3 Complex Delegating Challenges

Why in the world should you master the art and skill of delegating? The easy answer is that there are 168 hours in the week. Some of that time you’re sleeping, you’re eating, your spending time with family and friends. You have a finite amount of time where you can actually work on your business, and you want to make sure that you’re doing the work that is your unique skill set, that you love to do, and that drives the business forward – your zone of genius.

Of course, there are other things that need to be done, and if you don’t move those items off your plate, your growth and earning potential are limited by the number of hours you work, whereas you can exponentially grow as you bring more people into the fold.

There are three main delegating challenges I hear most from clients. (Names changed to protect the busy!)

Jennifer explained, “I know I have the right people working on the job. And I know that we have a really strong expectation and process for how they’re supposed to do these projects. But things still aren’t getting done and are falling through the cracks.”

As we dug into this challenge, we realized that her employees didn’t have a skills problem, they had an authority-level problem. They hadn’t been given the authority to reach back out to the client when information was missing or delayed.

The solution? They reworked a little bit of their scope of services in their client agreement, and also set up some boundaries around what and how to communicate with those clients.

Another client, Elaine, complained, “This task is super easy. And my direct reports can’t do it. How can they not do it?”

Employees follow a step-by-step system to complete tasks – but upon review, Elaine found the process was out of date, was missing steps, and things were no longer accurate. It’s not the employee at fault, it’s the outdated process!

Elaine and her team updated and revamped their processes, adding boundaries to assign authority to each task’s owner.

And last, Sharon. Sharon had great SOPs, great employees, and great delegating skills. In spite of that, she was frustrated at being asked countless questions throughout the day.

Sharon realized that she had delegated a ton of tasks but had not assigned any consolidated roles to manage those tasks. She was the sole decision-maker because she had not created any roles for others to fill within the company.

She organized similar tasks into a specifically defined task set and assigned the most appropriate employee to each role, giving boundaries and guidance to each person about when and where they have authority to make decisions.

Now those talented employees take ownership of those roles, and the number of interruptions and questions during the day is greatly reduced.