Delegation can help to save you time and allow your business to grow. But do you find that you are not delegating for one of the following reasons?:

1.  You believe you can do the job faster and better than others.

2.  You don’t delegate because you think that training someone would take longer than doing the work yourself.

3.  You are afraid that the person you delegate to might not do the work well or in a timely manner, which would leave you with still needing to do the work.

Although initially there may be some truth to some of the above points, over the long run, delegating is much more beneficial than not delegating because your time is limited.

In reality, it is possible to find people who could do the work as well as you can. It may take some trial and error at first, but once you have the right people in place with the necessary skills, you will be able to focus on expanding your business.

There are four components of effective delegation:

1.  Clear communication of tasks and job responsibilities.
To delegate effectively, you need to clearly define responsibilities, tasks, the amount of time the work should take, and deadlines. The more specific you are, the more likely you are to get what you want. An example of a specific measurable request is: “Give me $100 in one dollar bills by 10:00 am today.”

2.  Established product quality standards.
Establishing standards lets employees know the quality that you expect and will make it more likely that you get high-quality work. Let employees know about the processes you want to use to achieve the results but allow them to also make suggestions for better ways of doing things and to prove that their suggestion will produce better results than your current methods.

3.  A system of accountability.
By having a system of accountability, you ensure that everyone in the organization answers to someone else, which keeps job responsibilities in existence. Make sure that employees answer to only one person to help eliminate the possibility of confusion and misunderstanding. Also, add an extra buffer of time to deadlines so that if the employee is unable to meet a deadline they will have time to reach you to tell you about it and you will have time to find an alternative solution.

4.  Employees empowered with the authority to perform their jobs.
After delegation has occurred, empower employees to produce the required results. This includes giving them the authority to get the job done and the necessary resources. Some of these resources may include money, IT, training, and the time and the cooperation of another department.