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Delegation

March 21, 2003

By Jerry Osteryoung

A manager who avoids delegation cannot possibly hope to complete effectively all of the tasks that find their way onto his or her desk. - Robert Heller

It is so hard for entrepreneurs to delegate. They have started their businesses and done everything themselves. Micromanaging has been successful for them; so for them to delegate is flat tough.

When they choose not to delegate they get overwhelmed with so many tasks that they no longer have time to spend with their family and to relax and have fun. Delegation is the key that allows any manager freedom to really get important things accomplished -- things such as developing the vision for their company and planning for its future. When entrepreneurs refuse to delegate, they get bogged down with everyday things that can easily be handled by a staff person. Additionally, delegation promotes employee buy-in, as employees realize they are performing critical work for the success of the business.

Entrepreneurs seem to come from two extremes. There are those entrepreneurs who delegate naturally and feel comfortable assigning work to their staff. Then there are those who don't. They have to hit crises as they try to do everything all by themselves before they realize that they need to delegate if they are to survive.

Delegation is not only important for the satisfactory operation of a small business, but is absolutely a prerequisite for the firm's growth. Failure to delegate is the reason many small businesses don't grow.

Before you reach a crisis, please consider these reasons to delegate: First, by delegating you are increasing the time you have to do other important things, like spending more time with your family. Second, delegation really reduces the stress of being overwhelmed and simply having too much to do. Finally, delegation empowers employees to take on more of the responsibility of running different aspects of the business. This not only helps owners, it is also advantageous for employees as it expands their job and can prepare them for a higher level position.

Okay, so I need to delegate. How do I do it? The first rule in learning to delegate is to start small. Try delegating some minor tasks to employees you think can handle those particular tasks (i.e., producing a report on sales by type of customer). By starting small you can assess their ability to handle responsibilities. Also, their small successes will increase your willingness to trust them with even more areas of responsibility in the future.

Because the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship is my baby, I was very reluctant to delegate anything of meaning to my staff. However, I hit the proverbial wall (crisis) and JMI was either going to get stuck or grow. The only way to grow JMI was for me to delegate many of the functions. I wanted JMI to grow and knew that I had to let go and delegate. This process of starting slow and building allowed me to expand JMI while retaining balance in my life.

Another problem with delegation is making sure you control the process. Delegating without control is like trying to steer the car without touching the steering wheel. There are many ways to control delegation, but the one I like the best is to ask the employee to give you progress reports at certain increments of time. Another way to control is to make sure that you are included in all correspondence about the project (i.e., receive copies of all letters and e-mails).

You also need to give the person to whom you have delegated some latitude in carrying out the assignment; otherwise, the project has not really been delegated. If you are continuously watching them out of the corner of your eye, you are not really delegating.

One of the complaints I frequently hear from entrepreneurs is that, when they delegate, they never know if the works gets done. To want to know when and how the work gets done is a reasonable expectation. One way to handle this is to make sure you clearly explain your expectations to your employee at the beginning of the assignment. Tell your employee that you want him/her to do the assignment and to keep you posted on his/her progress and to let you know if he/she runs into any stumbling blocks he/she cannot handle. This really does work and is critical in the delegation process.

Robert Heller wrote one great book on the subject called How to Delegate. In this very short book, he takes the reader on a very detailed, but very understandable, approach to delegation.

Delegation is one of those concepts that you cannot just talk about, you must do it! I guarantee that increasing the amount of delegation in your business will make your life much better