5 Reasons to Delegate More Work

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"No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit"

- Andrew Carnagie

Marilyn runs a corporate gifts company. If you have a very important client you want to impress, Marilyn is your go-to for gift baskets with beautifully curated items. Over the years she built up her reputation as an excellent service provider and had a long list of orders that kept her constantly busy. In fact, she was so busy that she was not getting any rest or taking any vacations. Even though she loved her job, she realized she was getting burnt out and decided to hire some staff to help.?

When asked about their first few weeks on the job, Marilyn described it as “frustrating”. Why? “They always seem to select the wrong ribbon colors or put together odd combinations of items in gift baskets. Who puts a can of sardines in a basket with champagne?”. As a perfectionist who took great pride in her work, it was initially difficult for her to let go and assign responsibility for tasks to her new hires. However, she understood that properly onboarding her team and reassigning some of the workload would eventually be worthwhile.?Soon enough, she trained her team and was able to take more time off because she trusted her team to deliver.

The ability to delegate effectively is what separates the good managers from the bad. A good manager needs to trust their team and not let their ego get in the way.??

Here are 5 reasons to delegate:

1. It Increases Your Impact and Boosts Your Reputation as a Leader

It doesn’t matter how great you are at something - there are only 24 hours in a day. If you insist on being directly involved in everything, then there is an absolute limit on what you can achieve. Doing work that does not contribute to your top KPIs distracts you from accomplishing the tasks that should be your priority. It also frustrates employees who are perfectly capable of doing the work - and who should be doing it. If you want a more productive team, you need to let them take on responsibilities that let them grow and develop on the job. Give them advice and offer help if they get stuck or have questions, but also give them the opportunity to find creative solutions. When you give your people a chance to show what they can do, you significantly increase output and give employees room to shine - which reflects well on you, too.?

2. It's Your Job to Develop and Grow People

Training is great, but it’s through practice that we get to really hone our skills and master them. If the best manager you ever had encouraged you to take on new challenges and then helped you meet those challenges, shouldn’t you do the same? When you delegate, you give people an opportunity to try new tasks, take on more ownership and responsibility and this is what helps them grow and develop not only in their current role, but also for their next role. Though it may seem easier in the short-term to just do a task yourself, rather than develop the skills of your employees, this? only expands your workload and leaves employees with few challenges or opportunities to learn new skills thereby leading to employee disengagement.

3. It Builds Trust With Your Employees?

One of the most disastrous things a supervisor can do is micromanage their employees. Yes, if a certain protocol or procedure needs to be followed, you need to ensure employees understand why it's so important that things be done a certain way. However, if you are constantly looking over your employee's shoulder, you are not sending a good message.

If you delegate to your team members and remain open for questions, they will feel that you trust them and that you are accessible. Trust is essential in the manager-employee relationship, and nothing kills trust like micromanaging. If your employees feel that you trust them and that they can talk to you, you will benefit immeasurably. A team built on trust, open communication, and constant feedback is a team poised for success.

4. It Frees You Up to Work on Bigger Things

Having too much on your plate is not only difficult for you, it can be disastrous for your team. If you don’t have room to grow, how are you going to position yourself for promotion into a bigger role, or free yourself up for new opportunities?? The answer is you cannot - you have made yourself a prisoner of your current role. When you delegate, you can put systems in place to check in with employees and make sure projects are on the right track.This could take the form of regular one-on-one meetings, team meetings, or even an online project management system. No matter how busy you are, there is always time for a 5-minute check-in. Sometimes a quick update can help catch issues before they snowball into larger problems. In the meantime, you can then focus on more strategic opportunities to succeed.

5.? It Fosters a Collaborative Work Environment

Large projects are usually divided up amongst multiple people, with many elements that need to be completed. For everything to work smoothly, every member of the team has to work together towards a common goal. If you just keep doing things the way you have always done, there will be no opportunity for new ideas, process improvements, or potential innovations. If employees feel empowered to accomplish delegated tasks in their own way, they become very creative and driven to succeed. Their personal initiative and the desire to reach the goal you have set before them improves collaboration and can produce impressive results.

Still finding it hard to delegate? Simply remind yourself that delegating is a win-win situation. Your employees win because they get chances to grow and develop. Your company wins because they get more output, increased retention and better engaged employees.?

In summary: Learn to share the load. Once you start delegating, you help develop future leaders and become a better leader yourself.

Isioma Utomi is CEO of Catalyst Experience Solutions and founder of The Performance Upgrade Lab for women entrepreneurs. She is passionate about helping?people be successful and building sustainable businesses.

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