The Hidden Cost of Being the Firefighter

As we approach a time when most people can enjoy some much-needed rest, it’s worth reflecting on the causes of burnout throughout the year.

I find that most business owners don’t burn out because of the workload. They burn out because of the noise of constant interruptions and the never-ending stream of unnecessary questions.

It is the frustration of spending hours each day dealing with problems that someone else ought to have solved.

I had a coaching session this week with someone running a brilliant manufacturing operation. His facility is top-tier, his clients are loyal, and the quality is excellent. However, every day he’s dragged into stock issues, staff problems, and questions that someone else should have answered long before it reached his desk.

He spends his morning working on late artwork and his afternoon mediating a minor disagreement between two machine operators. He’s exhausted, but he feels guilty if he doesn’t step in. After all, that’s what a good leader does, isn't it?

No. That is what a business owner who has failed to set boundaries does.

I have experienced that life myself. When I was running my own business, my biggest mistake was being too accessible. I genuinely believed that by being the person who could fix anything, I was an asset.

The reality was the opposite. The more I intervened, the more everyone else pulled back. If the staff know you will resolve the problem for them, they will let you. They won't take responsibility or think through the solution, they will simply escalate the issue to the ultimate fire extinguisher. That’s you, by the way!

And every time you intervene to fight a small fire, you are sacrificing your most valuable resources, your time and focus. That is time you should be dedicating to strategy, sales, and genuine growth.

If you constantly find yourself firefighting, it’s not a sign of chaos, but a lack of structure. Your business becomes scalable the moment people no longer need you for every single decision. That means putting some robust systems and processes in place.

So, how do you fix it and reclaim your day?

It begins with recognising what those recurring fires truly are. Each time someone asks you a question, record it. You will quickly notice a pattern. It will be the same three or four issues that account for 80% of your reactive time.

Once you have identified the recurring problems, you should establish a straightforward, repeatable process for solving them without your input.

For example, if the fire is always something like ‘What do we do when stock runs low?’, the system is a two-page Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that specifies who checks inventory, when they do so, and the precise order to follow.

If the fire is ‘I don't know who to talk to about a client change request,’, the system is a single flow chart showing the exact person and step for different types of changes.

You should empower your team to resolve their own issues. And the great news is you can easily achieve this by providing them with a practical system and the authority to implement it.

Fix the structure and the fires will soon disappear.

My coaching helps you build a structure that gives you calm, not chaos. We put the systems in place so you can get back to the high-value work only you can do.

Book your discovery call here: https://calendly.com/theonlineprintcoach/30-min-discovery-call