Entrepreneurs are notoriously bad at delegating. If you’re already capable of starting and running your own business, you are likely also very capable of handling most of the work yourself. This means you end up wearing many hats – head of sales, head of marketing, head of customer service, head of HR, head of finance…

Whilst it’s important for small business owners to be confident and competent at running their own business, this can result in you believing you can do everything better than anyone else. Yet, as your business grows, you won’t have time to do everything yourself or insist that people keep doing things ‘your’ way. You increasingly need to focus on the higher-level tasks and trust your team to get the other tasks done – ideally, better than you could have done it.

Why is delegation so important anyway?

20% of businesses fail in their first year. That number jumps to 50% within 5 years due to weak profits. All your own funds, the loans from your family and friends, and the cash from your investors – let alone your sweat equity and sleepless nights – will amount to nil.

So how does delegation make a difference? 

Because small business owners with delegation skills generate 33% more revenue than those who do not delegate effectively. Meaning, you have a higher chance of success, according to Small Business Trends. It allows you to focus on the tasks that matter the most – the growth opportunities.

Here are some other reasons delegation is good for both your business and personal health:

• Economic efficiency. Assuming you have inherent skills and expertise that warrants a premium, let’s say you could make $500/hr for your services. If there is a task that could be outsourced or delegated to a competent professional who charges $50-$100/hr, or even a VA who may charge $20/hr, the economics is obvious. Dedicate your time on the tasks that need your specific knowledge and attention.
• Room to scale. Maybe you can handle the workload for the size and demands of your business today. But, presumably, you started a business for it to grow. So, what happens in a couple of months when you land that whale of a client? Or in a year from now when you have tripled or quadrupled in size? There will be more customer demands, a more sophisticated marketing strategy required, a more complex financial model, and the market expectation to keep evolving. Learning the art of delegation whilst you are at a manageable size will ensure you are prepared for the eventual growth that all your hard work will bring. You’ll have the time to develop effective management workflows and train employees on best practice expectations before it becomes panic stations.
• Fatigue. Holding onto everything means you must be involved in every decision. This can lead to fatigue in general, but also ‘decision fatigue’ – you’ll become indecisive and overthink minute details, you’ll get frustrated and defensive at the slightest hint of pressure, or you’ll make rash decisions and take shortcuts that may hinder your long term goals. Worst of all, fatigue can lead to burnout which can cause you to abandon your business altogether.
• Founder dependance. What happens if you get hit by a bus? Or, more likely, what happens if you want to go on holiday or a digital detox to avoid burnout? If you cannot let go of certain tasks that allow the business to keep running from day-to-day, you’ll find yourself in a position where the business cannot survive without you. Whilst that might feel flattering, it’s a death sentence on a timeline. For you and your business.
• Developing an effective team. As a small business owner, especially in the first year or two of operation, often you’ll be the only senior member on the team. But, to support your business as it scales, a strong team is one of the first investments you need to succeed. As the people who deliver the work, the strength of your team is directly proportional to your business performance. Hire high potential employees early and train them to take over the tasks you foresee they will need to master as the business grows. And look for hustlers with integrity. They may not have the pedigree of top-notch universities or fortune 500 companies, but they may have the grit you need to get things done.

Where do we go wrong? Why entrepreneurs find it so hard to let go and delegate.

Whether it’s the ‘it’s easier to do it myself’ mindset or ‘it’s too expensive to outsource or hire employees’ roadblock, there are some common pitfalls that cause these negative perceptions of delegation.

• You leave it to the last minute, when absolutely necessary. It’s a task that has been on your to-do list for a while. You’re going to get around to it. Eventually, the deadline is tomorrow and you just cannot make time. So, you begrudgingly delegate it. Your procrastination and panic response has now set up this task to fail. With limited time to execute, likely minimal instructions as you don’t have the time to brief or train someone properly, you are not going to see the full benefit of delegating. It’s going to be a rushed job by someone who is ill-equiped.
• You see delegation as a cost rather than an investment. In the short-term, outsourcing or hiring a team costs money. Seemingly a privilege when funds are light. But, it can improve overall operational efficiency and help you achieve your longer term goals faster. Each time you delegate, you’ll get better at it. So too will your team. If you keep all tasks on your plate, your productivity can only improve if you miraculously find more hours in your day.
• You are ambiguous with your instructions. Being able to prepare an effective brief is the foundation of delegation. If the person you are delegating to is unclear on exactly what is required, then you should expect them to make their own judgement calls. If you are delegating to someone new, or an entry-level employee, it is not fair to expect them to accurately anticipate your needs. But preparing detailed instructions takes time. This issue is amplified if you are rushed. So get organised, plan ahead, and spend a bit of time writing a clear brief to get better results.
• You value a good deal over good talent. Your budget might be limited, but with the funds you do have available, choose the right people. The cheapest is not going to be the best, so delegating to them may contribute to your belief that it’s a waste of money. You end to having to hand hold them or redo it yourself. Finding the right people for the right tasks, even if they are slightly more expensive, will actually work out more cost-effective in the end. And, if you consistently delegate similar tasks to them, they will become increasingly more proficient.
• You think delegation wipes your hands of accountability. Once you delegate a task, it’s not checked off your to-do list. It still needs to be done, and you need to make sure it’s done right. Whilst you might have reassigned responsibility for the task, you maintain accountability. Check in with your team, ask if they need support on roadblocks or unforeseen changes to the plan, and keep track of progress vs expectations. You may need to help course-correct, triage problems, or escalate issues.

Five signs you struggle with delegating, or are not delegating enough

Be honest. If any of these behaviours resonate, you may need to work on your delegation skills.

• You don’t trust tasks will get done to your expectations. Ever catch yourself saying “I know how the customer wants it done, and it needs to be done to my standard.” Or, “My team asks me so many questions, so I might as well just do it myself.” This might be true for the short-term, but by micromanaging your team or not giving them opportunities to learn and grow, you are hindering their ability to hone their skills. Having the wrong people on your team is a different problem to not being able to trust your team. Work out which one is your reason for keeping hold of certain tasks.

• You are on the verge of burnout. If you cannot delegate enough work, you will end up with too much on your plate. And, if you are overworking, you’ll find your physical and mental health deteriorates quickly. Not only that, but stress will negatively impact your productivity and quality of life. You’ll be less efficient because you are tired and cannot think straight. And even if you schedule some R&R time, you’ll be unable to switch off and enjoy it. Your brain is still wired, worried about those to-do’s.

• You feel like you are running a marathon yet not making much progress. There is only so much time in a day to get things done. If your to-do list doesn’t get any smaller, you will end up missing deadlines or falling behind on tasks. Cue frustration. Trigger panic mode. Down goes your productivity. This also has a roll-on effect to your team. If you are unavailable to make important decisions, or too busy to review their work, it will cause bottlenecks. The best way to stay calm and focused is to get tasks off your to-do list… by delegating them to the right people.

• You are flooded with questions from your team. Your inbox is overflowing. Your phone keeps alerting you to a new message. Your slack is pinging non-stop. Every single platform is screaming for your attention. On the one hand, if you cannot seem to keep track of and control your incoming messages, then you need to work on your time management and organisation. On the other hand, if your team cannot seem to get on without you for the day-to-day tasks, you have a delegation problem. Maybe you have the wrong people working on the wrong tasks. Or, maybe, you haven’t got the right workflows and briefing processes in place to allow them to work independently. Providing clear instructions and RACI requirements, as well as streamlining repeatable processes, can reduce their dependency on you.

• You don’t want to lose control. You think you can do everything better than anyone else, or you want to personally see every new idea through to completion. But, as your business grows, it’s impracticable to think you can continue to be involved in everything. It’s time to start letting go of the reigns and giving your team more opportunities to develop their skills. It’ll boost their morale, which will improve their productivity.

It’s time to let go. Which tasks should you hand over?

There are a few methods that can help you determine which tasks should be your responsibility, and which you should let go. Here are two that can help you organise your workload.

Prioritisation

Simply put, rank your tasks in order of importance. Just keep in mind, some of the tasks that are important for the business will be important for your specific skillset and position, but not all. The latter are the tasks you should delegate.

You can use the Covey Matrix as a time management technique which focuses on task importance vs urgency, or you can use the Agile prioritisation approach which takes into account importance, urgency, and task size.

Cost-Benefit

In this method, you can determine tasks you should delegate based on pure economics – is it financially worth your time?

First of all, mark all tasks that are your unique skill or exclusively require your position or knowledge. These should stay on your list. For the rest, consider the amount of time it should take to complete – 30mins, 2hrs, 2 days? Compare your realistic hourly cost vs the hourly cost to outsource it to someone who can competently complete the task. Determine which costs you can live with, and which just do not make financial sense.

Let’s reassign those tasks – how to delegate effectively.

By now, you are kind of on board with why delegation is the secret sauce to your business’s ability to scale – by letting you spend your time on the things that are most important for your specific competency and role. And, you also have worked out which tasks fall into this category and which need to be handed off. Now it’s time to delegate them for the best chance of successful execution.

Choose the right person for each task

You will set yourself up for failure if you hand over a responsibility to someone who is not able or willing to deliver to your expectations. This can be a culture-fit issue (do they have the right attitude, are they driven to succeed, do they have the same duty of care as you do, and do they share your ethics and values?), or it could be a competency issue (are you hiring someone at the right level, are you paying market rate for this service, do they have the commercial acumen, communication skills, or strategic approach that you need?). However, this should not be confused with a capability issue – just because someone has never done this specific task before, does not mean they are incompetent. People can learn quickly if they are the right match, and given the right tools and support.

Invest in proper onboarding and briefing

Just like anyone who starts a new job or takes on a new hobby, there is a learning curve. Even if they have done that exact task before for someone else, how you prefer it to be done could be very different. So prepare detailed briefing notes and how-to guides, offer a library of resources they can refer to and people they can seek help from, and take the time to walk them through the process to help answer any questions they may have. You cannot expect someone to read your mind – no one will know exactly how you like things done unless you expressly communicate it with them.

Create repeatable processes that make sense

If you want someone to do things exactly as you would do, then create a process that can be repeated over and over. Erratic, changeable processes cause chaos and confusion. If you are not even clear on how to get things done, how can your team know how to execute effectively? Create clear workflows, set up RACI’s for each step in the workflow, and share this with your team so they can replicate the quality of output you expect. But, keep an eye on this workflow. Seek feedback from the team on areas of improvement, and ensure each person involved in the workflow is accountable for their role.

Give your team time to learn

Even with the best briefing notes and guidance, be realistic with how long it will take someone to become competent at it. It may not be perfect the first time around. Depending on the level of experience of your team member, it may not be perfect the second or third time around either. Keep in mind, you get what you pay for. Whilst you do not need to be price competitive with the likes of Apple or Coca Cola, if you always look for the cheapest price on the market, you need to accept that you are substituting price for either quality or speed… or both…

Support them using ‘situational leadership’ principles

Not everyone needs the same level of support and guidance as others. Not only that, but the same person could do one task with their eyes closed whilst just learning another. So the level of management they require should be dependent on their competency for that specific task, as well as their commitment level towards it – they could have higher priorities, be overwhelmed with workload, or simply not interested in the task.

• If they have zero competency and zero commitment for a task, delegate it elsewhere. It’s not worth it.
• If they have some competency or some commitment for a task, you might need to hand-hold them until they build up their confidence.
• If they have some competency and commitment for a task, you may provide them with guidance and act as a coach throughout the process, but let them make their own decisions along the way.
• If they have a high level of competency and commitment for a task, then just hand it over to them and let them run with it. Nothing kills enthusiasm than being told how to suck eggs.

Hire or outsource: who should you delegate to?

Despite the perceived short-term gains of status-quo and doing everything yourself, there is a point where your business cannot afford to have you wasting your time on tasks that are not critical to your specific position. Create SOPs and train people early. The time investment now will help free up your time to focus on growth opportunities sooner.

If you have the time and commitment to recruit, onboard, and mentor employees, then hire high-potential talent who can learn and grow with your business. Soon they will be competent at all the tasks you throw at them and will be able to onboard and train the next generation when you are ready.

If you do not have the structure in place to nurture a team just yet, then outsourcing to experienced contractors will offer you greater return on your investment and efforts. They may have a higher hourly price point than junior employees, but they will have a head start over the type of talent you can afford to hire right now. A higher level of competence, knowledge of industry best practice, and possibly a more strategic approach. Plus, you’ll retain flexibility to adjust support requirements, and costs, with the ebbs and flows of your business.

So, what are you waiting for? Delegate those tasks and lighten your load.