Delegation is hard. Especially, if you are really great at what you do.
Here’s why. You’ve got to where you did because:
- You are exceptionally good at what you do
- You set high standards for the quality of your work.
- You are very committed to the outcomes
But when the workload increases you need to hire other people.
And that’s where the going gets tough.
- It is hard to find others who can match your skill and commitment.
- It is hard to trust others’ capability and intent,
- And is very difficult to accept other ways of doing work (especially if you know that your way works well).
So instead you end up:
- Overworking
- Micromanaging,
- Stressing
- And redoing the work your way.
But here’s the thing. It doesn’t have to be so hard.
Here are 5 small ways to make delegation easier
- Start small: Decide what would be easy to delegate. start with tasks where quality is easy to define and difficult to deviate from. Like operational and admin work.
- Communicate clearly: Be specific in your asks. ” I would like the report crosschecked with the source data, highlight any errors in yellow and note down your suggestions in the comment.” is a clearer instruction than ” Please check this report.”
- Test the competency incrementally: Start by delegating small tasks and increase the complexity as you see the person understanding and getting better at things.
- Be willing to mentor: Don’t expect instant results. Be willing to guide and share your knowledge. Be also open to hearing the challenges on the other side
- Hire people smarter than you: This is the easiest way to delegate, Hire people with more expertise than you. This ensures that the work is done well or maybe better than how you would do it.
And remember, if you learn to delegate it will allow you to do bigger and better things.