Entrepreneurs easily become used to being a one-man show. Even when there’s a team, they remain very hands-on. While it’s good to be hands-on, it’s as important to delegate tasks so that you can focus on tasks that strictly need the founder or leader of the business.
You might have started as a one-person show, the head of marketing, the salesperson, and the head of finance all rolled into one. But, at some point, every successful entrepreneur eventually learns that collaboration and having a team are essential for growth.
Effective delegation isn’t about dumping tasks you dislike onto others. It’s a strategic tool for scaling. In this article, we’ll discuss how entrepreneurs can delegate effectively.
1. Trust Your Team
To delegate effectively and scale your business, you need to be able to let go and trust your team. To build trust, you must create an environment where there’s open communication. In the workspace, trust is built on specific pillars. According to research from Wharton and Columbia Business School, people trust leaders who demonstrate both warmth and competence.
The trust equation, developed by Charles H. Green, breaks trust down into four measurable components. This helps entrepreneurs as they can measure their trustworthiness and the trustworthiness of those they work with. There are four variables used to measure trust, which are:
- Credibility: Demonstrate competence in your own work and acknowledge your gaps.
- Reliability: Be consistently reliable by following through on commitments.
- Intimacy: Create psychological safety that allows team members to be vulnerable with information.
- Self-orientation: Show that you care about team members’ success, not just your own.
Actionable ways to build trust can include practical trust-building activities. This includes:
- Starting meetings with personal check-ins
- Creating opportunities for team members to share their professional backgrounds and experiences
- Consistently ask for input on decisions and implement that feedback
2. Know What to Delegate
Not every task should be delegated. The key is identifying what others can handle versus what truly requires your attention. In delegating tasks, you can also find that they will be better fulfilled by other team members, especially if you delegate based on people’s strengths and specific skills.
At first, it might be tricky to determine what to delegate in your business and what not. You can use this simple framework:
- Keep: Urgent and important tasks that need your expertise.
- Schedule: Important but not urgent work.
- Delegate: Tasks that have to be done but do not require you.
- Drop: Tasks that don’t matter in the long run.
If you are a business owner who needs help, you can start by delegating smaller tasks such as customer service e-mails, social media, data entry, and invoicing. As trust grows and your team becomes more capable, you can delegate higher-level tasks.
Another way to establish what to delegate is to track your time for a week. You might discover you’re spending 15-20 hours on work that doesn’t need your specific skills. That’s time you could use for business growth instead.
3. Give Clear Instructions and Train Your Team
Delegation doesn’t mean you merely task someone with a project. Effective delegation requires that you provide clear instructions and ensure that the individual being tasked is skilled enough to complete the task. This is especially relevant if it’s an ongoing project.
Training takes time upfront but pays off later. You can simplify the process by creating guides for repeated tasks. Use screen recording tools to show how things should be done.
Effective training looks like:
- Demonstrate the task while explaining why it matters
- Provide guidance
- Provide resources and step back
- Schedule check-ins without micromanaging
Giving clear instructions includes outlining the entire project in detail, as well as what is expected from the person being tasked. You can also go as far as recommending ways in which they can approach the tasks and including helpful resources such as links and videos to guide them through the task.
To ensure that you do not waste too much time, check in on your team members while they tackle the tasks to see if they are on the right track. If they happen not to be on the right track, gently guide them in the right direction without micromanaging.
