The Art of Delegation

by Jonathan 

One of the most common pieces of wisdom quoted by coaches to owners of small busineses is to "work on your business not in it." This nearly always leads to a discussion about delegation - one of the key skills for any business owner.

Wikipedia defines delegation as 'the assignment of authority and responsibility to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities.'

Delegation will do three things for you:

1. Free up your time for longer term thinking.

2. Develop your team's skills.

3. Make the business bigger than you.

Many business owners make the mistake of trying to do everything and make every decision. The trouble is, this leaves little time to focus on growing your business.  It also leads to your more than capable team becoming incredibly frustrated at being micro managed. To relieve yourself and develop their skills you need to find a way to pass on the tasks that should be theirs.

A word of caution - if you are a typical entrepreneur then this won't be easy.

In case the above doesn't convince you, let me summarise - if you don't delegate:

Your business will stagnate.

Your best staff will leave.

Your remaining staff won't be good enough to delegate to.

OK so that's a bit tongue in cheek but I'm sure you get my point.

So what is delegation?

The art of delegation is all about giving your staff the authority to use their initiative. They become responsible for the outcome and you make it clear you expect them to act independently.  BUT (and it's a big but) you must never come down on them like a ton of bricks if it doesn't work out or if you would have done something different. Delegation demands a coaching style, you need to talk through the outcome, what went well and what could have gone better. By doing this they will learn from the experience and try again. Get this bit wrong and they will never let you delegate again. If you really do have a good team, they will care about doing a good job so it won't go horribly off track in the first place.

Five steps to better delegation

Next time you have a task land on your desk that you question whether you should be doing, ask yourself:

1. Is there someone else that could do this task as well or even better than me?

2. Does the success of the task depend on me? Be honest?

3. Will I be doing an employee a favour by delegating?

4. What's the upside to passing this on?

5. What's the downside to not passing it on?

I believe that every manager has successfully delegated at some point in their career but the key is to make it a habit. Try catching yourself out when you're about to not delegate and turn it around.

One last point - when delegation starts to become a habit you will find chunks of time opening up. Watch out for them as it's time for long term thinking (aka having a coffee).