How do you learn the art of delegation?
??Sarah Yandell ??
Taking women with virtual teams from busy business owner to inspirational leader with the tried and tested B.U.I.L.D Framework | Multiple Business Owner | Kings Trust Mentor | MBA
What is Delegation?
Delegation is the act of entrusting tasks and authority to others to accomplish specific objectives, fostering productivity, skill development, and empowerment within an organisation. It reduces your workload, develops skills, and increases motivation within your team.
There are many reasons why delegation is so important.? The effect of poor delegation is very destructive and one of the main reasons along with running out of cash that most small businesses fail.?
So when done properly delegation will free up your time so you can concentrate on the things that only you can do which are related to the more strategic side of growing your business.? Delegation is also one of the best ways of motivating your team.? It builds new skills and gives them the opportunity to do more interesting and rewarding work.? As well as this, it gives them the opportunity to come up with their own ideas.? These are often better than your own as they are involved in the details of the work that you no longer are, so it is important to listen and adapt.
If you are interested in my FREE training on how to scale your business to 7 figures, you can access it here:
The Challenges of Delegation
New business owners often worry about delegating tasks, especially if they have not managed people before.
The fear of letting go is huge. They have a great business which they are running extremely well on their own and find it really hard to trust anyone, which is totally understandable.
You can do it better, which of course you can until you actually train someone else in those skills, and this is where the problem often lies - you may just not know how to do it.? It doesn’t come naturally to most but is a skill that has to be learned and can always be improved upon.? I was lucky to have had many years of managing teams before setting up my own business so learned many of these skills with the support of senior management.??
Of course, if you haven’t learned these skills it can be overwhelming - you feel out of control, frustrated that the work takes longer than when you do it, and don’t give your team long enough to learn.? You may fear that decisions are being made without your knowledge or even that they are better than you.? This is an important one, as in reality you and your team will have skills in different areas so they should be better than you in some ways.? What you have to be better at is leading the team which is your most important task if you want to grow the business.
The fear of letting go is huge. You have a great business that you are running extremely well on your own and find it really hard to trust anyone, which is totally understandable.
The Dangers of Micromanagement
We have probably all been micro-managed at some point in our careers.? I know I have, and it is incredibly frustrating; leading in my case to moving on pretty quickly.? The issue is often down to a lack of trust, and the unwillingness for any mistakes to be made.?
However, we all make mistakes and they are our greatest source of learning.? The important part is to learn from them.? By not taking any risks and maintaining tight authoritarian control over your team, productivity will be limited, your team will be unwilling to make decisions for themselves, fearing that any failure will be criticised.? This will of course lead to poor motivation, and stifled innovation and initiative.? But most importantly you will never be able to grow your business as you simply won't have the time or the team that you need to do so.
If you are interested in my FREE training on how to scale your business to 7 figures, you can access it here:
Building your Team
This is more important than anything else that you do in your business.? You may have a great product or service, a loyal customer base, and great systems and processes.? But these can all be done by your competitors too.? New entrants to the market with money to invest will take market share from you.? However, what they can’t do is quickly replicate your team.? Building a highly engaged team takes time and is a product of the relationships between all of the individuals in that team.? If a competitor is undercutting you on price, it is highly likely that they are not rewarding their team in the way you are, so will not get the results that you do, especially with building a loyal customer base.
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Five Levels of Delegation
Delegation doesn’t have to be all or nothing.? There is a lot to consider when choosing what to delegate and to whom. This will depend on the type of task, the team member, and the situation.
The Benefits of Effective Delegation
Well, firstly it means that the work is done by a team member capable of successfully completing it and allows you to have more time to concentrate on leadership functions.? It gives the right degree of freedom to the team members so that they are not over-supervised or given a task that they cannot complete without support. It also allows them to maximize their skills and knowledge development and reduces the? sources of conflict within the team
If you are interested in my FREE training on how to scale your business to 7 figures, you can access it here:
Work to Delegate
It is best to delegate low-leverage tasks.? These are routine, minor, and day-to-day jobs and can be done as well as you can. done better than you or will provide a challenge & and develop their skills.
High-leverage tasks should not be delegated as these require your personal attention as no one else has the authority or experience to do them.? You also need to be responsible for the long-term development of the team, in other words, leadership roles.? These include? planning, motivating the team, setting up a control and evaluation system, setting and agreeing on objectives, crafting the vision for the business, and creating a positive culture
Try and work to the 80/20 principle.? In other words, spend 80% of your time doing high-leverage tasks that are directly related to the future growth of the business and 20% on everything else.
Who should you delegate to?
The first thing you need to do is assess existing workloads; and then decide who you should delegate to.? There are two key criteria for delegation - do they have the task or knowledge experience needed to complete it and do they have the motivation and level of commitment needed to complete it to the standard needed.
This guide will help.? The beginner is new to the task but very motivated, the learner has some task knowledge but is not an expert,? The Regular has good task knowledge and medium motivation and the performer has full task knowledge and is fully motivated.
What to do if it doesn't work?
We are not always going to get it right.? Sometimes, however well we feel we know our team, they just don’t behave in the way that we expect.? If you find that members of your team don’t want to be delegated to, it is crucial that you find out what the underlying issues are through discussion so that you can agree upon a solution going forward.
There are a number of reasons why you may have missed the mark.? It may be that they just don’t want the responsibility.? You will need to uncover what lies behind this - it may be a lack of confidence which can be resolved with training or they just don't want to take it on in which case you shouldn’t force the issue.
Fear of failure is common.? Many people are happy in their comfort zone.? However, if you are able to support them with improving relevant skills, and give them plenty of encouragement, you may find that they move from being reluctant to being an exceptional member of the team as they will be pleased that they faced their fear which led them to more interesting and varied work.? Building confidence is an essential part of this.
They may be reluctant as they think that you should do it yourself.? This is a tricky one and will need an open discussion about how they feel about their role in the business and your plans for growth.? They will need to feel they are a valued member of the team, and you can’t do it without their full support.? Similarly, if they disagree with what is being done, you will need to go back over your vision and strategy for the business and give them the opportunity to put their views across.
They may feel that additional responsibility requires a pay rise. This will very much depend on the situation, and you may need to go back to your job description to see how the work being delegated relates to the original role they accepted.? Again, take it as an opportunity to discuss their future development and potential for rewards once some specific objectives have been met.
If you are interested in my FREE training on how to scale your business to 7 figures, you can access it here: