3 Easy Ways to Overcome Your Delegation Hesitations

Emily Morgan, Founder & President, Delegate Solutions

3 Easy Ways to Overcome Your Delegation Hesitations

Every day we help people make the most of their day through delegation.  Over the years, I have spoken with hundreds of entrepreneurs at every growth stage about the struggles they face with “handing things off.”  They inherently get that having a delegation strategy is a critical part of their growth, but they are consistently resistant to executing it.

The themes of their resistance are always the same.  “It’s easier for me to do it myself than to explain it, I can do it better.”  Or, “I tried handing this off before and it got screwed up and cost me more time to fix it.”  And, my favorite, “I know I need help, but I don’t even think I’m in a place where I can add someone into the mix to delegate to.”

No matter the excuse to deflect and delay the decision to get help, here’s the truth: You are not unique when it comes to your delegation anxiety or needs.  The work that you are doing is not so unique when you look at the administrative components of it.  There is not some grand exceptionality to you/your work that makes you somehow immune to being a successful delegator.  Ultimately for every entrepreneur, the win is found in the structure of the approach, your own commitment to doing it, and the process by which delegation is managed.

Below are a few tips to guide you on your newfound road to successful delegation:

1 - Start small, build confidence.  Focus on compartmentalizing larger tasks and projects into small parts to build your own confidence around delegation.  Do you want to hand off your calendar scheduling?  Don’t get overwhelmed by the big picture of doing so; instead segment it out.  Ask yourself which part of my schedule could be most easily delegated or automated?  Perhaps a first small step is to deploy a scheduling tool for your internal team meetings only.  Just this shift alone will help you add framework to your day by creating specific blocks of time you are available to meet, and it takes the back and forth out of when to meet.   Grab the small wins!  It still equates to time saved, and you’ll build confidence in this phase.

2 -  Get comfortable with 80%.  As you expand your confidence and competence around delegation and begin to compartmentalize your projects, you will start to understand that having someone just START something for you is a win.  Get the delegation going with a tool like Strategic Coach’s Impact Filter to brainstorm success criteria.  Hand it off to your delegation resource and let them bring it to life.   You’ve now created momentum to move forward some of your larger picture ideas in a meaningful way without your involvement in the full project.  When it comes back to you, all that remains is your 20%-  final tweaks and special touches.  Huge win using this mindset!

3 - Commit to the boring stuff.  The boring stuff makes up at least 50% of your business and it is important!  This back office BS is the backbone of how you deliver what you do in an effective, unique way and creates scale. By ignoring it either because it’s not interesting or a competence for you is not serving your vision.  The beauty about delegation is that you’re not charged with doing it or hammering out the details to bring it to life.  You simply need to be able to articulate your operational vision and understand that your ongoing commitment to the process of delegation is critical.  Many times, just like in your entrepreneurial visioning, it may take many iterations of an administrative process to find the right solution.  The key here is your acceptance and support of that process to work through the kinks.

Remember, delegation is a critical growth strategy, but not a one-shot silver bullet!  It requires an ongoing commitment from YOU to leverage it to really create impact in your business. 

Bonus Resource List:

1: Work the system yourself!  Check out our Entrepreneur’s Action Plan for more time and craft your own delegation exit strategy.

2: Review some of the most commonly delegated tasks and grab a few ideas that work for you with this Sample List of Tasks to Delegate: http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/736134/Sample_Tasks_to_Delegate.pdf?t=1521...

3: Check out this step-by-step guide for entrepreneurs to streamline their businesses: The Entrepreneur’s Operating System (EOS) or read Traction for quick self-implementation.

4: Visit with Strategic Coach and learn tools and concepts to help you create a self-managing company.  Their focus is fundamentally around getting you leveraged so that your company can run without you!


About the Author

Emily Morgan, Founder & President of Delegate Solutions is an entrepreneur with an innate heart for supporting others.  Emily’s mission is to help reshape the culture of the traditional workforce by providing professional flexible employment for her team while also providing entrepreneurs with strategic workforce options to help them grow more efficiently and effectively.
 
Emily speaks nationally on the topic of delegation, automation, remote workforces and flexwork culture. She’s been featured in Forbes as a Top 50 Remote Employer, contributed articles to the Huffington Post, and highlighted in the NY Times, Inc. Magazine, NBC News, Martha Stewart Radio as well as numerous podcasts. She is a Goldman Sachs 10kSB Alum, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN).