Are You a Business Owner Who Avoids Delegating?

This is the first in a series of blogs on delegation skills.  

Are you a business owner? Do you avoid delegating? If so, you are not alone. Most business owners got to where they are because they are good at what they do, they like what they do, they are proud of it, and don’t trust that someone else could do the job as good as they can. 

If you recognize these traits, you might be wise to design an Owner-Driven Business where you continue to generate great client results through your own efforts. On the other hand, if you want to scale your business, you will need to:

provide your team with the resources and authority to implement services as good or better than you can

deliver yourself.

To begin, you must resolve your roadblocks to delegating.

Which of these statements might be true for you?

You:  

  • feel that completing tasks yourself can be more efficient. 
  • fear that employees will make mistakes. 
  • are afraid that employees working independently will not maintain accountability.   
  • feel that that employees won’t access information needed to complete tasks. 
  • fear that employees will become so capable of tasks delegated to them that they become competitors. 
  • feel that you don’t have the communication skills needed to delegate properly. 
  • fear you don’t have the ability to train employees to complete tasks. 
  • fear that employees will resent delegation. 

Solutions to these roadblocks are individual in nature. You and your stakeholders can brainstorm specific solutions.  You can begin by asking yourself:   

  • What will I gain if I resolve this particular roadblock; what will it be like? 
  • What will need to happen for me to resolve this roadblock?  

QUESTIONS

Asking these kinds of questions is the first step to developing an action plan to successful delegation.  

Chuck Scharenberg is the Founder of More Profit More Freedom, a consultancy that supports the execution of large-scale growth for small businesses. His practice has successfully grown businesses with processes that identify potential roadblocks and mitigation schemes to accelerate realistic execution..  

Solving the Right problems by asking the Right questions