LEARNING TO DELEGATE

Learning to Delegate
Adapted from content excerpted from the American Express® OPEN Small Business Network


Some small business owners are proud of the fact that they do everything for their businesses themselves. But it doesn't always make business sense to be a one-person operation. In fact, you should delegate as much work as you possibly can if you want your business to thrive. If you don't, chances are you'll always be short on time, long on responsibilities, and standing still in business.

There are three key reasons why small business people say they can't delegate. Some common excuses are listed below. Read on to find out why they don't hold water. Then use a worksheet like the one described below to help you figure out what responsibilities you can delegate.

Money - "I can't afford to pay someone to do this for me."

It's short-sighted to avoid delegation because of the financial investment it requires. Yes, you will have to pay someone to do something you can do yourself. But if you're a consultant who charges $100/hour, should you be using your time to stuff envelopes? Use the time you free up by delegating to find new business. This way, you'll still be making some money on the tasks you contract out and you'll be making money on the new work too.

Time - "It will take too much time to train someone. I can do it faster by myself."

Not having the time to train someone is often a smoke screen for something else like a fear of giving up control. If this is your rationale, write down all your tasks and how long it would take to teach someone to take care of them for you. Then choose one or two jobs that are the easiest to farm out and start with them. This will gradually get you used to letting go of routine responsibilities.

Quality - "No one can do this as well as I can."

This is the oldest excuse in the book; it's probably also true. But it's not a reason to avoid delegating. A person you hire may not do something as well as you can. But think about the job this person can do for you once he or she is trained. If you determine that only you can complete certain tasks perfectly, you have two choices: save them for yourself and delegate other tasks, or settle for having something done well instead of perfectly. Lots of times, a very good job is sufficient.

Delegating Worksheet

Use a worksheet to determine how you're using your time. Use it over the course of a week or two to see how much time each task (whether important or menial) takes you. You might find out that you're using a lot of time for certain jobs that can be easily delegated out.

Your worksheet should have three columns:

Task / Activity
Time Spent
Delegation Plan

Apart from what has been mentioned in this article, delegation of reponsibility with corresponding authority is a must for cost-effective & time-effective management; because one single person or a small group of persons cannot deliver the goods adequately, because

(a). there is always a paucity 0f time & the entire labour has been placed in the categories of highly skilled, skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled; and their wages have been determined accordingly. Hence it would not be advisable for any higher category to undertake the job of a lower category simply because it wouldn't only result in ignoring the task requiring special expertise, but also because the said assignment could be accomplished at a cheaper rate by a worker of lower category.

(b). it would be detrimental to the attainment of managerial goals, because skilled-labour would be wasting a part of its precious time on the jobs of a routine nature; and the organization would be deprived of timely decisions of a crucial nature in a highly competitive commercial environments. This tendency of continued, can make an industrial unit a complete failure.

(c). it would amount to denial of a legitimate role to the lower hierarchy where such decisions ultimately belonged in view of their nature.

Jameel Zaidi