Mastering the Art of Delegation // A Guide for Small Business Owners
Delegation is a crucial if you're looking to scale your business. Effective delegation allows you to focus on high-impact activities while empowering your team to take on more responsibilities.
Let's dive into 5 tips to help you delegate with ease.
Identify the Right Tasks to Delegate
One of the most important steps in effective delegation is identifying which tasks to delegate. Start by making a list of all the tasks you handle on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Then, categorize these tasks into three groups:
High-Impact Tasks: These are strategic tasks that directly contribute to business growth and require your expertise and decision-making. These are usually directed at sales and business development, and you will probably need to keep these tasks.
Routine Tasks: These are repetitive tasks that can be handled by someone else with minimal training. Tasks like invoicing, onboarding new clients, reports, etc.
Developmental Tasks: These are tasks that can provide growth opportunities for your team members when delegated. These might be around the tech you use, or finding new opportunities for services, market research, etc.
We as business owners many times keep tasks either because we don't want to give up the control, or we don't want to bother our team with the menial tasks. I will tell you honestly, you can not scale unless you give up control and learn to rely on your team.
Choose the Right People
Successful delegation depends on matching the right tasks with the right people. Consider the strengths, skills, and interests of your team members when assigning tasks. Here are some questions to guide you:
Who has the necessary skills and experience for this task?
Who has shown an interest in learning this type of work?
Who has the capacity to take on additional responsibilities?
I love aligning tasks with my team members' strengths and around the things they want to learn, and how they want to grow. This helps them work efficiently, as it's in their zone of genius and gives them ownership.
Sometimes you will determine someone is not in the right seat, or not right for your team, if that happens my general rule is hire slowly and fire quickly. If you are a small business, you do not have the time or money for team members not pulling their weight. This is not mean, it's necessary. And they can probably feel they aren't the right fit too, so you're doing them a favor and allowing them to go and find something that is a good fit.
Communicate Clearly
Clear communication is essential for successful delegation. When delegating a task, make sure to provide all the necessary information, including:
Objectives: Clearly explain the goal of the task and why it is important.
Instructions: Provide detailed instructions on how to complete the task.
Resources: Share any resources, tools, or contacts that might be helpful.
Deadlines: Set a realistic deadline and specify any milestones along the way.
Expectations: Clarify your expectations for quality and performance.
Encourage your team members to ask questions and provide feedback to ensure they fully understand the task and feel supported throughout the process. Your team can not read your mind!! This is when I see hires fail the most, the lack of communication.
Empower and Support Your Team
Empowering your team means giving them the autonomy to make decisions and take ownership of their tasks. Trust your team members to handle the responsibilities you delegate to them and avoid micromanaging. Here are some ways to empower your team:
Provide Training: Offer training and resources to help your team develop the skills needed for their tasks.
Encourage Initiative: Foster a culture where team members feel comfortable taking initiative and making decisions.
Give Feedback: Provide constructive feedback to help your team members improve and grow.
Recognize Achievements: Celebrate successes and recognize the contributions of your team.
By empowering your team, you build their confidence and competence, which helps them feel excited and leads to better outcomes for your clients, it's a WIN-WIN!
Monitor Progress and Provide Feedback
While it's important to avoid micromanaging, you still need to monitor progress and provide feedback to ensure tasks are on track. Establish regular check-ins to discuss progress, address any challenges, and provide guidance. Use these check-ins as an opportunity to:
Review Progress: Discuss what has been accomplished and any obstacles encountered.
Offer Support: Provide additional resources or assistance if needed.
Adjust Plans: Make any necessary adjustments to timelines or objectives based on progress.
Give Feedback: Offer constructive feedback to help your team improve and grow.
We want to be providing feedback real time, especially when our team is learning new tasks and roles. And we also want to have regular check ins where we are asking them for feedback on how they are doing. This step should never be one sided, but a way for them to know they can come to you with issues.
At the end of the day, delegation is not just about getting tasks off your plate; it's about developing your team and creating a more efficient, innovative, and scalable business.
You got this!
