August 25, 2015 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Delegation
3 Reasons to Get Better at Delegating
By Henry Lopez
The growth and success of your business, not to mention your health and happiness, depends to a great extent on your ability to delegate effectively and consistently. Delegating frees you up to focus on what’s most important, what you are best at, and to spend time away from your business. It also utilizes the strengths of your team and their unique abilities, builds a stronger organization.
Why is it that we hesitate to delegate and why are we often so poor at it? Perhaps it’s because we think we can do it better than anyone else. Most small business owners are obsessed about control, and have had to do it all themselves at some point to get to where they are today. You understand best what you want and the results you are looking for, and the truth is, sometimes you are the “best” at it. But to grow and have time to enjoy your life, you must learn to delegate effectively.
Perfectionism is also partly to blame for undermining our ability to delegate. Delegating also takes time, energy, effort and a process to do it effectively. Always remember that it’s a process. Be prepared for and expect that you will not always be successful on your first attempts at delegating.
Refusing to delegate to your team members can lead to frustration, confusion, and often fails in the end because you never find the time to complete the task yourself. Nothing gets done because you are waiting until you can do it “perfectly”. Instead, you should try to focus on the “good enough” (80% rule), and continue improving your delegation skills.
Here are three reasons why you need to get better at delegating.
- Get more done in less time.
By delegating certain tasks and projects, you can focus on what’s most important and what you are best at. Initially it may take more time to delegate, but as you get better at it and you implement and execute a system, you will begin to reap the rewards. Your team also needs to learn how to own these delegated assignments, but once they understand the system then they are free to add their value to the task and to help you grow your business.
Focusing on where you add the most value and delegating to others means you have more time off from the business. That time off in turn keeps you energized and focused on managing and growing your business.
TIP: There are three types of tasks to consider delegating: things you don’t like to do, what you are not good at, and tasks that don’t move your business forward or are not strategic.
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Leverage the skills, strengths and great ideas of others.
One of the big surprise benefits of delegating effectively is that you get great ideas and input from those to whom you delegate. We may think we are the only ones who can get something done perfectly, but the truth is that if you have a competent team of people they will come up with ideas and approaches to solving a problem you may never have thought of. If you have not built a strong complimentary team of employees, consultants, or utilizing crowd sourcing, then you are limiting your growth by not fully leveraging them and their unique ideas.
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Develop your team.
Delegation is perhaps one of the most important business leadership skills and you should strive to get better at it every day. When done correctly, it saves you time and develops and fully leverages your team. Through delegation of not just of menial administrative tasks, but important and meaningful tasks and projects, you can teach your team members new skills and give them the opportunity to develop themselves and achieve their personal goals as well as those of the company. A good team should be eager for these challenges and for an opportunity to demonstrate their skills and talents.
If you want to continue being frustrated with too much work and not enough growth, then by all means, keep trying to do it all yourself. If you want to do great things and grow your business, however, then learn to delegate effectively. As with any other skill, it takes dedicated effort, patience and a system to make significant improvements and reap the benefits.
Now ask yourself these couple of questions:
- What are the real reasons why I am not good at delegating?
- What tasks can I consider delegating today?
Henry Lopez has over 34 years of diverse business experience, including successful careers in the information technology industry, sales, sales training and business ownership. In addition to Levante Business Group, he is also currently co-owner of iTopIt (a self-serve frozen yogurt restaurant with two locations in Colorado Springs), and L3 Destinations.
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