Understanding how to delegate

As the manager of a small business, you need to learn how to depend on others in order to become successful with your business. You will have the desire to control multiple aspects of the company but before long you will find that you just cannot do this and you need to acquire support and help from others. Learn to delegate as it will save you a big headache and a lot of lost money, time, and energy.

Learning to delegate assignments begins with some simple things on your part like taking a look at your work load and offering some of these things to your employees that you trust and feel are more than capable of the assignments. You need to carefully consider the people you are handing the assignments to because it will be a big advancement for them and it's a great way to test employees that have a lot of potential with the company.

Create a list of every job within the organization and then list the responsibilities for every role. This allows you to see which employees could use exposure in other areas of the company and which employees are comfortable in the areas that they are currently in. It also helps you to see just how much you have on your plate and the importance of delegating some of the assignments that you have. How much time do you spend on tasks that do not need a lot of energy or thought? Are you spending too much time on things that do not need this much attention? You will quickly be able to delegate some of the lesser assignments to others in the company that do not have as much to do and are not able to participate in as many projects.

Making a list of all of your employees and their skills helps you to effectively use them. You will be able to rely on the employees that have computer design skills for your website so you don't need to try and learn how to build a website or maintain one. The more you get to know your employees, the easier it will be for you to reach out to them and build relationships with them and to challenge them and weed out those that don't have the drive to succeed from the ones that do.

Multitasking is common for many business owners and you become a jack of all trades. The problem is that you might not be a "master" of any of them. List out what your special talents and skills are so you can determine how you need to improve on certain things and why you need to delegate other tasks to your employees.

Putting your trust in others requires a big effort on your part. This is not something that will come easily to you and it will test you. Delegating requires you to figure out people within your staff that are capable of some of your work and to also work on letting go of things that you will no longer control. Meet with the employees individually and evaluate the skills that each of them have so you can see which ones you feel comfortable trusting.

Learning to delegate is great but you need to be careful about taking advantage of it. Some small business owners like the freedom they have when they have other people practically running the entire business. You need to make sure you aren't delegating too much power to your employees or it will really hurt your ability to lead the company when you come back from a break or a vacation.