The Fine Melanie Bond in this image – one great client I am lucky to work with who is busy Delegating!
Being a true entrepreneur myself, when I first started I would continually reflect on how hard it can be for some to “Delegate”. This makes perfect sense to me in that when you first start your business, quite often the skills of “Taking Responsibility” and having to do the lot yourself is a critical requirement.
What I find very funny about this all (and quite ironic) is that the skills of doing the lot yourself is what makes you “Originally Successful” but as you grow it has to be upgraded to incorporate “Intelligent Delegation”.
Including myself at the start, many business owners and afraid (and quite reasonably) of delegation. The reason why I think people have that fear is because of the distortion of what delegation actually is in the marketplace. If you look at the definition on Wikipedia it says:
– Delegation (or passing down) is the partnership of authority and not responsibility to another person (normally from a manager to a subordinate) to carry out specific activities.
This makes perfect sense to me in that you give the task to someone supporting you / working for you – but you are still responsible for the outcomes. Donald Trump in one of his fine books said “The Buck Stops with Me” and oh boy – I think that is some sound advice.
Where I think people have trouble with this concept is that you have a lot of so called “Information” out there which isn’t really sound advice. Strategies that teach you how to make 6-Figures with less than 5 hours of week of work, motivational speakers that claim visualizing will give you everything you want and even better – the general view that the “World Owes you” and it’s all just easy if you just “Believe so”.
This “Get Rich Quick Mentality” led to my original demise before succeeding in my own business and I have personally watched many go down with this lazy type of thinking. Don’t get me wrong, I do 6 figures myself – and it takes lots of hard work! The strategies to do work, but it takes work.
So going back to what effective delegation is. To me, it’s reasonably passing on activities to subordinates and ensuring it’s done well. A top means of segmenting what is required that I preach to myself and my awesome clients are:
– What Must be Delegated: Usually routine stuff that is a waste of your valuable time.
– What Should be Delegated: Tougher to decide, things that should really be moved on.
– What Should not Be Delegated: If it’s complex or just requires your personal touch perhaps.
– What Must not Be Delegated: Critical items, e.g. Planning, Direction and Prestige Clients – keep to yourself!
These are samples above and may I suggest that if you are just too busy doing “Low Level Jobs” then it may be time to delegate / outsource. The worst thing you can do however is just hand-over the lot. That is not delegation, that is crazy talk!
My advice – consider simple tasks that you can delegate and then monitor it’s being done correctly. Take it slow, focus your time on what matters and enjoy it!
Hope you enjoy this fine post of mine, and of course if you want to learn more check out “The Awesome Marketing Vault” full of fine business knowledge by yours truly.
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