Delegate before it's too late - the perils of hanging on

You are a business owner. Your business started very small a few years ago with a hard working dedicated staff of one. Time passed and your business grew. You needed help so you hired people; however you had become so used to doing things yourself that you found it difficult to let others take over certain jobs.

You felt you were the only one who could do these jobs correctly. Your business continued growing. You hired more employees and experienced difficulty managing the employees and the business at the same time. Too many tasks and not enough time to do them was holding back growth. The time had come to stop hanging on and delegate or die.

What is Delegating and How Do I Do it Well?

Delegation means clearly defining a task and turning over the responsibility, and authority for that task to someone else. As the owner, you still retain ultimate responsibility (the buck stops here) but you now have a teammate. Delegation is about empowering people who work for you. You give them the opportunity to learn and become the expert at what they do. With luck and a great benefit to your organisation, they may even surpass your skills. Delegating is a powerful tool that will transform your business into a well-oiled machine.

As the owner and leader of your business, you sit atop the organisation and should concern yourself with planning, strategy, analysis, efficiency, and cost control. Passing responsibility and authority for daily operations to selected employees frees you to concentrate on the larger issues. Spread yourself too thin and the work suffers. Your business becomes less efficient and weaker. Delegating will even help you become a more effective manager.

Effective Delegating Inspires Colleagues

You will learn to become a teacher as you guide the development of your employees. You will have the opportunity to watch as they experience personal and professional growth. You can help them gain the skills that will serve them for a lifetime, and will serve your business. Handing over responsibility to your employees, teaching them how to handle that responsibility, and praising their results will foster feelings of pride in that employee. That pride will translate into loyalty and create an atmosphere of trust and open communication. You will watch your employees transform into your teammates.

These teammates will become your trusted eyes and ears. Both you and they will become better people and together you will run a more efficient operation. Very often when you trust employees with the increased responsibility you are pleasantly surprised when they find better ways to do the things. Delegation encourages and stimulates creativity and your teammates will learn to seize the initiative with confidence. Each new contribution develops their skills and increases their morale.

Delegation benefits the whole organisation from the top (you) down. As you train your people and pass on increased responsibilities, you demonstrate your trust in their abilities. Your business will thrive beyond anything you could have imagined. The most interesting part of delegation is that much like any relationship, the more you give to others, the greater the rewards to you.

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