are unnecessary, that we didn't plan for. Of course it would. Life would be great if we could plan everything. We just can't. So I think it goes into, you know, allowing enough time for buffer inside what your ideal work week looks like. So, for example, I mean my ideal day I'm only in three meetings, three one hour zoonos because we work virtually and so technically do I have five working hours that I'm not sitting in a meeting to handle crisis, to handle last minute requests, to jump on a quick phone call to have a meeting on demand. I've allowed myself time. I think what happens is we see we have eight hours, we cram it full with eight hours worth of things we're going to do and then the unplanned for happens and then we're working 10 hours a day. Well, are you working through lunch? You're working later. So I think it's the best you can to put those limits on what you know will fit into a day and there's also a lot of, I would say. I would say I would say I would say I would say I would empower most people and I did this for my boss over the years is that you know, having a good enough relationship to talk about those boundaries with the person you are reporting to.
Tricia Sciortino:So, story way back in the day, this is like go back 2011,. I was a virtual assistant for Michael Hyatt. Michael Hyatt he's fantastic. This world revolves around 24 hours a day. It was in the beginning, when he first started his organization. So the work was coming in morning, noon, night, weekends, travel, everything and I felt like I truly was on call 24-7.
Tricia Sciortino:And I actually didn't want that to be my choice because, as you know, my choice was for that not to be the case. I wanted to have limits. So I really came to him and I said, hey, I'd like to talk to you about creating, putting some boundaries around my work schedule when you need me and when I could really truly unplug, and we just had a very great conversation around. Hey, I'd like to wrap up by five and I'd like to not be present or available on weekends unless there's an emergency. And honestly, he received it. He was like absolutely, I want that for you and your family. So I think it even becomes part of just a courageous conversation you have with the people you work with, because most people want that for you I know I want that for my entire team Is that time to unplug is so important to disconnect so you can come back fresh the next day.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, I love that about even having those conversations. We have a lot of that within the foresight team because a lot of our team work. Maddie's a busy mom of two almost three so she's juggling a lot and all of our staff have various responsibilities that they're juggling. And then I work really odd hours of the team can tell you, I was speaking in an event earlier this week and so it occurred to me yesterday morning I was getting on a plane at 5 am and so I was in the Sky Club before the flight sending emails because I was up and going. So we even have just some internal boundaries around the expectation of when you reply. But it's like, because we all work crazy hours, we're not expecting everybody to reply at all of those wild hours. But we know that some of us will work really erratic schedules because we want that flexibility that comes with it. But without those healthy conversations you can unintentionally create expectation that makes people feel like they can't honor their own limits, and so, yeah, I mean.
Tricia Sciortino:I will absolutely find myself sending an email and not find go, do not read till tomorrow morning.
Speaker 3:Right.
Tricia Sciortino:And, like I'm not trying to, I'm clearing off my what I need to do. But that doesn't mean I'm not always trying to create work for you. And I think when people receive something on the other side of the CEO, they feel like that's about whatever they're doing and immediately address it because of the title that is carried. And I want to make sure, to your point, that you're kind of giving them permission to not have to be responsive at those times.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's new behavior we're learning as we all get more comfortable with more of a flexible work schedule is understanding and honoring each other's limits. But that requires us having good communication about those things so that you know those expectations are clear. So you talk about delegation being the remedy to those limits, Like, so can you speak to that a little bit? You know how do that? Delegation is one of those limits that sets us free. So speak a little bit to that connection between limits and delegation for us.
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, I mean, I think, in order to be able to hold your limits which I basically look through the lens of, these are the priorities, my limits are my priorities.
Tricia Sciortino:I'm putting them into place in order to be able to set those limits and really have priorities, you have to be able to look at your finite resource of time and consider it of value and look to how you can delegate in order to get all the work done, knowing all the work doesn't need to be your work, and so, for me, I feel very passionately about the fact that the only reason I've been able to have the career I've had here at Belay and be able to rise up a ladder here is because I figured out really early on how to resource those around me and how to delegate really well.
Tricia Sciortino:Like even in the chat when we were doing the icebreaker, I couldn't think of anything to put in there because I have mastered delegating everything at this point, like there's I'm like this very few things left I think I could delegate, because I've really had to figure out early on how to master this so that we could set me free, because the only way I've been able to hold my boundaries is the only way I've been able to elevate my career is really become a master at how to lean into others to help.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, prisha, how did you get over maybe this wasn't a challenge for you, but I think this is something I recognize is that sometimes I feel bad for delegating, like I feel guilty, like asking somebody to do something that maybe I just don't want to do or I shouldn't be doing. Because you feel like you. You know you want to have that willingness to do whatever it takes and you know a lot of the folks on the call are in ministry related roles and so you know you feel like you should be that servant leader and so sometimes I feel like there's this internal wrestling with delegation and, you know, just feeling like you're dumping something on somebody else. Can you, yeah, speak to that for us?
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, and it's totally on us right, like we. That's literally a thing we have to get over. Most people actually are honored. You would let them do that thing for you. You know, if it's another leader per se and I want them to own a specific deliverable or own a project on my behalf, they're yes, absolutely, she's entrusting me with this thing, and so it speaks volumes to trust. When you let others do things for you, it says I trust you, you're going to do this as good, if not better, than I'm going to do this, and I think it truly does empower them from for the small things, like from a virtual assistant or assistant perspective, where you might feel like, oh, expense reports, nobody feels empowered to do those. But honestly, you find the right executive assistant and I'll call out my assistant today Cameron. She loves serving me, she loves taking every. It is like a challenge for her to get me to delegate more to her. She feels empowered, she feels convicted that she is here to take things off my plate so that I can do what only I can do.
Tricia Sciortino:So you find those personality types who, literally, they feel gratitude and they feel their cup is filled when they get to do these things. Whether it's somebody who just loves administration, they could sit in spreadsheets and email like they just love that. That is literally their gifting is to organize things. They want those things. And then there's people, especially ministry. They are here to serve, and if serving looks like booking travel, that's great, because if that's serving the cause and serving you so you can go on and do your ministry, then they've done their job. So I think it's really a mindset shift and you know most people don't view it as you're dumping things on them and so we just have to kind of get over it.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, yeah, yeah it is. It's a mindset shift that you know to recognize and you know, and I think sometimes it's a reminder that just because there's something that I'm not great at or I don't really enjoy, doesn't mean that it's not. I mean there is somebody who absolutely loves that and would love to use their gifts to do that. So I think you have to remind yourself, too, that sometimes the things that you know aren't as life giving or energizing might be absolutely life giving or energizing to somebody else, and so that's helped me too, and I don't you know the number of times where my team has said, hey, like, let me help, like, let me, let me help, I want to, I want to help, I want to help move things forward. You know, one of the notes that we had, you know, prepping for the discussion, was that delegation actually elevates everyone, right, and that's kind of what you're saying, isn't it?
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, it gets everyone an opportunity to get their hands in there and show off what they can do. You know my, you know the team, you know likely you're surrounded by some people who actually want to learn, they want to absorb, they want opportunity to grow on their own, and by not giving them opportunities or things to own or manage, you could potentially be stunting their professional growth, their professional skillset and the opportunities for them to do more. So I really do look at everything I delegate to my assistant or whoever as an opportunity for them to learn a new thing and to grow their skillset. Whether they do it with me or they move on and they do it with the next organization they're with, it's a great training ground to lift people up.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, well, I'm just going to say and there's that perspective shift again too, it's not about just getting things off my plate, it's having that development eye as a leader to go hey, here's an opportunity for somebody you know, for this person on my team, to grow in their skills, or you know, and be developed professionally as well. So, trisha, what are some of the things that leaders should be delegating? Like, what are some of the things that we should be delegating? Maybe we're hanging on to them too long. What do you see over and over? Because, again, you guys are working with thousands of leaders, helping support them, with assistants and bookkeepers, etc. Like, what should we be delegating?
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah gosh, there's so many things. I mean. The basics that we see most everybody start with are scheduling anything on your account, whether it's scheduling meetings, scheduling personal appointments, scheduling travel. Scheduling is a huge one. Like I never want to touch my calendar. My assistant takes care of everything for me. Email is another huge one. We all get hundreds of emails every day, and having to filter through even if it's the simplest beginnings of they just reduce the spam or they reply to things that are just hey, thanks, even if they're just cutting out some of that to start with email is huge.
Tricia Sciortino:We don't want to spend eight hours a day in our email inbox, travel, of course, agenda prep for meetings agenda prep and follow up from meetings. So that could be like setting the stage for what's in the conversation joining the conversation, taking notes in the conversation and then gathering action items from the conversation and then, my favorite part, following up on the action items from conversation.
Tricia Sciortino:Yes, I have the follow up monkey on my back, so I give it to her and I said, hey, you've created the action item list, we're sharing it with everybody. She will follow up on the action item list on my behalf and kind of holding everybody accountable to do things we're going to do in the meeting. And that is huge. There's also other things, you know social engagement. My assistant helps me with my LinkedIn. I get lots of LinkedIn messages. I don't want to be abandoning my LinkedIn messages, so she'll go in there for me, reply for me, bring some things to me if needed. There's a lot you can do with script prep and marketing assistant thing, a sauna organization, project coordination. The list could really go on and on. It can be very specific to what you do. So a lot.
Jenni Catron:A lot, yeah, and would you want my personal experience? So, just in full disclosure, like bit of a control freak, so early on I was not great about. Well, this is probably still true, but like I remember very specifically, this was back when I was at Crosspoint in Nashville and I got, I hired my first assistant to work with me and of course we had other staff and you know they were delegated very, you know, very ministry specific responsibilities according to their job descriptions. But the first person who was really an extension of me, like you know that that person who's helping me fulfill all of my responsibilities, was my assistant in Nashville. And you know, so you start out with the usual suspects, but as time went on I really began to see that she was able to speak on my behalf, anticipate for me, you know, and just be be a true extension to help me accelerate my work and kind of take the lid off of my leadership. Because, again, at that stage we were a fast growing organization, my responsibilities were just continuing to increase and so the more that I could help spread out that work and bring along somebody who really could begin thinking on my behalf.
Jenni Catron:And what I noticed. Tell me if this feels true to you, trisha, but I noticed it was like I would learn you know, delegation skills at one stage, and then I'd realize I'd kind of hit another hurdle where I'd have to learn another level of delegation. It's like, ok, now I need to delegate even more. Like you know, it's like I started with delegating tasks and then it went to almost delegating responsibility and, you know, it's like I kind of feel like there's these waves of learning and growth for us as leaders as we're delegating. Does that, does that feel accurate?
Tricia Sciortino:So accurate, yeah, so so, so accurate. I agree, I think you know you can start off with some great baseline things, but as your, I view it as my role, as a leader's role, as your role is constantly evolving and changing. Your business and your organization is evolving and changing day after day, so does the needs of your needs and the needs of the business, that's right.
Tricia Sciortino:Revisiting over and over again what it is you're delegating. I mean, my assistant and I look at what we're doing together quarterly, Like we have a formal, like quarterly review and we say, OK, are there new things or new responsibilities that have come to me that I want to help? Have you help me with them? Are there things you've been helping me with that are lower impact and there's other things I would like you to help me with instead? So we're constantly evaluating on a quarterly basis how she helps me, what she helps me with and are there new things she can help me with?
Tricia Sciortino:And she will come to me, and this is my favorite part. She will come to me and sometimes say hey, I see a gap here in this area. I like to insert myself and help. Maybe I can. I love when she comes with solutions. Maybe I can do X, Y and Z for you and get it halfway done and then you can take it from there. Like she could start things for me and maybe she can't finish, but the start is that's a game changer. I mean it's 50% of everything.
Tricia Sciortino:Right, so you can start things for me. So I think it's an evolution and totally to your point, as I've worked with my assistant longer and longer, now she's to the place where she can own things truly for me, like we have board meetings quarterly, she will own it from start to finish.
Tricia Sciortino:I mean you know the scheduling and the traveling agenda and communicating with the board and scheduling the board and getting the deck prepped, and it goes all the way through and I'm just the bystander. So it's been great, but it is an evolution for sure.
Jenni Catron:It's a process and a commitment. I think you know, one of the things I noticed in myself and I coach a lot of leaders around this is that there's a difference between delegation and application Right, like it's, like you can. Sometimes we think we're delegating but we're just kind of dumping it. Maybe it's delegation or dumping Right, we just dump things on somebody and just like, well, you just handle it Right, but then there's not the learning and the growing. Where they're truly partnering with you is so that you know they're able to take on more, they're able to like own more of what you're doing. So I've noticed for myself, like being intentional about the coaching process of as I'm delegating, that I'm making sure that I'm equipping that person with an understanding of the bigger picture so that they can come and say, hey, let me take this on or let me get this started for you.
Jenni Catron:I have been working with a ballet assistant for six months now, but at least she's fantastic, and so we're at the stage where now Emily and I are having conversations because a lot of the like, the you know, the real Ordinary early stuff, like we've got that pretty locked in and now I'm saying, okay, I want you like to know my schedule better than me, like backwards and forwards, anticipate what's coming and what do I need. And you know, like, if you were having to like do this webinar today, what would you need? To make sure you know we were, you're, we're all prepped and ready for that and you know so she's. You know, now we've had enough time under our belt that she understands our, the scope of our work and what we do and who we connect with. But now she's anticipating more deliberately on my behalf, and so I I feel the load continue to get lighter as she gets more and more, you know, involved in what we're doing.
Tricia Sciortino:So that's the beauty of it, right? It's like the longer you do it, the better it is. Oh, for sure see people who quit early on. I'm like no, started yet, don't quit. You got to keep going. It gets better. It's like a fine wine.
Jenni Catron:Yes, for sure. Yeah, you. Just that relationship becomes so, so key. So talk a little bit more about the virtual assistant dynamic, because the lay was early on to this, like you guys, like you know, came on you know early saying hey, this is kind of this is where work is going and and I think there's a lot of leaders like we, we think I Remember thinking this way, you know, even rewind a handful of years.
Jenni Catron:It's like, well, I don't have the budget to hire a Assistant because we're thinking it has to be full-time, we think it has to be in person. And you guys kind of rewrote the model by saying, you know, this virtual assistant idea that can be very fractional, so we'll work with a lot of leaders who think they just don't have the budget for it when in fact, like when you do the virtual assistant fractionally, you can start, you know, giving some time, energy and resources to some support Without having to commit to, you know, another whole full-time hour, which, again in ministry context, is always a big concern. So can you see the virtual assistant component a little bit and just some of the pros and pros and cons of how that dynamic works.
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, I mean it's a couple things that come to mind. I mean there's there's there's two parts of this. I mean, first of all, you know, fractional was specifically the need we were filling and still due to this day. We started, you know, 13 years ago, saying not everybody needs a full-time executive assistant sitting at a desk in an office Next to them. There are so many leaders out who need 10 hours a week. You know they, they need some help. You know either they're a small business or they're they're just getting started, or there's not a full-time need, whatever those reasons are.
Tricia Sciortino:We knew that that was um a Gap that we wanted to fill. We also knew that and believed that you did not have to be physically in the same place as people to be able to support people. So we immediately knew that our first few clients, for example, our first client, actually was in Wyoming. He could not find locals. He had been through the community. He's been like, you know, family members, a friend of the church, daughter, you know he did all the things and he could not find great talent in his local community and so we knew the second part of that is you didn't have to be in the same place To do great work together and so that's how we can't.
Tricia Sciortino:Those are our foundational forming principles. It's like you could have part-time help and you don't have to be in the same room as people, and we will show you how you do that, because we're gonna do it ourselves, because we're virtual. So that's the first part about fractional and being virtual. The second part of it is as far as the the, what someone can afford. The way I look at it is what is your hourly rate? Because right now you're your virtual assistant. That's literally what you're paying for virtual assistants. Today You're paying your hourly rate to do email, to do Cal, where a virtual assistant's hourly rate is what should be way less than yours. So that's how I look at. The cost perspective is starting small, that's, you're literally Converting your time to somebody else's time and, in theory, your time has a higher ticket price than there.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, yeah. So just even like that goes back to a stewardship principle, right, like you know, just even thinking about, am I, you know, giving my best time and energy to the things that only I can do, one of the Tools that I've done through the years? I don't even know where I got this from. I don't know if I made it up or if I got it from somewhere. I'm sure there's an iteration of it somewhere out there, but I will. I will take myself through this exercise, like every six months, where I will say okay, three columns, what are the things that only I can do? This is my highest and best contribution to the organization in the role that I sit in. If I don't do this, nobody else will like.
Jenni Catron:This is my, this is what, this is what's mission critical. I have to do these things. What are the things that I do but I could delegate, like maybe, maybe it's not clear where they can delegate or when I should delegate them, and they're usually a little bit higher level. You know, it's like gosh, I want to move this off my plate, but it might be a little ways off. And then, what are the things that I must delegate? Meaning I would be embarrassed to tell Trisha I'm still doing this, right, like you know, like I Shouldn't be spending time when I calculate the cost of me doing this Piece of work. It is not the best stewardship decision for our organization.
Jenni Catron:And so every six months I will do those three columns and just kind of take an evaluation of what's in those columns, because this stuff here Okay, I got to solve this today, like this has to get moved, and then I have to have an eye on this middle column, right Of like, okay, I got to have an eye on, you know, because maybe as I'm planning you know, doing strategic planning and budgeting I'm thinking through, okay, there's some things here that I really want to scale, you know, this work and and delegate to somebody else, and then I need to make sure my best hours of the day are given to these things that are really my best contribution to this organization. Do you is there? Do you do something like that? Does that make sense?
Tricia Sciortino:Absolutely beautiful. Yes, and we actually have our. All of our leaders do that, because if your intention is to grow, everybody around you is also growing, and so it's such a great exercise. I love that you do that, jenny, and I think it's great to teach others how to do that with you also.
Tricia Sciortino:Exactly because there are things absolutely today, I feel like if I am doing something too administrative, I feel like I am not doing a service to the company is paying whatever dollars an hour for me to sit here and do. What am I doing right now? So I, you know, I have to make sure that I am a good steward of the organization by spending the majority of my dime doing high-impact CEO things yes, and that is not typing meeting notes and following up that I'm so, absolutely Absolutely.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, that's so good, that's so good, awesome. Well, friends, I am curious if anybody has any questions that you want to ask. Tricia, maybe you've got some questions around delegating. Maybe it's a specific scenario that you're kind of navigating. I'll give you a second to pop those in the chat. And, maddie, maybe you can take inventory and be ready to ask those. But, tricia, tell us a little bit more about how Belay works with leaders and you know, for people that are maybe curious about Delegating and and engaging resources like your virtual assistants, bookkeeper, social media support, like what does that look like at Belay?
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, so we, we're a very Consultative, relational organization. We know, especially with a virtual assistant making the decision to do that. It's a very personal hire Because, to your point, jenny, this person is works for you, their extension of you, and we really do understand the importance of that and you have time you will spend with this person. So what it looks like for us is you know, we have a great consultative conversation with you. We will walk through what your needs or your areas of opportunity are and we will help you determine Maybe where you should start. It could be in how many hours a week, based on what you're trying to do, would serve you well. From there, if you join us, we go through a discovery process where you will have an account manager who will walk you through a discovery process and really get granular about not only the tasks and things you want to upload, but about your work style.
Tricia Sciortino:And your personality stop, because this is big again. This is a very personal hire. So we'll we'll talk a little bit about your soft skills, your delegation, language, if you will, your behaviors. Have you delegated before? What type of Delegator are you or leader Are you? What kind of communication style do you have?
Tricia Sciortino:And then we'll ask you and we'll work through what is the type of assistant you need, because there there are there are many different varieties of assistance. There are some who you know email calendar. There are some who were proactive. There are some that might have skills that are more in the marketing area. There are some that have experience in church and donor management. So we'll kind of filter through like what is the true need here and what are the soft skills and the type of personality that we think would work best with you Love that.
Tricia Sciortino:And then from there we go into our placement process. We have a team of virtual assistants and bookkeepers already vetted and waiting, so we bring them on before you are here so that we can go ahead and very quickly Go through and say, okay, these are the five most important things we need in an assistant for Jenny. We sort that, we pick the person and say this is the one that we believe will work best with you. And then we do a joint introduction With you and your assistant and we walk you through what that relationship will look like, and then from there we stay with you, so we don't just match and leave you. We check in, we have lots of resources for you Teaching you how to delegate, holding you accountable to delegate and the same thing for your virtual assistant.
Tricia Sciortino:They have a ton of resources. We actually have a community where all of the assistants collaborate together so they learn from each other. So you're not just getting your one virtual assistant. Your virtual assistant has access to our community of 2000 virtual assistants so they leverage each other's knowledge and expertise. And then and then we we hope we continue to evolve with you over time we help recalibrate in three months and six months and nine months and say, okay, how are we doing? What else? Yeah, so that is our plan.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, I love that and we've we've been a personal recipient of that process and in fact, I have my call. It was supposed to be today. We had to reschedule for next week, with our calibration at six months, and you're, you know, the team just checking in and helping you. You know, especially when you're learning as a leader, how do I delegate Well, how do I really lean and in utilize Support well? Having that infrastructure it's somebody coaching you along is really really valuable. So, maddie, what questions do we have? I saw a couple come in, so I'll let you read them out to us.
:Yeah. So Carmen asked one Are there any books or resources you would recommend to help leaders grow in delegation? And I will add, if there are any two, we can put them in a follow-up email as well, just to make sure we we have access to those.
Tricia Sciortino:Yes, well, I'd love to give you guys I can give you guys a free copy of a book that I wrote about Delegating to my assistant. Had him had a best do that, had to maximize your time to, to help your efficiency, and I go through all of the how to manage time, how to communicate, how to delegate. So happy to give that to you guys. Kelsey, maybe you can help me figure out how to get.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, yeah, we'll get that. We'll send that back out to everybody that out.
Tricia Sciortino:That's, that's good one. Another one is your world class assistant, by Michael Hyatt. So he has a book out that talks a lot about how to leverage assistant, why you should have one and what are the best ways to delegate. So that's another good one that comes to me top of mind also.
Jenni Catron:Yeah, that's really good, and I've had clients of mine that I work with who have used both of those resources and they were like game changer just gave me more awareness of how to delegate better and really leverage. You know, especially again sometimes I think when people have a very specific role, related responsibility were better at delegating there, but when it comes to helping support us or being extension of our work, we get stuck in knowing how to delegate and so those resources are really valuable.
Tricia Sciortino:And I will say there and I encourage this is kind of off topic, but there is a lot to be said for delegating things that are also personal. You know you can't about cooking and whatnot, but but realistically we recommend actually, as a leader you're a whole person and if, if you have the opportunity, my assistant helps me on a lot of personal things sometimes that's actually what falls is self care can easily kind of all through a crack, but she's holding me accountable to personal appointments that she will book for me and make sure I'm taking care of myself, which is great to have somebody looking out for you as a person holistically, so I do that's good personal support also.
Jenni Catron:That's really good.
:That's really good, awesome. Okay, hillary said can you discuss best practices for someone who takes delegation to ownership in a way that is not helpful, or decides what needs to be delegated and moves forth without input from leader?
Tricia Sciortino:Okay, so say it. Can you word that? Say that again, can you just?
:I have you read that out loud for me, that's fine.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So the idea of you give you delegate and somebody takes it to ownership or moves beyond the boundary of which you delegated, does that make sense in a way? I mean, we all we want to be empowering and raising people up, but into a way that's often not helpful or creates double work, because they didn't talk to the person next to them that you did get delegated, potentially the next step or different step in a project. Or then somebody who said, oh, I can do this and just does it without being, without it being delegated to them, and doesn't necessarily come up and say, hey, can I help you or give me more, like you were talking about that idea. Does that make sense to somebody who's kind of confused about what should and shouldn't the delegating, I guess, and kind of how they handle what's delegated to them? Yeah, does that make more sense?
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, it's absolutely somebody that they just took it a little too far. Maybe go a little wrong. I'm going off the rails a little bit. Yeah, I think that that has a lot to do with a constant delegation feedback cycle that can be created. You know there's different levels of delegation and it could even be something very formal that you create to handle a specific person. But you know, I've known a lot of leaders have used very specific types of doubt.
Tricia Sciortino:There's like delegation number one Hi, I want you to go research this one thing and report back specifically on just that thing, don't do anything else. And there's level number two I want you to go do this thing, come up with some solution options and then bring it back, but don't do anything else. And then there's delegate. Then there's level number three I want you to go do that thing, the entire thing, all the way to the end, and then I want you to come back and report to me what happened. And then so there's steps and levels. So I think you can communicate that high. For this thing I want you to just do X, because I want to review it before we go to why, and I think it's just setting the expectation that it's iterative.
Tricia Sciortino:Whatever this thing is, it's iterative and it's not go to the end. It's actually stop at this place and come back to me for review before you move forward. And I think you can communicate that inside how you delegate. And there will be times when you delegate the opposite and you say I want no part of this, just go do the whole thing. But I think delegating the your preference on how you want it to look might help avoid some of that. If it's already happened, then right, then it's a, then it's a feedback conversation like hi, thank you, and so, whatever, that is not, that is not how I prefer it going forward. This is how I would like this to happen. Please come back to me, xyz. And here's one.
Jenni Catron:That's good, that's helpful. I think of that blanchard situational leadership model where understanding where the individual is and how much you should give them at what point, and that is that those, those levels of delegation like and us being clear. So that comes back to us as the leader of our yeah, how well are we communicating and being clear about our expectation? And you know those check in points, etc. Because I I recognize sometimes I assume they know how much I want them to do or not do, and I think that's what I think is really important is that they can actually communicate it very well, and so that often gets me in trouble. And then sometimes Hillary sounds like you've got somebody who just as little ambitious and goes a little rogue, and so then you have to be a little more specific and clear to pull them back and you know, and redirect, which can take a lot of energy. But I find sometimes those people, once you give them a little bit of more feedback, they are like they can be, they can be fantastic.
Tricia Sciortino:And that's just the person who, like you, have to push them because they don't do enough.
Jenni Catron:So yeah yeah, yeah, that's good. All right, maddie, do we have? I think there's a couple more. We probably got time for one or two.
:Yeah, I wanted to ask the one that Jodi brought up, because this is our situation in our office how do you reflect culture with your assistants that are in person but also virtual, like how do you figure out how to ensure that the culture is going through both ways?
Tricia Sciortino:Yeah, well, this is I mean, this is the stuff we live and breathe, right, jodi? Yeah, you know, we virtual culture. It has to be so intentional. It cannot, it will not organic, it cannot be organic. It can be organic, but then you're going to wind up a place you don't want to be on. So you know how to integrate that connectively. I think it doesn't necessarily have to be a. For my in person team, I do X and for my virtual team, I do.
Tricia Sciortino:Why I think you have to come up with a communication strategy that encompasses everybody and ensure that you are constantly putting your values, remotely and in person, together, and so, if you're hybrid, specifically, I think you have to be super intentional on how you're bringing your virtual team into what is happening in the office.
Tricia Sciortino:It probably is a. It's a lot more communication and a lot more frequency, because a lot can be lost if you're not in the office. So it's it's probably communicating 10 times more about something than you would to somebody that's sitting next to you. Fortunately, unfortunately really teaches you how to be a really great communicator, because it, when they cannot be seen, it will be lost, and you cannot see it when you're not in the same room, so it gets lost and so you have to fill the gap constantly with your culture when it comes to virtual. So it's like daily, weekly. You're talking about a core value, talking about a project initiative. You're talking about a mission. You're talking about your vision, because it's so easy to disconnect when you can't see the placards on the wall in the office.
Jenni Catron:That's right, yeah, yeah, I think in. So in many ways, I love that the, the virtual world, the hybrid workspace world, is forcing us to think more deliberately about culture, because I think in some cases we got there by accident, just by proximity, and I think in you guys at belay were have always been thoughtful about shaping culture in a virtual context and it doesn't make you think more deliberately about that, jody. Jody, I love that you're asking the question because you're recognizing, okay, it takes a little bit more effort and intentionality, but I think that also helps shape culture in a much healthier way.
Tricia Sciortino:And I would say one thing I would add to that is that it's the specific words you use are more important when you're virtual. So, very specifically the words like do I say we serve the client or do we say, hey, we got a new client, so it's just you have? The nuances of communication become super highlighted.
Jenni Catron:That's really powerful. That's really helpful. Okay, trisha, I know we need to wrap up. Last thoughts from you how would you encourage us to keep delegating? Well, what would you what? How would you encourage us today?
Tricia Sciortino:Yes, I would say, first of all, do it. That's number one is recognize the opportunities with which you can elevate yourself and your leadership by offloading some things to those, whether it's a volunteer or an EA or spouse or a friend, whatever that looks like. You know leaders go together. They don't go alone. So look at who's around you and and get the support so that truly, you can focus on what's the most important thing you need to be doing in a role. So that that is just my final say on you know the importance of delegating, so that you can continue to elevate yourself and your organization.
Jenni Catron:That's so good, and we can find you and your team at belay solutionscom. Is that right? That's right, fantastic, okay, guys, thanks for joining us today, thanks for just leaning into your continued growth as a leader. I think this is one of those topics that we need to stay present to regularly, because I do think we're always learning new skills of delegation, like as we're growing, we're having to learn how to keep releasing and empowering other team members so that we can keep growing and learning ourselves. So, trisha, thank you for your wisdom and insight. Thanks for your example as a just incredibly successful woman in leadership who has just just models this so well and such an encouragement to all of us. So, friends, check out belay solutionscom, tell them that foresight or Jenny sent you, because they are just really wonderful partners with us, and we will make sure we send that free resource back to you all as well. So, thanks everybody. Thank you, trisha. Thank you, we'll see you all next time.
Jenni Catron:Okay, gang, wasn't that so helpful? Like, I think, perspective on delegation and how we think about it as leaders and the recognition that you know we're constantly learning new delegation skills, like, especially if you have an assistant, like bringing that assistant along with you and you're growing. They're growing and you're multiplying your efforts as a leader because of how you empower and equip them and delegate to them. So I want to encourage you to check out belay solutions, belay solutionscom, learn what they're about in the show notes. We'll have that link to the resource that Trisha mentioned. And, just if you've been on the fence about, I know I need some support but I'm not exactly sure how to do it. I have found that hiring a virtual assistant is such a great next step, like it's a good step, without going way into the deep end of finding some fractional support and helping you learn how to delegate and and how to do that and then delegate and and bring on more support for you and your organization and specifically to help you as a leader. So go to belay solutionscom to check that out and then, of course, let me know what you thought about this week's episode.
Jenni Catron:Send me an email at podcast at get foresightcom, or reach out to us on social media at get foresight, g, e, t, the number four, s, I, g, h, t, or you can find me at Jenny Catron, and then I'd love it if you share it, if this, if there's somebody on your team who needs to learn to delegate better, or you have a friend that you've been talking about this topic with, share it with them. Talk about it together, use it as a starting point for good conversation as a team or as leaders, to help you grow in your delegation and to create some accountability with others around this topic. And then, if we can help you with more resources, be sure to sign up for our insights newsletter. If you go to get foresightcom that's g et, the number four, s, I, g, h, tcom you can find all kinds of free resources. You can sign up for a weekly insights email and we'll be sure to keep equipping you in the best way we can. So thanks for listening today. Keep leading well and I will see you next week.