Everyone knows that, as an entrepreneur, you need to juggle a lot of hats and do almost every trick to ensure business growth. It’s one of the hallmark attributes of a small business leader.
There’s a point where taking on every task under the sun begins to turn against you, however. You can quickly get overwhelmed, things can get delayed, and if the situation gets bad enough, it can begin to sabotage your entire business.
That’s where delegating comes in. As a small business grows, it’s absolutely essential that leaders learn to delegate various responsibilities in order to scale their operations and eventually find long-term success.
What Does “Delegate” Even Mean?
While the term “delegate” is thrown around quite a bit, it’s helpful to slow down and consider what it means in the first place. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of delegate literally reads as “to assign responsibility or authority”. If you’re looking for a more business-focused definition, Inc.com explains the term in the following way: “Delegation is the practice of turning over work-related tasks and/or authority to employees or subordinates”.
While there isn’t a universal formula when it comes to precisely how to delegate, these definitions provide the heart and purpose behind the term. Delegating consists of passing off a job, a task, or a responsibility to someone else so that you don’t have to do it.
Before you start blindly assigning your entire workload to others, however, it’s important to realize that properly delegating work isn’t simply dumping off unwanted or excess tasks onto a staff member. Real delegating is strategic in nature. It aims to improve your business’s chance of success and requires important elements between you and your employees including trust, communication, and collaboration.
It also requires a willingness to abstain from micromanaging the situation once you’ve passed off a duty to another. If you can’t let them genuinely take over the responsibility, you’re likely to undermine the effectiveness of the delegating behavior in the first place.
Delegating also requires a humbleness on the part of the delegator. This includes a willingness to get out of your comfort zone. You must develop an inner confidence that quiets your insecurities, understands what you want, and recognizes that delegating tasks will help you achieve your goals.
What Does Delegating Look Like?
While the concept of delegating responsibilities is fairly straightforward in nature, it’s worth taking a moment to break down just what delegating looks like when it’s put into action. There are a few different ways that delegating can take place:
● Giving tasks to employees: This is the classic picture that most people have when they think of delegating. It consists of taking mundane or simple yet bothersome tasks and passing them off to an employee so that you can focus on other things.
● Hiring professionals: Occasionally you may run into a task that no one in your company can handle easily. For instance, if you run a chain of coffee shops, you may find that neither you nor your current employees are able to handle payroll. In this case, you may need to hire an accountant and delegate the financial work to him.
● Going to a third-party: While this option is often defined separately from delegating, outsourcing a task to a professional agency or freelancer is still very much an act of delegating. Say, for instance, as the above coffee shop owner you have a website where you sell artisan coffee beans. Hiring a freelance writer may be a great way to delegate the task of creating content for your site.
There are many forms that delegation can take, but most of them fall under these three categories.
The Benefits of Delegating
Delegating isn’t just a nice way for a business owner to get a break. It’s one of the most essential skills that all entrepreneurs must learn to use. There are many different perks that come with delegating tasks, some of which benefit you, your employees, and your business as a whole.
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You can’t do everything.
You’ll have to learn to ask for help from other people if you want to succeed.