A Few Great Reasons for Delegating

When first starting a business or freelance venture, its easy to find yourself playing every position on the team. Maybe in the interest of keeping costs low, or in trying to learn and gain as much experience as possible, or maybe because you’re the only “expert” in the room. Whatever the reasons, you practically, or literally, do every task and manage every part of every job yourself.

While that may work to get you started, the most successful entrepreneurs and business leaders know that it is not a formula for growth and long-term success. Instead, they make delegating and outsourcing a strategic part of their ongoing business growth.

Here are two reasons why delegating to others can be a powerful part of helping businesses and business leaders grow.

1. Work to Your Strengths

Over time, successful business leaders realize the areas of the business they are really good, as well as passionate about, and they spend the vast majority of their focus in these areas.

That is, they know and work to their strengths. They do not spend time and energy trying to be an expert at everything or even a handyman at everything. Instead, they spend their energy contributing to the things at which they are the best, where their efforts will go the farthest, and they delegate or outsource other areas.

Sure, there are plenty of things you COULD be doing, and maybe even several things that you’re probably pretty good at doing. But the key is identifying those things that you SHOULD be doing based on your strengths.

What is it that you do the absolute best, and that maybe your teammates do not do quite as good as you, or as passionately as you?

It’s in these areas where your strengths abound and where you should be putting at least 80% of your focus. Doing so is beneficial for both you, your team, and the business, because these are the areas where you will make your greatest contributions toward success.

2. Promoting Someone Else’s Strengths

How many times have you heard someone say something like, “I don’t feel right asking someone else to do this task. I don’t want to put more work on their plate, especially when I can just do it myself.”

Or even worse, something like, “I’m afraid if someone else does the job, they just won’t get it right. I know how it should be done, so I just need to do it myself.”

Maybe you’ve actually said these things yourself. Well, this way of thinking and working is not only detrimental to the overall success of the business, but it is a self-defeating mentality for your personal and professional growth.

The reason is because there are people and businesses whose strengths lie in doing that particular task. Doing that piece of the job or project that, if you’re perfectly honest, you are not the best at doing and really don’t even want to do yourself. That’s the work that someone else is the best at and actually does want to do.

In fact, they are so good at it, like doing it, and want to do it so much so that they may have joined the team or even started their own business specifically to focus on doing that task. So, let them do it for you! In fact, encourage them to do it for you and succeed together!

When we delegate a job to someone else for whom it is what they are best at and enjoy doing, then we are actually encouraging them in their areas of strength and passion.

Plus, you’ll be getting greater and compounded results more so than if you had just done it yourself, because the job is being done by someone whose strengths are in that area, and you’re freeing up your time and energy to focus on your strengths and the benefits mentioned above.

Conclusion

While delegation can be a challenge when first starting out in business, it is a must for steady growth and eventual breakthrough to success. We are not meant to do everything, and we should not be trying to do everything. By delegating, or even outsourcing certain tasks and responsibilities to other people, we allow ourselves to work to our own strengths and promote others in excelling in theirs.