A phrase I’ve been saying a lot lately is “stay in your lane.” And not with a negative connotation. You know what you know; that’s your lane. But also know what you don’t know, and don’t presume to drive in that lane.
I’ve been doing trainings on 1031 exchanges this year to a wide variety of professionals and I tell them the goal here is to know enough to be dangerous. They don’t have to DO 1031 exchanges or know everything about them to be able to advise clients on the existence of section 1031 of the IRS code. Some comments I’ve received during these sessions include, “Doesn’t it count as legal advice if I tell a client about 1031 exchanges? I don’t want to get myself into trouble” or “I don’t want to bring up a 1031 exchange to a client if I can’t answer 100% of their questions.”
There is a lot of power and confidence in knowing what you don’t know. For example, I may be a licensed attorney, but outside of my specialty of real estate, I don’t know much about any other area of law. Friends have contacted me asking advice on getting a divorce, or a criminal law matter, and I (as I’m required ethically to do) refer them to attorneys in my network with that expertise. People have a tendency though to want to have the answer, so even if they don’t know or aren’t qualified, they’ll provide their opinion, and this can be damaging. Rather than referring the person to a trusted professional in your network who you know is going to be able to answer all of their questions and advise correctly, taking on the dissemination of information when you aren’t qualified can reflect poorly on yourself and create frustration for the person seeking advice. In the title world, I deal with probate matters occasionally. I know what I need to insure a piece of real estate when the titleholder is deceased, and so I can comfortably advise clients on that aspect – that’s in my lane. However, if a probate case hasn’t been filed, and the client asks me how to go about filing, what the requirements and timeframes are, I immediately refer them to a probate attorney in my network – that’s out of my lane.
I have also seen this come in to play recently with my employees. The title agency has a wide variety of positions, from title examining to processing to policy issuance. There are specific personalities that go with each position, and managing multiple personalities always has its challenges. A mentality can develop that one employee thinks they can do another’s job better than them. Or they don’t think another employee works as hard or has as much work to do as them. This is a excellent time to be reminded to stay in your lane, within your organization. I know the idea of another team member trying to tell me how to do the various aspects of my position would infuriate me, and so I can imagine how a team member would feel on the receiving end. As a manager, I try very hard not to emphasize the process with which my team arrives at the desired result until and unless errors are occurring. In this way, I stay in my lane as a manager and avoid micromanaging.
Staying in your lane is also a tremendous encouragement to build out your professional network. I love being the person with the answers. And by being very intentional about how I expand my professional network, I am able to have even more answers – by having connections I can refer my clients to. You need an interior designer? A CPA specializing in environmental incentive programs? A probate or divorce attorney? A chiropractor? I’ve got you covered.
By staying in my lane and referring to another professional, my clients can still say, “Liz helped me with that.”
The last aspect of staying in your lane that I find helpful is that it allows an overthinker/anxious person like myself to relinquish control. Even if it’s something I know how to do and could very easily do myself, but it’s been delegated to someone else, I remind myself to stay in my lane and allow that person the ability to do the tasks in their lane. As you grow your business and learn (painfully, in my case) how to delegate and more importantly, respect that delegation, you might need frequent reminders. As we get to the end of the year, it becomes increasingly important to focus on what’s in your lane and know what you don’t know.
