I’m surprised at how many of the VAs on my team react when I give them full control over a project. See…I am not a micro-manager. I never appreciated being micromanaged a hundred years ago when I was an employee and I won’t put up with it today as a business owner.

I choose the best of the best when it comes to the people I add to my team. They’re the experts at what they do, so I trust they’re doing the projects they’re assigned to the best of their ability. I oversee “bigger picture” projects and liaise with clients. I don’t need to be involved in every single project because, quite frankly, I’m busy enough with building the business, keeping it humming and signing on clients!

Besides, the reason I’ve added these professionals to my team is because they’re skilled in areas I am not…for the most part. Trust me, I’m not getting in the bookkeeper’s way because it would be a waste of my time (and hers) to be in her business all the time because she knows what she’s doing.

I’m not going to give my copywriter a list of guidelines about writing press releases before I ask her to write one. I have her on board with me because she knows what she’s doing. I trust her and everyone else on my team to do what they do best.

Fancy that.

Unfortunately, this trust factor is a rarity to most people who have ever worked admin in an employee role. We’ve all been micromanaged at one time or another and we’ve all hated it. We’ve called that micro-manager nasty names behind his (or her) back and complained to our spouses about them after a long day at work.

If you consider yourself a micro-manager you do not want to enter into a contract with us at Seven Winds, or with any VA anywhere for that matter. You will not be popular.

The whole point of partnering with a virtual assistant is to free you up to do other things. That means you need to give your VA control over her tasks, otherwise, you’re completely defeating the purpose of the relationship.

All that will get you is one frustrated VA and the feeling that working with a VA is taking up more of your time than you expected.

That’s a classic symptom of micromanagement. It wastes your time and it’s precisely why you would be much better off hiring yourself an in-house assistant who will put up with the constant stream of instructions and over-the-shoulder-looking.

So you have fun with that while we go ahead and make a real difference in the lives and the businesses of the trusting business owners we choose to align ourselves with. And if you know some entrepreneurs like that, send ‘em our way. We pay referrals.