Delegation essential for small-business owners

You are now in control of your destiny, filled with dreams of professional, personal and financial success.

Control is the key word. As an entrepreneur, you must maintain it to keep your sanity during the tenuous first stages of your business.

As new business begins to come in, you start building your customer base. Existing customers want more and more of what you have to offer, and your telephone begins to ring off the wall. You are working 60 to 100 hours a week, and you can’t remember your last day off. The stress is taking its toll on you emotionally and physically, not to mention what it’s doing to your family.

You bite the bullet and hire employees to help with the workload.

Now comes the test: Can you release control, letting go when your staff members are ready to handle their job responsibilities?

You will be better equipped for this task by learning the basics of effective delegation:

• Determine which job assignments to delegate. Prime candidates are tasks that increase your stress level and consume more of your time than the value yielded. Also, list the duties that might further develop employees or utilize their expertise.

• Select a team member to delegate responsibilities based on ability, experience and dependability. Assess the difficulty and the importance of the projects. Ascertain the skills and preferences of the employee; don’t let him become stuck, routinely performing the same job because of his proven past achievements. Determine whether the employee wants challenging assignments and has the potential for success. Delegate fairly and realistically.

• Provide the appropriate degree of authority to staff members when tasks are delegated. Delegating total authority will save you the most time in the end, but periodically ask the employee if the appropriate level of authority has been given.

• Render clear expectations so the employee does not waste valuable time producing results that bear little resemblance to the desired outcome. State the purpose of the project, the expected bottom-line results, specific instructions, deadlines, the level of authority and information about any required progress reports.

• Follow up strategically, but don’t micromanage. Consistently provide accurate and honest feedback. Resist the temptation for perfection, and continue to answer questions throughout the project. Ensure that employees have all the necessary resources for success.

• Communicate your desire to hear of problems that arise before they escalate, as well as ideas for solutions. Empower employees to implement their ideas if possible, and recognize that they might actually know a better way to achieve the goal than you do.

• Take the time to provide further training as needed.

The personal benefits of successful delegation for you include decreased stress and increased sales, production and time to execute higher priorities.

In spite of the advantages, you might not delegate as often as you should for several reasons. Insufficient time for training is an acceptable short-term excuse, but usually time spent delegating is later multiplied in time saved. Fear of surrendering authority and a false belief that no one will be able to complete the assignment like you are further hindrances.

Delegation is a critical management skill. Maximize your potential as a small-business owner and contribute to the continued success of your company by trying delegation.

Lynne Haggerman is president/owner of Haggerman & Associates, a firm specializing in management training, retained search, outplacement and human resource consulting. She can be reached at lynne@haggermanand

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