Are you spending your time on the most important activities in your business?
If you’re like most business owners the answer is “No.” You end up putting out fires and using up your valuable time on simple tasks that need to get done. These tasks keep you from doing the revenue generating activities and strategic planning within your business.
Every minute you spend on a task that keeps you from marketing, selling, training or falls outside of your highest priorities as the business owner is lost opportunity. It’s costing you money!
Enter the skill of delegation. From the solopreneur to the business owner with a large team delegation is a skill that must be developed and implemented to grow the business. There will be a time where you’ll have to ‘wear all the hats’ in your business, but it shouldn’t last long.
How To Delegate
Most delegation is actually a simple shift, or piling on of tasks that the business owner hates doing or doesn’t want to do anymore to someone who gets paid less than them. The tasks are then left untrained and unmanaged, leading to frustration later on when they aren’t being done well (or at all).
There are two components to delegation:
- Handoff
- Manage
When done well delegation includes clarification, training and accountability for the results. You can’t afford to miss any of these three areas.
During the Handoff you will clearly lay out the expectations for the individual being given the tasks and the priority level for the task at hand.
Consider the following questions:
- What level of detail is expected?
- What priority level does this have?
- What information needs to be reported back?
- What level of authority does the individual have to make decisions?
Once you have clearly laid out expectations it’s time to train the individual to complete the task. Plan ahead by gathering all of the information they will need to complete the task and a clear explanation of where to find this information in the future.
Training can take place using these three steps:
- Explain the task
- Demonstrate the task
- Observe them doing the task
Once you have trained the individual to complete the task and are confident they are able to complete it on their own its important to identify the risk tolerance you are willing to take as a business owner. What are the boundaries for the delegated task?
A delegated tasks shouldn’t end up back on your to-do list. You want to train the individual to identify, analyze and solve any problems that come up when completing the task, especially if it’s a repetitive task. A little time and energy spent upfront in training and prep will save you lots of frustration down the road.
The process doesn’t end with the Handoff! Now you have to manage the task and hold the individual accountable for delivering the results you want. This step is often skipped by business owners only to find out later that the task was never done or done well.
Don’t let that happen to you!
The first step in managing delegated tasks is to create checkpoints to get updates on progress or completion. During these checkpoints you want to ensure that the individual is following through on their commitment and discuss any issues they may be having with completing the tasks.
You have two options for the frequency that you get your updates. First, mostly for one time tasks, you can put the responsibility of the individual who now owns the task to provide updates to you at milestones and/or completion of the task. Second, typically best for recurring tasks, is to build in checkpoints during your Weekly Operating Routine. A great spot for this is in your Weekly Individual Meetings (WIMs).
What Shouldn’t Be Delegated?
The first tasks that fitness pros usually want to delegate are sales and/or marketing. This is a BIG mistake. Those are revenue producing activities that feed your business. Tasks or items that are critical to the growth or success of your business should not be delegated, especially at first.
You’ll likely have a small set of skills or items that your unique strengths. These are tasks or items that only you can do best for your business. These should remain with you for best results.
Your Delegation Action Plan
Find one task that you can practice delegating to another person this week. It might be something as simple as vacuuming the floor of your facility or even getting your groceries for the week. If you’re looking to delegate tasks around the gym or household chores so that you can spend more time growing your business look at apps like Task Rabbit. Upwork.com is a great resource for finding freelance workers to do online activities or administrative work.
Delegation is possible even for the solopreneur. Picking a one time task to free up a little time can be a great start for most business owners. Investing a few bucks to get something off your plate that is keeping you from finding new clients or growing your business will be well worth it.
Delegation becomes addictive when you do it well.
Delegating well in your business is just one way to free up your time so that you can make it worth more. There are other ways to do that too. Find out how to keep more of the money you make with our Take-Home Pay Multiplier.
