Are you ready to scale faster, develop your team, and improve your business performance while simultaneously freeing up time in your own life?! You may be thinking, “that sounds impossible. How can I improve my business and not add more to my plate?” Well, many leaders are not applying the essential skill of delegation and we are most definitely suffering as a result.
There’s a concept in mindfulness that encourages being rather than doing. In leadership, the encouragement is also away from doing and instead toward leading. Leaders should be focused on leading people, priorities, and projects, in that order. The primary function of a leader should be doing things through other people while developing those people, rather than doing those things themselves.
“Our companies shouldn’t stop when we do.
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As leaders, we need to be more essential and less involved. There are many questions we can ask ourselves to determine whether we are too involved but a very powerful one is to ask ourselves: ‘If you had to take an unexpected week off work, would your initiatives and priorities advance in your absence?’ If the answer is no or even maybe, we’ve got work to do. Our companies shouldn’t stop when we do.
If there’s one thing that’s been brought to the forefront of our minds over the last few years, it’s that our health cannot be ignored, and we do not get to decide when or whether we get sick or not. What we do need is to have the ability to take care of ourselves without the risk of our businesses crumbling while we heal and get the rest we need.
And, in truth, our businesses can only go so far if we hold onto too many tasks, and we will probably find both ourselves and our companies stuck without the ability to generate any or very limited forward momentum.
The good news is delegation is a learned skill. It requires practice, commitment, and an effective process. Whether we began in a startup wearing many hats or we were promoted for our high performance, this will undoubtedly be an adjustment. Outlined below is a suggested process for leaders to begin effectively delegating tasks. Feel free to adjust as you begin learning, applying, and mastering this skill:
Determine which tasks to delegate
It’s important to consider what not to delegate during this ideation process. It may be inappropriate to delegate any core duties of being a leader, which will vary from person to person. For example, compensation decisions or legal issues.
Identify the right person for the job
Delegation also has the secondary benefit of developing our teams. When we give our team more responsibility and decision-making authority, we are setting an example for great leadership and initiating a cycle in which, eventually, they too can become more essential and less involved.
Assign the task
Setting expectations and providing any necessary training is crucial. Even if the individual says they completely understand the task, it may be helpful to ask them to repeat back the task, its importance, and the related goals. This is not because we don’t trust them, but rather we want to set everyone up for success and make sure we are aligned.
Monitor progress and provide feedback
Finding the right balance between our level of involvement through check-ins will be important. This is going to vary so find out their style. We want to be very careful to prevent having full ownership of the task come back to us.
Evaluate performance
Once all is said and done, recognize that this is a work in progress. Apply any learnings to improve the process and this skill. Don’t give up right away and reabsorb the task because it may seem easier in the short run. I promise that you will thank me in the long run.
Make delegation your ally. We may have built up the stamina to work long, grueling hours, but it will eventually catch up to us. When we delegate, we raise the ceiling on what’s possible! NOW is the time to get started. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions on how you can learn to execute on this skill!