Are you Delegating or Dumping?

Posted: November 15, 2011 | Categories: Management

J.C. Penney once said, “One of the biggest causes of business failure is the inability to delegate”

In the late 90’s, I was hired by a prominent graphic designer to help accelerate the growth of his business.  He had just completed a book cover for a high-profile athlete, and things were booming.  He had reached the point where he was doing too much himself, and he wanted to be a better delegator.  He talked about situations where he had assigned his team to meet with clients.   One frequent comment he heard was, “Jim, whenever you are not in the room, the value of your company is cut in half”.  I assumed he wanted to change this.  I was wrong.

We began working on his delegation skills, and it wasn’t long before we lost momentum.  All too late, I realized that Jim was one of those folks who just couldn’t “let go of what he loved”.

As legendary management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “Grow your business by growing your people” That means we need to get better at delegating.

Let’s get on the same page regarding delegation:  When we delegate(versus dumping), we have carefully considered a task or project that we can let go of, and we have matched this challenge up with one of our associates.  We have thought about their strengths and interests, potential for competency enhancement, and have made a carefully calculated decision to make a handoff.   Next, we have a meeting.  Here are the steps:

• Explain what you would like done, and why you have selected them
• Communicate the rules and parameters.  (Time, cost, etc.)
• Define the results clearly
• Set standards of performance
• Ask them to make a plan
• Review the plan and make sure you are in agreement.  If not, negotiate!
• Establish action steps, deadlines, and benchmarks
• Watch them grow!

There is an old saying; “If you want to do a job right…do it yourself” That is human nature.  That means delegation is unnatural.  Who ever said building a business was easy?