The Power Of Deligation

Most people need to learn the art of delegation when they are in charge of a team.Thinking they can do everything and get everything done when it needs to be done is a mistake many managers make at some stage. Recognising when it is wise to delegate a task and just how to do it is an important skill you will need to acquire when you’re in charge of other people.

What are Your Strengths?
The first thing to do is to evaluate your own strengths, to make sure you are using them in the right way. For instance, you may be great at selling, or gaining deals from new clients. Or perhaps you are talented at marketing your business.
Whatever your strengths are, you should ensure that you are in charge of that side of the business. There’s no point in delegating something you can easily do well yourself.
Once you are playing to your strengths, you can then think about how the other aspects of running your business can be divided among the other members of your team.

Let go of the Rest
Learning to let go of certain aspects of your business is an important step. Most business owners find it difficult to hand over control to other people, but it is vital you learn to do this if you don’t want to end up juggling everything yourself while your staff twiddle their thumbs with boredom.
There may be certain parts of running a business which you hate, or are just plain bad at. For example, you may be terrible at paperwork. In this case, it is easy to see how delegating the job to someone who excels at it will help you enormously.
The idea should be to form a team of people who together have all the necessary skills and motivation to get every job done efficiently and effectively.

Delegate Carefully
When you are delegating a certain task, there are three questions you need to ask first:
1. Are you delegating it to the right person (the one who has the appropriate skills, and can do it best)?
2. Do they have the time to do it properly? If you’ve already overloaded them with work, they may not be able to cope with more.
3. Are you willing to let them get on with it? If you’re going to be looking over their shoulder every five minutes, you’re not really delegating.
If you can answer ‘yes’ to all these questions, then go ahead and delegate!

Use it to Everyone’s Advantage
Delegation should not just be about giving away the tasks you don’t like to do. Instead, it should be about getting everything done better, and also about helping your team and your business thrive and grow.
Remember: If you delegate sensibly, you not only free your valuable time up for more important things, but also give your team members tasks which they can get their teeth into and learn from. The professional and personal development of your team should be uppermost in your thoughts at all times.