This week on our Summer Thought Leadership Series, Cheryl Bonini Ellis, founder of Ellis Business Enterprises LLC gives us an overview on the importance of entrepreneurial delegation. It’s not too late to enjoy your summer, but what’s better than being able to effectively run your business even when you’re not in the office?
3 Benefits of Growing Your Business with Effective Delegation
By Cheryl Bonini Ellis
Founder of Ellis Business Enterprises LLC
Effective Delegation is one of the most useful skills for any business leader to develop. Learning to successfully transfer ownership of various tasks and responsibilities to others has many benefits – for the business owner or leader, as well as for the team members. I have often heard a level of frustration from business owners and business executives, who say: “My team doesn’t follow up and follow through to get the results I want – on a consistent basis.” Effective delegation is part of the solution to this problem.
In order to delegate successfully to others, it is first necessary to examine your own mindset about “letting go.” How intense is your need to control the outcome and the process? Are you really ready to trust someone else to take ownership? Or, do you believe that “no one can do it like I can” or “it takes so long to teach someone else, I might as well do it myself?” If this is your mindset, you are destined to do it yourself forever. You have to work to overcome that thinking and work on believing in and trusting others.
And working on that first step is important because, when you learn to delegate effectively, there are major benefits to your business. These include:
- Team members who feel empowered. Besides appreciation and feeling valued, the thing that’s most important to your team is the opportunity to learn and grow. When you teach someone a new skill, you extend the trust and encouragement necessary for them to take ownership and responsibility. This is a critical component of getting people to “follow through” on a consistent basis.
- More people who can serve your customers. When more people on your team know how to do more things, you are collectively more valuable to your clients. People don’t want to wait for the boss to make a decision or to solve their problem. They expect the first person they deal with to have the answers. Have you ever been on a mission to accomplish something urgent and the person has to “ask the boss” about that? It’s really frustrating and frustrating your customers is bad for business.
- More flexibility in how you spend your valuable time. This alone provides benefits to your business on many levels. Sharing the load frees up the owner or leader to focus on more strategic actions, pay closer attention to the things only you can do, and earn some important time off away from the business. Unless you feel confident that things will be handled to your satisfaction, this may be difficult for you to do.
Because this is a skill that takes practice and discipline, I’ve found it’s easier when you have specific steps to follow. I’ve developed a framework for effective delegation that works very well for any of my clients that have learned it.
If you would like learn more about this process, click here for a complimentary one-page summary of 7 Steps to Getting Your People to Execute –when you want and how you want.
Cheryl Bonini Ellis is the author of Becoming Deliberate: Changing the Game of Leadership from the Inside Out and creator of the Learning to Lead From Withinä Leadership Training Series. She is a trusted advisor to business executives, entrepreneurs and professionals, helping them achieve breakthrough intelligence by providing tools, skills and the discipline required for success in the toughest and best job there is — leadership. Visit her at www.ellisbusinessenterprises.com | www.johnmaxwellgroup.com/cherylellis
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