To Double Your Growth, Delegate!
How often do you feel you have more work than time? Does it ever get to the point of overwhelming? Have you ever lost sleep or missed family or personal fun time due to taking on so much work?
Most of us struggle with letting go of work we’ve done habitually for years. This inability to let go can involve fear of losing control; perfectionism; distrust; ignorance of how to successfully delegate; and often a touch of prosophobia, a fear of progress.
To double throughput, you need to identify approximately 70% of your tasks and decide what can be:
- Eliminated
- Automated
- Innovated
- Delegated
CEOs I coach point to my Role Shifter task as a valuable exercise.
- List your top three most important activities that you would like to spend more time doing.
- List the three lowest priority activities that take too much of your time and potentially could be delegated, eliminated, automated or innovated.
- Estimate what percent of your week is spent in each of these six activities.
- Write the ideal percent of time to spend on each activity.
If you were to take off an unexpected week or two of work, would progress continue to take place on your top initiatives and priorities while you were away?
Often, delegating part of the lowest priorities immediately frees time you can spend on the top priorities and makes a mighty impact.
Are you delegating nearly enough? Odds are no. Here are four steps to help your delegation be more effective.
1. Select whom. Think about to whom you should delegate. Don’t overload one person; train your team evenly.
2. Share why. Give your delegatees context about how a project or task fits into the big picture.
3. Secure agreement. Ask them to repeat your expectations, and seek agreement on the timeline. Let them see you write down the deadline.
4. Stay in touch. There is a proper balance to staying in touch. Too far one way, you’re micromanaging. Too far the other way, you’re not keeping track, and much time might be wasted. Some of my CEO clients find a daily five-minute update to be beneficial for keeping themselves and direct reports on track. At the least, it is good to check once every few days. Another option is to ask, “At what frequency would be best for us to touch base to make sure any questions or needs that arise are addressed?”
In the delegation dance, emphasize people, priorities and projects—in that order. If you keep the order right, focus on the right people and make the priorities clear, then your delegations, productivity, company and people can grow like you have never seen before.
If you’re procrastinating, delegate it.
If you don’t like it, delegate it.
If it’s not your talent, delegate it.
