Where is the fine line between being a dictator and being assertive? The latter means you know what you want while maintaining a firm but fair policy. In the business world, people who know what they want often have leadership experience. Not being sure of yourself isn’t necessarily a weakness if you’re willing to take on criticism that can help you. Plans and tasks can change at the drop of a hat. So how should your dictate without being a dictator?

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Update the underboss

If you don’t have a secondary employee directly underneath you, consider opening up this role. Every leader needs someone with whom they may confide in, and share tactics, plans, structures and the general direction of their goals. When you want something changed, you can’t always create a meeting for all employees or department heads to attend. However, if you have an executive whose ear you have at all times and elect them to be your voice of authority when you’re not around, changes of direction and sudden alterations of plans can take place quicker. Take for example if you’re in a meeting, one order of a product or service gets cancelled and another increases. You can’t attend to this right away, but giving the nod either way to your secondary can keep the ball rolling, and your meeting doesn’t have to stop.

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Consider a left-hand role

As opposed to a right-hand man who is your secondary, the left hand can be reserved for a personal assistant. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities of being a leader, consider a role for someone who can organize your daily business schedule. One of the benefits of having an assistant that at your beck and call is they can take down notes that you verbally command and write them up in readable documents. Different industries are making use of this kind of professional such as DATAMATRIX Medical, that uses professional transcribers to convert audio files into discernable data and notes.

Doctors have to make sure that their thoughts and actions for their patients are written down. However, with a dedicated smartphone app, they can simply speak their minds and then upload files to a virtual scribe. A professional writer will listen to the recording and carefully record notes, so the doctor has a tangible version of their patients’ records. Leaders in business can do much the same for their busy lifestyles by hiring a personal assistant.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners are not your average person. Their minds move at a mile a minute when they’re calculating different outcomes of their business decisions. Circumstances can change in an instant and you can’t always react to everything on your own. Having a right hand and left-hand person can mitigate loss of momentum and counterbalance all of your thoughts.