Does running your business ever feel like an endless game of whack-a-mole? Just when you start making progress, another team question, Slack ping, or “quick question” pops up, pulling you away from your work. Instead of actually moving things forward, you spend your days answering messages, putting out fires, and trying to keep everything from slipping through the cracks.
It can be exhausting—and it’s unsustainable.
Here’s a simple solution that can streamline your entire business: Instead of being directly available to everyone on your team, have one right-hand person you communicate with (e.g. an OBM) who then communicates with everyone else.
This is something I recommend to all of my consulting clients and teach in my Team Empowerment Program. At first glance, it might seem less efficient to have a point person acting as the go-between for all communication, but the opposite is true. Here’s why:
1. It protects your time and keeps you focused.
Imagine checking one inbox or message thread instead of juggling updates from multiple team members. With an OBM as your point person, they act as a filter—able to handle a majority of the day-to-day questions before they ever reach your desk. And the ones that do come your way have been escalated to you, so you’re only getting the messages that truly need your attention.
Having one right-hand person handling most of the daily communication allows you to focus on high-level decisions and your most important work without constant interruptions or context switching.
2. Your OBM becomes ingrained in every aspect of your business.
When your OBM is the hub of communication, they have their finger on the pulse of both sides of the business—your CEO-level vision and the team’s execution. This means better alignment, fewer misunderstandings, and someone who can spot issues before they even happen.
As your point person, your OBM can quickly learn how to think like you, make decisions on your behalf, and have a deeper understanding of the business as a whole. Over time, they become an extension of you—allowing you to delegate with confidence and free up even more of your time and mental energy.
3. Fewer things get dropped.
As the CEO, you don’t always know how a single request impacts multiple moving parts. When you assign something directly to a team member, it’s easy for things to get missed—especially if other tasks are affected that you’re unaware of.
An OBM, with their bird’s eye view, ensures nothing slips through the cracks. They know how one request affects multiple projects and team members (or why the request might actually not be a good idea to implement) and can make adjustments accordingly, preventing miscommunication and last-minute scrambles.
Having them as the point person keeps the entire team organized (including you!) and creates more consistency and clarity in your operations.
At this point I know you might be thinking, “But Megan, I love my team and don’t want to cut them off.”
I get it—and you don’t have to. As the leader of the company, it’s still important to communicate and have connection points with your full team. But that doesn’t mean you need to be the go-to person for all things, every day, for every team member.
So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed or tasks keep falling through the cracks and you aren’t sure why, consider having a single point-person for your team communication. It’s not about adding unnecessary layers of complexity—it’s about creating clarity and space for you to focus on growing your business.
