Nobody is specialist in everything, as most of us are really good in doing two-three things. Unfortunately, often due to the high work overload we feel time pressure and we tend to lose the overview. So, if you reach the point in which you start doing tasks which you have no idea about, the chances to execute them poorly gets higher. The key is – delegate as much as possible to the people who are experts in the field and focus on what you can do best.
Many founders fall in the trap of overworking themselves and performing plenty of unnecessary tasks (yes we experienced that as well). We feel the pressure and the responsibility to do every single small thing, so that we are ‘’secure’’ that it is all going to be fine. But, later on, the tasks become more and more and our time and skills are becoming a deficit. What should we do? Start delegating.
Most of us always look up to the guru of entrepreneurship Richard Branson. He not only knows a lot about creating successful businesses, but he's also the master of delegation. Branson says: “You need to learn to delegate so that you can focus on the big picture."
On the other side, as it is trendy to be as lean as possible, to develop MVPs and test your concepts without any investment, the idea of delegating becomes a bit controversial. Since ultimately that means investing money and efforts into expanding the team or the current partnerships you possess.
We want high quality work, efficiency, determined team members, but we also don’t want to pay them
There should be something wrong with expecting quality output without investing in quality input, as this calculation doesn’t add up. So our first rule of thumb is– if you want to receive, first you need to give. Why are we saying this? Because cheap doesn’t mean efficient.
Employees effort
Also, if you have long-term ambitions, some of the most important assets of your company should be your skilled and motivated team – you don’t get that for free, do you? If you don’t have enough cash, you can always promise other incentives, such as shares in your company, nice trips, free lunch/dinner, cool events, anything that pays back your employees’ efforts.
After this point is solid, you need to learn how to explain well the objectives and goals of the task you delegate, because 70% of the mistakes and dissatisfactions come from misunderstandings. To make sure that everybody is on the same line, you can prompt your team and elaborate well on the deliverables and the timeline. Adding such structure to your workflow will increase productivity and also will allow you to become more reliable as a leader.
By letting go we make more space for the top priority aspects
We would also recommend you not to micromanage. Micromanaging means you do not know how to delegate and it could be frustrating for your team. Leave the person to do his/her job and at the end if corrections need to be applied, let them do it by themselves. This way they learn and improve, so you also achieve better results over time. Lastly, ask for feedback and aim to keep the relationship in good terms, so you also learn for yourself what you need to improve on for the next time.
And although, we entrepreneurs are very curious animals, always wanting to learn new things and try out new stuff, we also need to learn of letting go. By letting go we make more space for the top priority aspects and thus we manage to drive growth more efficiently.
Let us know how you're going to implement these changes in your business and/or personal situation. Cheers!
TYGERS Magazine | www.tygersmagazine.com | info@tygers.nl