As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to think that one person can do it all. However, this often leads to burnout, exhaustion, and poor work execution. Therefore, delegation is a skill every business owner should possess. But why is delegation so important in business?
Keep reading to discover why delegation is important in leadership. We’ll also explore the three golden delegation rules and why managers fail to share responsibilities. Let’s get started!
Is Delegating a Good Thing?
Yes, delegating is a good thing, as it increases team efficiency and productivity. It also helps leaders develop their management skills and allows team members to develop their skills.
One key factor in a successful team is a manager who knows how to delegate well. With successful teams, any organization will flourish quickly. This aspect of leadership builds trust among coworkers and helps the organization’s members grow in their areas of expertise.
Delegating tasks is always important because no single person can do everything. It takes a team to finish projects and multiple tasks in a shorter time than doing everything on your own.
However, it’s worth noting that delegating can also be a bad thing if you do it incorrectly. It may fail when you misassign tasks, micromanage your team, compete against them, and do not give them proper guidance. However, when done correctly, delegation benefits not only the business but also its employees.
Why Is Delegation Important in Business?
Delegation is important in business because it creates good time management habits and gives employees growth opportunities. It also helps build management skills while allowing business owners to have a work-life balance and encourages teamwork.
Here is an in-depth dive into why delegation is important in Business leadership:
1. Creates a Good Time Management Culture
Entrepreneurs have a lot of different tasks to handle. Some of these responsibilities seem easy but are time-consuming, such as answering emails, running social media campaigns, and making employees’ work schedules.
Delegation helps business owners focus on priority tasks. This will help you be more efficient in tackling more important tasks that only you can do.
Learn more about the importance of delegation to business owners from LinkedIn.
2. Give Employees Growth and Development Opportunities
Team members feel valued when leaders assign them tasks. It also aids in their professional development and helps them gain control over the responsibilities given to them.
Employees get the opportunity to hone their skills through practice. Delegation allows employees to showcase their expertise through new tasks, thus creating room for development.
Additionally, it also creates a gap for more training opportunities. For example, business owners may offer employees leadership training before handling managerial tasks. It benefits both them and your business by filling any skills gaps.
3. Helps in Building Managing Skills
Another reason delegation is necessary in business is that it helps develop entrepreneurs’ management skills. Through this, business owners grow their organization, project management, decision-making, and communication skills, which are necessary for managerial positions.
As an entrepreneur, you’ll also learn to give constructive feedback, be patient with employees, and have tough conversations. It pushes business owners out of their cocoon to grow into wholesome managers.
Learning how, when, and to whom you should delegate tasks is challenging. You will learn this through practice. Delegating is important in business because it helps you handle different team sizes, big or small.
4. Creates Good Work-Life Balance
80% of business owners feel they work too much, with 20% working over 60 hours weekly. Fewer entrepreneurs have an excellent work-life balance. But, if you delegate more work, your business keeps running without your presence, leaving time to spend with your family and friends.
With less professional baggage, business owners can also practice hobbies. It also creates time for relaxing and refueling, allowing you to energize.
Proper delegation also ensures that employees are given equal workloads. Overworked employees tend to suffer from burnout, which sometimes causes them to become less productive. Delegating will help lighten one employee’s workload, as someone else will handle other tasks.
5. Encourages Teamwork
Delegation is important in business because of teamwork. According to research, 37% of employees view teamwork as necessary, while 27% leave an organization due to a lack of collaboration. Delegation helps build good relationships between you and your team members.
Through collaboration, members learn how to cooperate and share collective responsibility, which fosters good teamwork. Similar to a sports team, an organization will perform better when everyone works together as a unit.
6. Delegation Is Crucial for Strategic Planning
A company might collapse without proper business planning. When you delegate tasks to other teams during the planning stage, you can help align expectations and timelines to ensure the project will be accomplished without a hitch.
You can read more reasons to delegate from LinkedIn.
What Are the 3 Golden Rules of Delegation in Business?
The three golden rules of delegation are clarifying the task, patience, and validating. Before delegating, ask yourself who will do the task, the skills needed, the deadline, and the expected outcome. Patience means understanding that delegating might mean a job takes longer to complete. Finally, validating means guiding every step.
Let’s expound further on the three golden rules of delegation:
- Clarification.
Before assigning the responsibility to someone else, have a clear picture of what needs to be done. This will help you better understand the expected outcome and avoid confusion. - Patience.
The saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Delegating means work will move slower before another employee settles into the role. Therefore, be patient because it will be beneficial in the long run despite initially taking time. - Validation.
Take time to guide employees by providing checks every step of the way. For example, before an employee creates an official duty roster, they can send you a draft for your approval.
Learn more about the art of delegation from Forbes.
What Are the Delegation Skills in Business?
Delegation skills in business include communication, negotiation, training, time management, self-awareness, and the ability to provide constructive feedback. These skills ensure concerns and responsibilities are addressed smoothly and everything is delivered on time.
Here are the delegation skills in business explained in detail:
- Communication.
This is the ability to exchange information effectively. A leader should listen to employees and answer questions correctly. Employees should also receive information with the same intention. - Negotiation.
During delegation, your demands or execution strategies might differ from those of employees. You can work out the differences through negotiations. Also, it is necessary to negotiate the level of control each party wants on the project. - Training.
These skills are necessary when educating, demonstrating, and providing instructions on a task. Remember to be patient during training. - Time-management.
This skill tests your ability to use time effectively and assign reasonable deadlines. Therefore, schedule feedback sessions and training appropriately. - Self-awareness.
Understand your strengths, weaknesses, and the impact you have on employees during delegation. These skills will help you create an inclusive environment. - Provide Constructive Feedback.
Give helpful feedback when assigning responsibilities. Also, identify new opportunities for learning and improving.
What Should Business Leaders Not Delegate?
Business leaders should not delegate core responsibilities, important sales meetings, investor relationships, hiring, and nurturing talent. Disciplining shouldn’t be delegated to avoid giving too much power to the wrong person.
Managing a crisis also requires the business leaders to be present to mitigate both parties involved.
The purpose of delegation is to offload tasks from a business leader. However, when done incorrectly, it can show employees and investors that you don’t care about the company.
When delegated, some things lose their impact. For example, praise for a fellow employee won’t feel the same as that from the company’s owner.
Discover the disadvantages of delegation.
When Should Business Leaders Delegate?
Business leaders should delegate when they have little time to complete a task or when something has been sitting on their desk for too long. Having employees with the right skills or better suited for the job is a sign to delegate.
Here are the signs that indicate a Business Leader when to delegate:
- Little Time.
Struggling to complete a task on time shows you’re probably taking more than you can handle, which indicates it’s time to delegate. Overworking can lead to substandard results. - Postponing a Task.
Putting off a task for too long indicates you lack the time to do it, thus delegating. - Employees Having the Right Skills.
It’s important to delegate in business based on strengths and expertise. Hence, delegate tasks employees can appropriately execute instead of wasting your employees’ skills. - It’s a Good Growth Opportunity.
A business leader can feel delegation may help an employee grow to a higher position. In such a case, delegating and testing their skillset is better. - To Boost Morale.
Delegating means an employee will have some freedom, and the leader won’t micromanage them. This creates a sense of trust, which boosts morale.
Find out what tasks you can delegate to your virtual assistant and how you can delegate them.
How to Know if Your Employees Are Ready for Delegation
Here are some questions about your employees that can help you find out if delegation is appropriate for your business:
- Do They Have the Same Expertise as You?
As a leader, you must identify the person you’ll delegate the task to. You need to assess their skills and knowledge first, then delegate. This will help ensure an acceptable outcome when the task is done. - Do They Have Enough Time to Finish the Task?
You must ensure that you and the employee to whom you plan to delegate a task have aligned timelines. Ask them first if they can meet the deadline, or look at their schedule and tasklist if you have access to them before you approach them. - Will They Develop Their Skills if You Delegate This Task?
Ask yourself if this task will help train your employees to improve their jobs. If your answer is yes, you can delegate the task to them. If they do well, you can delegate a similar task to them in the future.
When you delegate, ensure you don’t expect perfect results from the assignee. You should be willing to accept at least 70% of the expertise you usually bring. Apply this rule, especially if you need the output immediately.
However, if there’s a lot of time to accomplish it, you can guide the assignee to achieve the results you want.
Note: Delegating tasks to someone who can do them better than you is always appropriate.
How to Handle Delegated Team Members
Here are some of the most proven methods to help you out in handling delegated team members:
- Encourage Group Cooperation.
Delegating is important as it aids collaboration among team members. As a leader, you must remind team members to depend on each other if they need someone else’s expertise to accomplish a task. - Learn What Motivates the Team Members.
To do this, you can engage in non-work conversations and find out what makes them want to work better. In the process, you can also learn about what makes them stay in your company. - Establish a Thriving Team Environment.
If you know how to motivate your team members and give them credit when it’s due, you can handle them efficiently. When team members are appreciated, they might even go above and beyond your expectations. - Set an Example.
A good leader who sets an example will be respected and followed by team members. Do this to establish authority when you delegate tasks. -
Set Clear Goals.
To help team members perform better when you delegate tasks, you can set clear written goals for them to track. This will help your team monitor their performance and identify which ones they need to improve.
- Make Yourself Available for Everyday Interactions.
As a leader, you should be open to communication and feedback from your team members. You can also set up one-on-one sessions to determine what they need. - Give Constructive Feedback.
It would be great if you could give feedback in person, as this will help you build rapport with your team members. It will also help you resolve issues with their output, if there are any. - Trust Your Team Members.
Your team members are in your team because they have the skills and experience your company needs. When you delegate tasks to them, trust that they can accomplish them.
When delegating, make sure to foster relationships with your team members first so it’s easier to communicate and delegate tasks to them.
Why Do Managers Fail to Delegate?
Managers fail to delegate mainly because they don’t trust their team. The urge to be in control and fear of failing also causes them not to delegate. Seeing subordinates as a threat and feeling no one can do tasks with quality causes managers to handle everything alone.
Check the 5 worst results of a business leader failing to delegate tasks.
All these factors arise because managers may not fully understand delegation in business. Their reluctance to delegate can leave them feeling overwhelmed and overworked.
Business leaders should consider asking managers to delegate training and coaching whenever they spot a difficulty in sharing responsibility.
Delegation Is Important in Business
Delegation is important in business because it helps entrepreneurs create a good work-life balance and build their teams. It is also an excellent initiative to boost teamwork and allow employees to showcase their skills.
However, not all tasks, especially core responsibilities, are suitable for delegation. For delegation to be successful, leaders must have good communication, negotiation, training, and time-management skills.
