Why You Should Work on Your Business, Not in Your Business

Delegation is Paramount to Success

Recently, I became manager to my local football team and I have found that my delegation skills from work have come in useful. Because of this I find myself taking a bit of stick, being called ‘Chief Delegator’ or even ‘lazy’ but then can be no further from the truth. I know it’s light-hearted banter but I have to say that I strongly disagree. Here is a couple of articles with regards to grafting and being lazy you should read:

https://www.fatrank.com/road-to-failure-lame-excuse-too-busy/

https://www.fatrank.com/take-action-you-create-your-own-luck/

Being able to delegate tasks is the sign of a good manager - it has been proven that a team functions better when the manager can spend time on physically developing the team rather than working within it. A valuable leader isn’t one who can do everything, it’s someone who knows what everybody can do and getting them to do it. Richard Branson doesn’t know how to fly one of his planes and despite this he runs a successful airline. I highly recommend reading this article - Five reasons you need to delegate your way to success

Key points of delegation

Delegation and setting systems in place is the key to sustaining success. To successfully grow a business you have to try and take a step back from the day-to-day running of it . This will free up valuable time to allow you to focus on running strategies that make your team function more efficiently. To be able to delegate effectively you have to be able to delegate some of the truly important work that you do. Delegation is a risk; what happens if your team member gets it wrong? How much would that cost you in monetary terms and reputation? Whatever that short term cost may be, I guarantee it will be nothing compared to the long term effects your business will suffer if you insist on having to micromanage every aspect of it. If you delegate successfully you’ll never come across this problem if you do come across it, you may need to look at your training procedures and your strategy so that it doesn’t happen again. 

If a one-off task will only take you 15 minutes to do but would take 2 hours to train someone to do, then do it yourself. If that same task is going to be come up again and again it makes sense to invest in the 2 hours training. This is effective delegation; knowing how to effectively use your time. Here are eight key points to smart delegation:

1. Set goals - Make a list of the tasks you do each week. Pick out the most important task and assign it Number One. Then, pick out the second most important task and give it the Number Two and so on and so on until you have numbered all the tasks. Then, split the list in half by ranking. The bottom half will be tasks that you will delegate to someone else. Set times against these goals and create the in depth training your staff will need to complete those tasks.

2. Select the strengths of your staff - You need to assign your tasks to the correct staff for this to work effectively. They really need to understand what it is that is required of them and enjoy doing it, so play to their strengths. Review each person in your organisation and decide who is ready to take on more responsibility. By determining what skills each person has you can give them the work that is most appropriate to them. This will not only motivate them but it will also make them more creative, they will accomplish more and perform better. Good managers can inspire their staff by explaining how integral they are to the businesses success. 

3. Communicating your message - In my opinion, this is the single most important factor of delegation. If anything goes wrong I only have myself to blame, the problem lies squarely with me. Be certain that you get across in detail what you expect, but be less clear about how you expect it to get there. Using this method, people use their own initiative and they usually find a more effective process than you had in mind to begin with. Discuss these ideas with them, ask for regular updates, arrange a secondary meeting where these ideas can be revised and finalised. This way, you can be sure that there is a timeline in place, that people know exactly what is expected of them, and that the plan will run according to schedule.

4. Develop and improve - If you think that your stand operating procedures (SOP’s) are going to be perfect on the first time of asking, you’re deluded. Regularly check with the people you are delegating to to see if they need additional training, ask if they can think of ways to do their job more efficiently or increase productivity. Technology changes so quickly that as soon as one skill is learned it may be replaced overnight by the next version, so you always, always need to keep track of this. Managers must be willing to listen and learn or they will lose their most talented people to a competitor through sheer neglect. All it takes is a little communication and willingness to respond to others ideas.

5. Keep the Faith - Naturally, things do go wrong sometimes. Even with the best system and will in the world, little hiccups from time to time are an inevitability. Keep the faith that delegation will work but when things do go wrong, then revisit points 3 and 4 on this list. Let the staff know that you are available if they need help and that you will do everything within your power to make them successful. Checking in with them afterwards to let them know you have their back is never a bad thing either.

6. Don’t chase perfection - Your objective is to get the job done, not create a masterpiece. Perfection is impossible to attain, so establish a standard of quality and a timeframe and once you have laid out these expectations, let your staff decide how to carry out the project. Perfection is the enemy of progress.

7. Indepth standard operating procedures - Make sure your employee has all the information they need to complete the job and confirm that they understand what is required of them. 

8. Say ‘Well done’ - Motivating staff and making sure they are well rewarded with a ‘Well done’ or a ‘Thank You’ goes a long way. Make sure employees know that their efforts are recognised and appreciated.

 Create more time to synergise 

Spending less time in the office frees up time for you to synergise with others. A great example of this is a friend of mine who has just taken on someone at work as he was a sole trader and couldn’t believe the impact it had. He said they now get through four times as much work as he did when he was on his own. You see? Synergy really does work!

Outsourcing and delegating are vital if you want to business to grow. Using the 80/20 rule helps massively with this. This is where you get rid of the worst 20% of your clients so that you are never at 100% capacity and have no room to grow.

Invest in your staff

I cannot stress the importance of this enough. Setting up SOP’s for your employees is great but I also like to take the time to explain to them what and why they are doing this work as it helps them to understand the importance of it. This allows them to identify any potential shortfalls and highlight and deal with them as they come along. If your staff expand their knowledge and development with the business this gives them the potential to be promoted and to train other new starters as they come along. Help your staff to help you.

Why delegating is a must for myself

If you have read my Digital Nomad Life Lessons blog, you’ll know that I love to travel. Freeing up my time to think allows me to create better, more efficient strategies to delegate and outsource work. 

In the first couple of years when I was first starting out I wore many hats, purely because I wasn’t in a position to pay anyone else to do it for me. However, I soon realised that if I wanted my company to go places my job needed to be running the business, and that meant delegating things to other people.

You need good people around you; you need them to be able to come to you with a problem and speak honestly, to provide input and advice. These are the kinds of people that make your company grow, so take care of them and develop them.

Plan for working on (not working in) the business

To expand your business you need to put systems in place that allow you to take a step back personally but two steps forward professionally. When you have a small team it’s still fairly easy to stay involved with the day-to-day running, but if you want your baby to grow, like every good parent you have to stand aside and let it develop. ‘The E Myth Revisited’ is a fantastic book and a personal favourite of mine. Watch the video below for more information and inspiration:

This article perfectly shows that managing 105 employees was easier than managing 5 employees because it allowed him time to work on marketing, new opportunities, networking and travelling. The article highlights the issues that can arise from being a ‘doer’ to an executive. Here’s a brief list of the main points:

1. You - You really have to want to get out of doing the day-to-day stuff. It will require taking you out of your comfort zone, learning new things and unlearning a lot more. Start by prioritising your workload and offsetting less important workloads to others.

2. Hiring - If you don’t learn how to hire the right people, you will continue to chase your tail.

3. Standards - A company’s expectations can be determined by what expectations a company places on itself. Standards should be well thought out and communicated to everybody within the company. If standards slip, so will your client base.

4. Training - Don’t expect people to just figure it out for themselves. If you do, expect a lot of messed up orders, angry customers and a bad reputation. Challenge your staff to develop and overcome problems that might naturally occur in the workplace. Let them know your expectations so they can implement them without confusion and keep the business running smoothly.

5. Systems, procedures, planning and tools - There are ways to avoid mistakes and to be more efficient and effective. If something does go wrong, think what you could have done to avoid it happening.

6. The wrong people - Your employees have rich and varied talents and by taking a genuine interest in them you will inspire loyalty which will pay you rich dividends. Sometimes though it doesn’t work out, sometimes a bad hiring can have a negative impact on your entire team. Remove them from the equation and restore the sense of harmony. Is there anyone working for you that you would be happy to see quit?

7. Delegation - This one is pretty obvious doesn’t it, but delegation will only work if you have the right people around you. It’s hard delegating a task that you know you could do better yourself, but you can’t do everything and it’s all about freeing yourself up to manage the company better.

8. Compensation - It’s difficult to run a smooth operation if you’re constantly losing good people. What’s your turnover rate/ Do you pay enough, respect them enough and provide a pleasant working environment for them?

9. Feedback - If you surround yourself with Yes Men and Women, you’re in trouble. You need people who will tell you the truth and bring you back down to earth. There’s a difference between being scared of the boss and being so scared of them that you can’t tell them when something isn’t going right. Being approachable will bring respect and a sense of camaraderie as everyone feels as though they have a common cause. By being able to have the guts to tell you you’re just plain wrong, your staff form a powerful bond of trust with you and this will be reflected in their work efforts.

10. You. Again! - I have learned that there is such a thing as being too big for your boots. It can be liberating for ambitious people to realise that they have limitations - it’s really okay to admit that keeping it small is where you function the best

11. Don’t blame staff, blame yourself - If you find yourself getting mad at employees all the time all you’re doing is wasting energy and making morale low for everybody, especially the ones that never get shouted at. There are three reasons this happens 1) you haven’t trained your staff properly, 2) you have some people that should be working in a different job, or 3) you think that everyone should think like you.

Growing the business

Just as you can over-parent you can do the same thing to your company. I’ve been in the position where my staff were more than capable of doing it on their own but I found it hard to let go. The thing is, if you hold on too tightly it doesn’t grow. It takes a group of people to move an organisation forward not just the person that owns it. Great owners understand that they don’t have all the answers so they need to synergise with staff that will provide them with those answers.

Watch the video below about the three financial paths, as this expertly explains why delegation is so important if you’re going to make a success of yourself.

Being an effective leader

When you get bogged down in details that your staff could be working on, you are not being an effective leader for them. All the time that you are micromanaging you’re not actually running your business, you’re just sustaining it. Your job as leader is solving problems, delegating tasks, setting goals and thinking and planning for the future.

The only person who will be genuinely motivated to grow your company is you. You’ll soon realise that only you can do the job of running your business to your liking. It may take some getting used to but by delegating the more minor tasks to your employees they will appreciate the trust and responsibility you give to them. This is the real key to success. Work on your business, not in your business. 

Are you too involved?

It’s all too easy to slip back into old habits to make sure a deadline is met or to keep a promise, but as an owner you cannot afford to make the mistake of becoming complacent in this. You are in charge of the big picture, and if you want to work as an effective leader then these are the only things that you should be working on day-to-day, everything else can be delegated:

• Looking at problem areas and how they could be improved.
• Setting more SOP’s so staff understand the workload better.
• Training staff and spending time with them to develop and improve.
• Marketing why you have the edge on your computers and expressing this through targeted media channels.
• Planning your strategy and the monthly targets you need the business to grow into.
• Realise that accepting or seeking help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength and leadership.
• Networking and synergising with customers and even competitors.

One size doesn’t fit all

Delegating and building your team is one of the hardest things you will ever do. Trying to get them into the same mentality as you is difficult enough, especially if you find it difficult to stop getting your hands dirty and backing off. Having a multi-million pound isn’t for everyone, sometimes a small company with low amounts of stress is the way to go. It all depends on how you define ‘success’.

I have learned the hard way that working 7 days a week and 18 hour shifts is not healthy. You need a fine balance in your life and delegation has definitely been key to my own personal success. By success, I mean I am able to travel, to spend quality time with family and friends and to live a Digital Nomad lifestyle that allows me to work wherever I like.

If you do not know much about my past or career before reading this I would suggest reading these articles:

https://www.fatrank.com/james-z-dooley-seo-enthusiast-introduction/

https://www.fatrank.com/why-become-an-seo/

Let me know your thoughts?

You struggling to do this yourself at present?

You tried it and delegating did not work for you?

Or you want to touch base and ask questions then fire away and I will respond to every comment submitted?