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HOW TO DELEGATE
Of all the things you can do to make your business a success, perhaps the most important is to stop trying to do everything yourself. If you are not delegating to your staff, you may destroy your business in the long term. Yes, it's true. Your hard work, the long hours you put in, and your personal attention to every detail may be hurting - not helping - your business. Almost inevitably when we have seen a business fail, a major (or at least contributing) cause of the failure was the inability or unwillingness of the owner or a key manager to delegate. Tragically, many of these businesses failed just at the point where they were really taking off. Orders were pouring in. Customers were lined up at the door. But the owner tried to do everything - check every order, serve every customer, make every decision. Then quality begins to slip. Delivery dates were missed. Customer service deteriorated. Why? Because there was just too much work for one person and the employees hadn't been trained or motivated to share the load.
In this chapter, we focus on delegation - how to determine if you have a delegation problem and what to do about it if you do.
Do You Have a Delegation Problem?
Do you have a delegation problem? Answer the following questions with a yes or no, then count the number of yes answers you give. Later, we will show you how to interpret the results.
1. Are you working longer and longer hours with less time for your family and friends?
2. Are you reluctant to take a vacation for fear that your business might suffer in your absence?
3. Do you feel you must constantly double-check your employees' work to make sure it is done right?
4. Do you get upset when things aren't done your way?
5. Do you constantly complain about how hard it is to find "really good people" to work for you?
6. Do you seem to always be "putting out fires?"
7. Do you find yourself doing things because "it's just easier to do it yourself than to try to tell them how to do it?"
8. When you do give an order or make an assignment, do you find yourself spelling out every detail of what should be done and how it should be done?
9. Do you frequently carry work home with you because there just isn't enough time to get it all done during the day?
10. Do you feel constantly under pressure with too many things to do?
11. Do your employees frequently check with you about how to perform routine work?
12. Do you feel it necessary to issue reams of written policies, procedures, rules, and guideline to cover every conceivable issue and situation?
13. Do you insist that "no money is to be spent" without your approval?
14. Do you feel uncomfortable if you don't know the technical details concerning how to perform the jobs of the people who report to you?
15. Do you find it hard to set priorities and seem instead to jump from one thing to another throughout the day?
16. Are you cautious about how much information you can share with your employees, preferring instead to just tell them "what they need to know?"
17. Does your business often seem disorganized and chaotic?
18. Do you find it difficult to directly supervise more than three or four people because "there just isn't enough time?"
How did you do? If you answered yes to more than three or four of these questions, then chances are you need to improve your delegation skills.
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