As a small business owner, you’re probably driven, ambitious, and used to doing everything yourself. You’re the head of sales and marketing, customer service rep, administrator, and more. But if you’re spending your days doing the small stuff, how will your business ever grow? 

Trying to take care of every detail yourself can be exhausting and detrimental to your health. You’ll soon find yourself feeling burnt out and wondering why you ever bothered setting up a business in the first place.

So what is the answer?

You have to learn to let go by delegating effectively. Delegating the right things to the right people can make your employees more capable and engaged, and it frees you up to focus on the important things that will grow your business.

What gets in the way of effective delegation?

Delegating the wrong things

If you only delegate tasks you find boring or onerous, employees will realise it, and it will affect their opinion of you. They’ll also be less motivated.

You’re setting impossibly high standards.

If you believe that no one on earth could do a task as well as you, how is an employee who is given this task supposed to feel? Don’t set someone up for failure by setting standards too high.

A lack of commitment

If you rule by fear, employees will do what you say because you’re the boss, after all. But what you’ll get then is a team of unmotivated employees who only do the bare minimum that is required. If employees are engaged and committed to you and the business, however, they’ll actually want to do a good job. Build good relationships with your employees, give them a reason to trust and respect you, and see the difference for yourself.

The art of delegation

Follow these steps to delegate effectively, inspire and motivate your team, and help your business grow.

Learn to let go

Decide what you need to delegate

Let go of the ‘if you want something done, do it yourself’ mentality. If you find this virtually impossible, start small by delegating a task that’s not hugely important. Once you see that the task is completed successfully and the world doesn’t stop turning without you being involved, you’ll feel more confident when delegating other tasks.

Think about the endless tasks you do daily or week to week that keep you busy and keep you from being effective and growing your business. Think about the things that often don’t need particular expertise, like admin tasks, and delegate them to an employee or outsource them if you can afford it. If tasks require specialist knowledge and skills that you don’t technically need to do yourself, like bookkeeping or taxes, it’s better to hire a professional who will keep things on track for you.

Decide who you’re going to delegate to

Choose an employee who is the best fit for the task in terms of skills, competence, and attitude. Think about who you can trust to get a job done. Explain to them why the task needs doing, why you have chosen them, and how they feel about doing it.

Give clear instructions

Be clear on when the task needs to be done and the outcome you expect. Remember that the kind of instructions you need to give will depend on how capable and experienced your employee is.

Check that your instructions have been understood.

Part of the reason small business owners are afraid to delegate is that they fear employees will make mistakes and end up doing tasks themselves anyway. Reduce the risk of misunderstandings and errors by asking your employees if they have any questions or need anything clarifying.

Allow your employees to make decisions and contribute ideas

Delegating tasks is an opportunity for your employees to increase their skills. Allowing them to make decisions and contribute ideas on improving tasks empowers and motivates them. Be sure to delegate, not dump. Dumping tedious or arduous tasks on employees will have the opposite effect on their motivation.

Remember that delegation is an investment.

You may think that explaining tasks to employees and supervising them is time wasted when you could just do something yourself, but you need to take a long-term view. The more time you spend giving instructions and feedback to employees now, the better it will be for your business and for you in the long run.

Delegation may not come naturally to you, but if you want your business and employees to grow and you want the freedom that comes with working for yourself, it’s an art worth mastering.

If you need support and help with delegation, then book a call to discuss requirements.