One problem that I find when visiting business owners is that they want to grow their businesses, but have limited time to do so…. and they are trying to do everything themselves. Often the answer is …delegation
It is so important in any business to delegate. Learning how and when to delegate is the key to success.
Some reasons why people don’t, won’t or can’t delegate are:
- They dont have time to figure out what needs to be delegated
- Lack of trust – ‘only I can do it’
- Perfectionism
- The perceived loss of control
Delgating to others makes good time-management sense. Giving others a chance to take responsibility for work you never get to is a way that they can show how they can ‘shine’; whilst giving you more time.
How can you start to improve your delegation skills:
- Write down the work that is your least important activities, tasks and responsibilities
- Using this list think about who could be doing these tasks, who would be suitable (and no its not always you!), who would love the opportunity to show you what they can do.
- Create a written procedure for the repetitive and routine tasks.
- Delegate it to the staff member you have chosen.
- Most importantly – give accurate feedback to your staff member. Start praising them for their contribution and how you could work together to improve the task.
True delegation comes from allowing yourself to ‘let go’. Once you’ve achieved this you’ll never look back…. but remember – when you “delegate”, don’t “abdicate”. Make sure you support the team member and follow through with them to ensure they fully understand and can properly fulfill those tasks, and actually do them.
Have a delegation week!
Building Systems Into your business
