When it comes to being an entrepreneur, it never seems like there are enough hours in the day to get everything done. It’s no surprise that early on in your career, being an entrepreneur is synonymous with working long hours and weekends and doing the bulk of the work on your own. While having a strong work ethic is important, so is the ability to delegate appropriate tasks to your employees so that you can focus on the tasks that are important in growing your business.
Early on in your career, your day is likely to be full of small tasks that are easy to complete, but as your business grows, these tasks begin to multiply and in order to stay on top of them you will either need to delegate the tasks or be forced to work constantly, never completing everything. In order for your business grow even more, tasks will need to be delegated to your employees. If you struggle with delegating tasks because you have a tendency to be a perfectionist, follow these tips to free up your mind and ultimately, be more successful as an entrepreneur.
Assess Your Team
The people that work for you all have varying skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Being able to properly assess your team will help when it comes time to delegate tasks to them. Play to each of your employee’s strengths when delegating tasks to them. It seems quite simple, however, it is very easy to give tasks to employees that don’t have as much work to do as others, even if they aren’t the best for the job. If the workload seems imbalanced, try breaking up a task or project and delegate them to members that have those skills already in their wheelhouse.
Teach Your Team New Skills
Make sure that they have the opportunity to learn the task you want to assign to them. Set aside time to teach your team how you would like them to complete a task, what is expected, and be available for questions. People typically want to be seen as irreplaceable and teaching them additional skills will give them more confidence in their ability to excel at their job. Taking the time to teach employees can also give those who have weaknesses a chance to improve on their shortcomings, giving you more available team members that can complete that specific task.
Establish Open Lines of Communications
The people that work for you and your business likely believe in what you are trying to accomplish and want you to succeed, so if you delegate a task or project to them, you should be able to trust that they’ll get it done correctly and within the deadline. While this may be true, it’s always a good idea to create a good line of communication between you and your employees. Respect their ideas or any concerns and check in with them to make sure they understand what is expected of them with regards to the task or project.
Along those same lines, make sure that you are clear about your instructions to complete the task and give a reasonable deadline for completion. When there are multiple people working on the same project, make sure the tasks are delegated amongst them effectively. If you are clearer on your instructions initially, there’s a better chance that the tasks will be completed to your specificity.
Give Your Employees Credit
Unless you’re somehow able to get everything done by yourself, the success of your business lies with both you and your employees. Delegating tasks is essential to your business and you should respond to their dedication to their work by giving them praise and credit for their work. If you trust your employees to get the job done, it can already give them a great sense of pride. If you respond to their great work with compliments, it can give them even more of a motivation to work hard at their job and do it right every time.
Accept Criticism
Don’t expect that you’ll excel in delegating tasks, especially if you’re new to being a leader. Respond to the good work of your employees with praise, respond to poor work with an open mind and constructive criticism, and always be open to listening to any feedback. It can be difficult to hear when you’re not doing a great job at delegating tasks but be open to your team and the feedback they give you. In order to get better, you’ll have to be able to learn from any mistakes you’ve made in the past.
Being an effective leader means being able to overcome adversity and challenges for the sake of the employees and company as a whole. Delegating tasks can be difficult for many entrepreneurs, however, the sooner you’re able to assign tasks effectively, the better off you’re company will be because it will be running more efficiently.
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