Benchmark Business Group

Do You Struggle With Delegating?

November 17, 2020

In any financial services agency, the ability to delegate is vital. Delegating tasks makes your business scalable. If you feel you must handle all tasks on your own, your business can’t grow past your own capacity. Delegating also helps avoid burnout. If you try to handle it all on your own, you’ll find a 40-hour work week can easily stretch into 60-plus hours. And delegating maximizes the value of your time because there are too many requests that are important, but that shouldn’t be on your plate.

Even though delegating is a necessity for your business, it is easy to get wrong. There’s a balance that needs to be achieved. Some leaders struggle with delegating tasks with no follow up. And others struggle with letting tasks go. We often hear delegation issues expressed in terms such as:

  • Too many things get dropped
  • It’s easier to just do it myself
  • I’m not sure if my team can handle those tasks
  • It’s important that I know how to do tasks to keep my skills updated
  • I’m overwhelmed
  • I don’t have the time to show someone how to do it

You might notice that it’s not always clear that delegation is the issue. But it’s a common issue that is often solved by talking about leadership. And on some level, we agree. All leaders need to be able to delegate, but there’s no reason your entire team can’t get better at delegation.

If you’re ready to learn more about delegation then we’re ready to help; but first, here are a few insights that you can implement right away that will make a difference. And the best part is they get your team involved!

  • Ask for a due date. Teach your team that if a task is delegated to them, they should always have a clear understanding of when it’s due. If the due date isn’t given, they need to ask. You can’t take ownership of a task unless you know when it needs to be finished. Yes, as a leader you should get in the habit of giving the due date, but if you forget, your team should follow up and ask. This takes all the pressure off you and puts it on both parties.
     
  • Accept it or discuss it. This one may seem like common sense, but it’s often an undiscussed issue when delegating work. Your team must understand that you don’t always know everything that’s on their plates. If you give them a task and a due date that they can’t meet, they need to speak up immediately! Sometimes, it will mean reprioritizing the task or sometimes it will mean delegating the task to someone else. However, this should be a discussion and not something they try to “handle” on their own. Handling it on their own is how balls get dropped.

Remember, delegation doesn’t fall just on your shoulders. Yes, as a leader you can, and should, always strive to improve your delegation skills. At the same time, part of leadership is empowering your team to take ownership of the tasks that you delegate to them. They need to have the skills to get what they need to know from you. When both parties are working on delegation skills it becomes much easier to get it right.

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