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By: Dike Drummond
Here is a really important success tip for business leaders and it is all about delegating. Since delegation is a key to growing your business AND delegation is a skill we are never taught in school just what is an effective way to delegate in your business?
And here is the story that prompts this article.
I was working with a client this week whose company just put on their first expo, a weekend event. There were hundreds of other companies there. It was a tremendous success, huge amounts of positive feedback and new business. I was congratulating her profusely when she said this;
And I had to work four 80 hour weeks to get it to happen. I could feel the exhaustion in her voice. And it is not like she did not have a staff. She has several people on staff who could have supported her if she had know an effective way to delegate.
However, when she did delegate a task she found herself micromanaging and hovering around them. It was like one of those helicopter parents making sure that every step was taken care of. The biggest reason she found herself micromanaging was this;
Nothing was written down.
There were no procedures, no policies, no job descriptions. There was nothing written down that the person she delegated to could follow so that my client could be assured the proper steps were being taken. This is one of the key growth task of a small business especially if you are a solopreneur to create written policies and procedures so that you can hand them off to the people you would delegate to.
Now, there are two ways to do that but the key is this get it out of your head. Everything that resides only in the head of the owner of the business is a problem. It cannot be delegated and nobody else can help you out and if it is not written down and you try to delegate you are going to hover and micromanage just like my client did.
So there are two ways to do this.
1) Do it Yourself:
Take those activities you would like to delegate and create the policy, create the procedure, a checklist or an algorithm yourself. That way, when you do hire someone in you could simply hand those documents off as part of the delegation process and know that they will get done at least as well as you are doing them right now.
2) Delegate it as Task #1:
When you hire that person in that you want to delegate to make their first task be to write down these policies and procedures, Their first task is to create your Policy and Procedure Manual. What will happen is this; the first time you sit down with them to teach them the task you want them to take over at the same time have them also write down the procedure in the form of a checklist or algorithm. This way you only have to teach them once and they both learn the task and create a written record.
Now, it is always important to be open to the fact that they may do it much better than you do and they may revise your procedure, but as long as the procedure remains written down it can be delegated again. Remember, if you are a solopreneur or a small business owner this first hire may turn out to be the head of a department a year or two from now so giving you them the ability to delegate this task is important too.
Now, let me give you my one take home warning about policies and procedures.
It goes like this. You have to ensure that as you develop written Policies and Procedures that everyone remains Outcome Focused. The reason to be Outcome Focused is Outcome always overrides the Procedure.
Here is what I mean: If you create a policy or procedure manual you will find that a lot of people will actually key their actions off with the policy and forget about the outcome it was focused on. Remember that every policy and procedure is focused on creating a particular outcome standardizing that outcome so it happens every time.
So if you have somebody who says there is a bad outcome in the business there is a disgruntled customer or a client does not get a shipment on time and the person that you have hired in says, Well, I did all the steps in the procedure, and shrugs their shoulders.
That person has become procedure focused, not outcome focused. Remind them that this procedure was put in place to reach an outcome and if their procedure is not hitting the outcome, the outcome over rides the procedure. Give the customer what they want and need to make sure that you hit the outcome rather than just following the procedure and leaving the customer hanging.
This is always the danger when you create policies and procedures. It turns into something like that is the way we do things around here . And anybody who has had a terrible customer service experience and I know you have, I know I have is because somebody was trying to follow a procedure and not trying to make you happy which is the outcome I am sure that company was looking for.
So let us recap.
If you have an activity you want to delegate write it down or have your first hire come in and write it down as one of their first tasks.
AND anytime you create a policy and procedure, make sure that you and the people you are delegating to recognize that it is focused on a outcome and remain outcome focused because the outcome is what is important to your business. That is it for now. Have a great rest today and a great week. Write down those policies and procedures. Get them all on paper and that will make your life a lot easier. Make it so that you do not have to micromanage and hover. Just remember, outcomes first. Here s to your success.
Author Resource:->??What would a breakthrough look and feel like in YOUR business? Schedule your FREE 2011 Busines Breakthrough Planning Session with Dike Drummond MD Today. CLICK THIS LINK to get started http://www.business-development-videos.com/coach/
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