How to Handle All the Hats You Wear in Your Business

As founders, solopreneurs or small business owners, we wear a lot of different hats in our business: The hat of the CEO, the Worker, the Marketing Expert, the Salesperson, the Warrior, the Connector, Communicator, Content Creator, Bookkeeper and so on.

Depending on the situation, context, or task at hand, we have different roles to play.

If we don’t want to lose our sanity and well-being and actually make things happen, it’s good to get conscious of these roles. Once we’re aware of all the hats we juggle, we are able to use them in an intentional and deliberate way.

Switching Hats

We can’t avoid switching between all these roles and responsibilities several times a day.

Most of the time, we swap one hat for the next just as the situation seems to demand. We’re multitasking and ‘multi-roling’ through our days, more reacting than responding. That costs a lot in terms of focus, energy and effectiveness, physically and mentally.

We know that it slows us down, because with each switch of a hat (= role or identity), we need to adjust and settle in. Our brains can only think one thought at a time, so jumping from one thing to the next can easily take 20 or 30 minutes of brainpower.

That means if we need to change your hat three of four times during a day, we lose an hour or more of our day just to do so. And most of us are switching all the time, so it’s no wonder we feel so drained and ineffective at the end of a day!

What can we do?

The difference between feeling overwhelmed by all the roles we need to play (or think we need to) and using them to our benefit lies in intentionality.

A very useful tool that helps me become aware of the roles and how I play them is to regularly create a bit space and think about the following:

1. Which roles do you play in your business? (List them all.)
2. Which ones do you really need to wear yourself? (Those are the ones in your zone of genius.)
3. Which ones don’t really fit? (Those are not playing to your strengths and/or you do not enjoy them at all.)
4. Which ones look better on someone else’s head? (What of what you have noted down in the question before that you can outsource?)
5. Of those you have to wear yourself, how much time do you need to wear them per day, per week, per month? (Schedule the time windows for the next 3 months.)

The goal is to get more intentional with all your hats.

Your Hat Categories

What I found is that it is helpful to work with the following three main roles. Maybe they’re similar for you, maybe you have slightly different ones, or not three, but more or less:

1. The Doer. That’s the executor, the one who gets things done. The Doer takes action on the tasks and checks things off. It’s a very productive and creative role, the one that produces outcome and creates tangible assets.
2. The Strategist. That’s the thinker, the one who analyses where you are in your business and where you want to go. The Strategist assesses the playing field, makes plans, creates schedules, connects dots and tests systems and processes in order to improve operations.

   The Strategist is also the one who lays out the work for the Doer. The Doer doesn’t want to think, plan, or decide, so she or he loves that the Strategist is telling them what nail needs hitting next, so that they can move forward and make things happen.

3. The Actor. That’s the face of your business, the one who shows up and is ‘on stage’.  The Actor jumps on calls, delivers a course, publishes videos and blogs, and is the one who has conversations with team members. It’s the responsible one for communication, is visible on social media, the one who coaches, mentors, teaches and trains. Often, the Actor is the ‘brand’ of your business.

All of these roles want attention and space, because they’re essential for building and growing a business.

How to Make Space for Your Hats

What that means is that we need to schedule time for each of these in our calendars. Because if one of them is consistently neglected, we’ll not get the results we want. We need to spend time wearing each of these hats, sometimes one a bit more than another, but all of them continuously.

So, if you find yourself struggling or annoyed that things aren’t moving, ask yourself:

• Is my Doer equipped with workplans and tools, and does she or he have the space in my calendar that it needs to execute and produce?
• Is my Strategist getting enough time, and doing a good job, also for the Doer?
• Is my Actor out there on stage enough, interacting with my people? Does she or he have enough space and time to do that?

You’ll notice that each question includes ‘time’ or ‘space’.

Now, if you look at your calendar, does each of the roles get dedicated, intentionally planned time to do what they’re supposed to do? Or are one or two of the roles squeezed in, getting the left-overs, but not the attention it needs?

It helps me to regularly block out an hour or two to check the status quo of my hats, and if I dedicate enough time for each of them.

So, if you feel you’re wearing too many hats, why don’t you give them and yourself a little break (maybe put on your sunhat), search for a quiet spot and make a plan for what you want or have your roles to achieve during the next weeks?

If you think you have no time for that, think again.

You will be less busy, but more productive and effective when you do.