By Andy Bailey, an EO Nashville member and president of Petra/Rock Habits

If you want it done right, do it yourself. 
If that is your mantra, hard work may have gotten you where you are, but hard work without smart work will inevitably cause your business to plateau and maybe even crumble.

Here are three good reasons why you should stop micromanaging and focus on working smarter:

1. Your business will thrive: Micromanaging monopolizes time that could be spent working on your business rather than in it. When you’re constantly in your business, your day-to-day operations are reactive instead of proactive. Stop micromanaging and get in the driver’s seat.
2. Your employees will be happier:90 percent of employees included in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Great Places to Work survey, in the small to middle market category, say management trusts them without constantly looking over their shoulders. Happy employees produce better work and will stay with your company longer.
3. Your employees will improve: When you fail to empower your team members to use their own brains, you handicap them. They’ll never learn to do anything themselves. You must delegate. Yes, it’s tough in the beginning as your team goes through inevitable growing pains, but it’s a short-term sacrifice for a long-term investment. In fact, your team members may even prove to do the job better than you did—and that’s a good thing.

I’m not suggesting you don’t manage at all. I’m recommending you take the first four steps to stop micromanaging.

Learn how you can grow your business by taking the first steps to stop micromanaging…