Delegation is a skill set that all business owners need to master, as it’s vital for any business to scale. I frequently see business owners fail with delegation in two areas.

One, they just simply can’t delegate. They’re unable to give up control, they think that they must do everything themselves because no one can do it better than them. This is a dangerous mentality as it traps business owners into working IN their business and not ON their business.

The inability to give up control is like kryptonite for a business’s growth, if you can’t successfully delegate, your business won’t scale.

As a business owner, you must have confidence in your team. You should be able to train them so they can do any job just as well you, if not better. Training can be time-consuming at first, but it will free up your time in the long-run, which allows you to focus on scaling the business.

The second area where I see business owners fail with delegation is they have too much trust. They give a team member an assignment and then never follow up. The key is to trust but verify.

When you give an assignment, trust that they’ll complete it, but have touch points so you can verify that the assignment is being successfully executed.

Don’t micromanage, but consistently check-in to track progress. This also allows you to address any bottlenecks in real-time, to keep things moving on track.

 

My biggest advice to business owners who are struggling with delegation is to trust but verify. Have trust in your team so you can give up control, but don’t be so overly trusting that you never verify their work.