Mastering Delegation While Doing What You Love
As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats. From managing finances to marketing your products or services, the list of responsibilities can seem endless. But trying to do everything yourself leads to burnout and can really drag down your business’ growth. The key to avoiding overwhelming context switching is effective delegation.
But where do you start?
Delegating tasks effectively can significantly enhance productivity for you and your whole organization and allow you to focus on what you do best. Here are some strategies for choosing what to delegate:
- Repetitive Commodity Tasks: These are tasks that are routine and do not require your unique expertise. Examples include bookkeeping, data entry, and scheduling. Delegate these tasks to free up your time for more strategic activities.
- Tasks Outside Your Expertise: If a task requires specialized knowledge or skills that you don’t possess, it’s a good candidate for delegation. This could include IT support, legal work, or graphic design. The accountant in my peer advisory board told me,
“I forbid you from doing your own bookkeeping. We see entrepreneurs doing it themselves and they always miscategorize transactions and create a huge mess for year-end reporting and taxes.”
Delegate these tasks and ensure they are handled by someone with the right expertise.
- High-Effort, Low-Impact Tasks: Some tasks require a lot of effort but do not significantly impact your business’s growth. These tasks can be time-consuming and lead to procrastination. Examples include detailed research, extensive report writing, or complex administrative work. Delegate these tasks so you can focus on high-impact activities.
- Tasks You Dread: If there are tasks that you find particularly draining or unpleasant, consider delegating them. Procrastinating on these tasks can hinder your productivity. Delegate them so you’ll maintain your energy and can focus on tasks that you really enjoy.
This is a great rule of thumb for building out your team:Hire people to do the things you hate so you can focus on what you love – and the bigger picture.
But don’t cling to what you enjoy or are good at too long. That can be an antipattern, too.
- Tasks That Can Be Done Better by Others: Sometimes, there are tasks that, while you can do them, others can do them better or more efficiently. This could include social media management, customer service, or content creation. Delegating these tasks can improve the quality of work and free up your time for strategic decision-making.
Specialists outside your organization often have better tools for the job than you do, allowing them to do the work in a fraction of the time it would take you.
And if you delegate to someone inside your organization, make sure they have the tools they need. A few hundred dollars spent on tooling could save you thousands of dollars in their time.
- Tasks That Are Not Core to Your Business: Identify tasks that are not central to your organization’s core functions. These could include office maintenance, event planning, or routine procurement. Delegate these tasks so you can concentrate on activities that directly contribute to your business’ growth and success.
- Tasks That Offer Learning Opportunities for Your Team: Delegation can also be a tool for developing your team’s skills. Delegate tasks that provide growth opportunities for your team members. This not only helps in their professional development but also builds a more capable and versatile team. If it’s something that you’re really good at, try to find the higher reward of teaching others to be good at it, too.
You Can Do It!
By using these strategies, you can delegate effectively and ensure that your time and energy are focused on the areas where you can make the most significant impact. I have some new members in my CEO peer advisory board who are facing decisions about scaling and delegation. Should they hire from the outside or promote from within? What we talked about in the group is the fact that preparing for and successfully executing either (or both) is pretty much the same. Remember, successful delegation involves clear communication, trust, and regular follow-up to ensure tasks are completed to your satisfaction.
I’ll talk more about “Trust but Verify” at another time. If you want to talk to someone about it now, Book a Call with me. If you just want to read the next article in my newsletter, be sure to subscribe!
