Many small business owners start out doing everything for their business themselves. However, as a company grows, it becomes vitally important to delegate tasks in order to keep it growing, while also enabling you to have a life outside of your business. PADGETT BUSINESS SERVICES®, a financial services partner to small businesses for over 40 years, knows the importance of delegation in practice.
Part one of this guide covered the definition of delegation, why you should delegate and why it is difficult to do so sometimes. Part two will cover what, who and how in regards to delegation.
What Should You Delegate?
Our previous blog post covered why you should delegate, but the next question small business owners or managers often ask is what should I delegate? You should delegate tasks that:
- Are repeated
- Are non-essential
- Do not have short deadlines
- Someone else could do better than you
Do not delegate tasks that are a mismatch for your employees’ skill sets. Also, work that is needed to fix a crisis is confidential or is a personnel issue should only be handled by business owners or managers.
To Whom Should You Delegate?
The key to deciding who to delegate to is done through matching the right task to the appropriate person. Learn the current workload, skills and work style of your employees and, when you’re familiar with how they work and what they can accomplish, you will have a much clearer picture of what tasks to allocate to whom. Look for employees who are interested in learning new skills or who want to enhance the skills they already possess. Delegation is also an excellent way to prepare an employee for a promotion or to fill in gaps in his/her current skill set.
How Should You Delegate?
Now that you know why, what and to whom to delegate, the final step is to learn how to delegate. Good delegation requires time and commitment from you. The first step is to clearly define the tasks you are delegating and then communicating them clearly to your employees. Be sure to state why the task needs to be done, the desired outcome for the task and the timeline in which it needs to be completed.
Give the employee the authority needed to make decisions in order to complete the task. Set measurable standards for the task and then monitor their progress through feedback and support. Once the task is completed, give praise and advice. Remember to allow different methods and working styles for the task. After all, you are handing over the responsibility, so you cannot expect an employee to do the task the exact same way you would have done it yourself.
Delegation, when carried out correctly, will give you the room you need to concentrate on growing your business. It will also develop your team’s skills and engage them more in your business. PADGETT BUSINESS SERVICES® has a proven track record of providing small businesses with the tax, financial and payroll services that they need. Contact us if you want to delegate any of your business financial tasks to us.