More than three in four or 77% of business owners have said they feel the effects of burnout at work, and when an overwhelming 86% work on weekends and 53% work on major holidays, this comes as no surprise. Having spoken a lot with business owners, a common theme is struggling to clear the work off their desk, and yet when I asked them if they’ve gotten help, they always describe the struggle that they have with finding someone reliable and competent. 33% said they can’t fill an opening and another 23% stated that finding the right person is the “single most important business problem”.
Delegation is a massive factor in streamlining your business and improving your quality of life. Getting the right help is integral to this, but training all of your staff effectively, as well as being clear about tasks given, are vital too. Here are some practical tips to get you as a business owner delegating more successfully.
“If you want to grow as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to learn to delegate.” Richard Branson
LEADERS MINDSET:
The first thing is developing the mindset of a leader or creating a mindset shift in yourself. This will move you from being an operator, where you are the bottleneck of your business, through to being the person who is more like the traffic controller, directing projects and managing staff who are performing well. Being a good leader requires letting go, not having your thumb in every single pie, and it requires trusting that the people that you’ve employed are going to do a great job and not need to be micromanaged.
OPTIMISE TASKS:
Once you’ve got yourself into a great mindset space, you must utilise the most effective way of doing the tasks that you’re going to delegate. There is absolutely no point in bringing on new team members and clearing your desk of work, only to multiply the inefficiencies and chaos that have already been happening. You need to make sure the way you’re setting up the tasks that they’re efficient, that they’re productive, and that it’s creating excellent results. Concentrate on doing this every single time without wasting time, money and resources.
DELEGATION TOOLS:
Once you found the best way to perform the tasks required, you then need to develop your delegation tools. These tools let your new employees work with independence, without coming back to you asking questions or needing fixes. Develop a bank of resources such as instructional videos, documented instructions, checklists and templates, then set up these sorts of tools so that your team can work independently. This will give them such a sense of reward and fulfilment in their work, and you’ll be able to let go of that work.
MAINTAIN ACCOUNTABILITY:
And then finally, even though you’re going to have a team that is working well without you, they need to be held accountable for producing excellent results. This looks like having systems set up to check in with your team, monitor their performance, and make sure that they’re being given the rewards that they earned when they do a great job. It will also enable you to provide the support that they need when they’re struggling. Keeping your team accountable is a vital aspect of long term, successful delegation.
The delegation will play an important role in easing the pressure you face personally, and in growing your business positively and sustainably. In a recent study, it was found that 53 per cent of business owners believe that they can grow their business by more than 20 per cent if they delegate 10 per cent of their workload to someone else. Such potential is yours to exploit!
