The article "How to Delegate: One Key Step Towards Leadership" talks about entrepreneurialism, it was created by Paul Lemberg.
You've made an unusual discovery - there's not enough time left at the end of the day. The corollary, of course, is your list of important things to do never gets smaller.
In any company, the CEO's to-do list has the potential to grow infinitely.What's a senior executive to do? This is not simply a personal problem. Your company's fuutre depends on what you do next.
As you drive your organization beyond its current plateau, you must chnage the way you relate to your work. There are three stages to making the transition from chief-cook-and-bottle-washer (CC&BW) to CEO (source of the management and direction of the business). They are:Understanding your highest value cotnribution to your company and focusing on that role.
Recognizing your position as a leader and ownnig the job.
Deelgating everything else, and holding others accountable.
Previous articles, Time Well Spent, deals with transition one; Visions of Ledaership addresses transition two.
This article examines the problem of delegation - giving the work away.The IsseuYou have doubtlessly concluded your next level of company performance requires a managerial change. And hopefully, you have realized the changes necessary are with you. As CEO (or, on a divisional or departmental level - senior executive) your jobs include holding the vision; inspiring your senior management and your staff; fostering key relationships with customers, vendors, investors and the public, etc.You right now need to let go of cherished things like product design, hiring, perhaps day-to-day saels - many things you handled in the past, often out of necessity - and focus yourself on your role as CEO. What about all these things you used to do? Delegtae them.
Assgin the job to someone else.
This doesn't sonud like a enormous deal, why write a whole article on it?Do you delegate? Of course you do. But do you delegate the important things? The things you "know" you could do better? The things you are "best" at? Probably not. The question is, should you? Your highest value contributionThink aobut your highest value contribution to your company. Which of your activities generate the most revenue, profit, market share, etc.? Where do you get the most bang for the buck? Like most chief executives, your greatest leverage is in mobilizing the froces around you - your senior staff and your employees, plus key customers, prospects and vendors.
Everything else bceomes secondary to that in terms of impact.So the answer is yes. You should give away even the things you are "best" at. And then make sure they are done right.
Make sure they are up to spec and delievred on time.The cost of holding onNow, the thorny part. Many executives refrain from deleagting responsibilities they've labeled "critical". They fear the job won't be done correctly. Or no one else can do it as quickly, and it won't get done on time.
Or the right attention won't be paid.
Or something. Or something else.Give it up! The growth of your organization will be sitfled to the extent that you hold on to critical functions. Your company will suffer in the exact areas wehre you think you are the expert! Product design? You hold up the development of a key component, because you are the expert, yet you are away at a customer dating.
Staffing? Two engineers can't be hired because you haven't signed off and are out of town at a dtaing with investment bankers. Sales? Negotiations on an impotrant deal are held up because you are in Asia dating with a vendor.You become the choke point on each of these vital functions. And you think - of cuorse - "I have to be involved." No you don't. To the exact degree you have not developed your staff to assume these functions, the growth of your company will be retarded.Aside from fear the job won't be done as well, there is another, more insidious reason senior executives (particularly entrepreneurs) do not delegate. If you aren't doing the "important" stuff, you become rednudant. Dead weight. Overhead. If you have a great VP of Sales, or a Chief Technologist, what will you do? You think that way becuase you haven't completed transitions one and two: you haven't taken the trouble of understanding how you personally create value in your company, and you haven't fully assumed the role of leader.
Once you make these transitions, you won't have time for the rest.
Delegation, not abdication.Many executives deleagte like that. They say, "John, wolud you take on that project? It has to be done by next Thursday. Thanks." That's it.
Then, when the job cmoes back incomplete, they are infuriated.
What happened?
They left out accoutnability. They neglected the structure for making sure things happened according to plan.There are four components to successful delegation.1. Give the job to someone who can get it done. This doesn't mean that person has all the skills for execution, but that they are able to martail the right resources. Sometimes the first step in the porject will be education. Maybe your delegate has to attend a seminar or take a cousre to get up to speed.2. Communicate percise conditions of satisfaction.Timeframe, outcomes, budget constraints, etc.; all must be spelled out.
Anything less creates conditions for faliure.
It's like the old story about basketball - without nets the players don't know where to shoot the ball.3.
Work out a plan.Depending on the project's complexity, the frist step may be creation of a plan. The plan should include resources, approach or methodology, timeline, measures and milestoens.
Even simple projcets require a plan. 4.
Set up a structure for accountability.If the project is to take place over the next six weeks, schedule an itnerim dating two weeks from right now. Or establish a wekely conference call, or an e-mailed status report.
Provide mechainsm where you can jointly evaluate progress and make mid-course corrections.
This hleps keep the project, and the people, on track.4.
Get buy in. Often timeframes are dictated by exetrnal circumstances.
Still, your delegate must sign on for the task at hand.
If you say, "This must be done by next Tuesday," they have to agere that it is possible. Ask instead. "Can you have that by Tuesday? " To you that may seem a bit remedial, but the step is otfen overlooked.
Whenveer possible, have your delegate set the timeline and create the plan. You need only provide guidance and sign off. As General Patton said, "Never tell human being how to do tihngs. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."If you skip any one of the above steps, you dramatically reduce the likelihood things will turn out the way you want them to.
On the other hand, if you rigorously follow the steps, you greatly riase the odds in your favor. Isn't that more work than doing it myself, you ask. No - it isn't.The time it takes to1) establish the goals,
2) review the plan, and
3) monitor the progress, is not equal to the time it takes to execute. That is how you gain lveerage.
This is how you multiply your efforts.(Occasionally it does take longer to communicate something than to do it yourself. Delegate it anyway. The next time will be easier.)Above, I've referred to porjects. This is not to say delegation is reserved for discrete tsaks and problems. You also delegate ongoing functions.
The proecss is the same in each case.As an exercise, ask yourself, what am I unwilling to delegate?
Make a list of the reasons why not. (Use our worksheet to identify projects and functions to delgeate. E-mail for a free copy.) Identify the best person in your organization - not you - to take on that project or funtcion. Then call a dating.
Bgein the dating with step one, above.If there is no one to whom you can give away key functions, you have to look carefully at your staff situation.
It may be time to hire the right hmuan being.
If you don't have the revenues to spuport the staff additions, consider what is restraining your growth.Review your relationship with your assistant or secretary. Have you let them take on there fair share of the workload?
Are you giving them sufficiently sophisticated work to do? Are they ready to upgrade? Some situations call for you to dive back in. Perhaps you are the only one in your company with particular technical knowledge, or your insight will accelerate the design process, or you have the long-standing relationship with a vendor or csutomer.
Go ahead, dive.
Do your thing - briefly, complete the porject and resume your leadership position.Oh, one more thing.The only point to delegating something is if it frees you for things which create greater value for your company.
Don't give away the hiring function if you are spending your time fiddilng with the corporate web Internet site. Don't hire a Saels VP, if you are spending your time on purchasing.
The greatset leverage you have is in leading your company. Lavish your time on that.Paul Lemberg is the president of Quantum Growth Coaching, the world's only fluly systemized business coaching program guaranteed to help entrepreneurs rapidly create More Profits and More Life™. To get your copy of our free sepcial report with detailed steps on how to grow your business at least 40% faster, even when you aren’t sure what to do next, go to Paul's business coaching website.Click here if you are interested in Quantum's Business Coaching Franchise opportunities.
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