As a business owner or leader you have had to wear many hats over the years; from selling to accounting, you have done it all. You may even take out the trash at the end of the day. However, trying to take care of everything can be harmful to your well-being and to your business.
It’s not always easy for highly driven entrepreneurs to give up the reigns. But for your company to grow and thrive, leaders need to learn the art of delegation. It is impossible for anyone to do all the things needed to run a growing organization on their own. It is simply asking for trouble and it builds in an inherent weakness into the business model.
Key Considerations to Artful Delegation
- Know what to delegate – having the ability to understand what you need to let go of and what the skills are of others around you is important.
- Find people who do what they do well and let them do it.
- Provide Clear Instructions - The key to successful delegation is being absolutely clear about what you are expecting for the outcome. The more time you invest in instructing, teaching, and giving clear and tangible feedback to the people you have trained, the greater the results you will get in the end.
- Master the art of asking how people are doing – Don’t be afraid to ask people how they are doing with their tasks.
- Different is not wrong - Doing a task a certain way may work for you, but it doesn’t mean that it’s the only way to do it
- Focus on what you have a passion for.
Don’t Delegate These:
- Your own issues and/or troubles
- Your job duties and responsibilities
The old adage is still true today, “Feed a man a fish, feed him for the day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime,”