One of the hardest things for many entrepreneurs to learn as their companies grow is delegation. Yes, you can learn to do it yourself, but doing everything yourself is a huge limitation. To grow a business, you must let go. Reward yourself and start by delegating work you do not enjoy and are not good at.
Letting go does not mean abdication, it means leading. Here are a few tips –
What to delegate
Delegate work that you are not particularly good at.
Why struggle with something that someone else would love to do?
Delegate work that must be done but does not drive the business.
Two areas that often qualify are accounting and routine HR (hiring key people is not routine).
Delegate work that can be done much cheaper elsewhere.
Outsourcing, even international outsourcing, is a fact of life.
How to delegate
- Look for talented people whose strengths match the job that needs to be done.
- Set clear expectations about deliverables, timelines, and quality (milestones). You or someone else may need to train and mentor the person.
- Develop written steps, templates, processes. Videos made on zoom or other services are an alternative that can work quite well also.
- Do not micromanage. Their qualifications and approach will be different than how you would do it. Focus on if clients are happy (internal or external) and if work is getting done. Do take the time for reasonable reviews, particularly while training.
- Monitor that milestones are met. Always have clear conversations about what is working and not working after reviewing milestones.
- Sometimes it will not work out. If this happens, see if you can move the person to another job more aligned with their strengths. Sometimes it is clear the person will never work out. In that case kindly give them the opportunity to find new employment. Delay never makes it easier.
Welcome to leadership.