Delegating wisely multiplies your value to business

Delegation is the foremost attribute of a great leader. Learning how to delegate effectively is the key to leveraging yourself and multiplying your value to grow your business faster. It is also the most effective way to get the most value out of your employees.

As a matter of fact, some of the challenges most managers and business owners face today, which cost them a lot of money, are either lack of effective delegation or capable employees to accomplish tasks delegated to them.

Lack of skilled and capable employees or delegation of duties by the business leader technically means the burden of running a business rests on the shoulders of one person. It means your productivity is only limited to what you can do as a person.

Incidentally, many business leaders get it wrong on delegation and bring their firms to ruin. This is especially when business starts growing and tasks increases.

As a leader you must understand that delegation is not abdication of your duties. You are always responsible for what happens to your business even if decision was made by others. This is why you must stay on top and track what is being done.

For delegation to be effective it must meet certain basics requirement such as:

First, select the right people, train and equip them well. Delegating key duties to people who are not capable of doing what they are supposed to do is a recipe for disaster.

Second, be clear on exactly what you want. Some people find it hard to delegate because they don’t have a plan or a clear vision of what they want. They often make decision ad hoc. You cannot task someone to make decisions on your behalf if you don’t really know, and cannot articulate, your desire.

Third, communicate your expectations clearly. Since the person is acting on your behalf, it is only logically that you should read from the same script.

Fourth, you must always be virtually present. Make yourself available for consultation. Luckily, technology has made this very easy. You can communicate on phone, email, WhatsApp and other avenues from anywhere any time.

Don’t neglect your business simply because you have the right employees in charge and you have empowered them to make decisions. In management it is said that you must always inspect what you expect.

Physically and mentally vacating your business is negligence, not delegation. Always ensure you get reports and make decisions based on the reports. Give feed back to your staff, correct them where they go wrong and praise them for what they do according to your expectations.

Delegation is basically supposed to free you to focus on other priorities of your business. It helps you handle more complex and important matters instead of spending time on minor issues like record keeping, banking or responding to queries and petty staff issues.