Delegation: The Secret to Scaling Your Business

In order to grow, you need to invest in people to help manage your company. You want to surround yourself with people who have the skills and knowledge that you don’t have, and delegate some of your workload to others. It sounds easy, but there is a real art to delegation. When done well, your company will grow and flourish. Done poorly, and you will frustrate your team and potentially lose some key people.

Why delegation matters

• Business growth: You cannot scale if every decision and task runs through you. Delegation creates capacity.

• Career growth: Leaders are promoted to build teams and results, not to do everything themselves. Delegation is a great way to create a career path to grow future leaders.

• Team development: Delegation builds skills, confidence and ownership in others. It will help make your company a career destination.

The benefits of delegation to you. Delegation allows you to:

Focus on the “big picture” issues, work ON your business, rather than IN your business, get away from your business occasionally and do some long-range planning, take time to relax or exercise and spend time with your family.

I learned these important lessons earlier in my career. I was on the leadership track to become president of ALCA (now NALP) in the upcoming year where I would be gone 60% of the year at various meetings and events. At that time, I was not only the director of design and development, but the top salesperson at my company. To balance all my responsibilities and continue to bring revenue into the company, my typical way of managing design/build projects was to create a preliminary design, estimate it and sell it. Then, I would figure out the details in the field. That was not going to work if I was going to gone 60% of the time.

My solution was to delegate some of my heavy workload to others on my team. This was done by taking the 15 design salespeople that reported to me and breaking them into sales teams. The results really opened my eyes:

1. In some cases, clients liked the designs my teammates created better than the ones I had done (definitely a blow to my ego!).

2. Sales revenue went up 18% the first year of the team concept as everyone was working together to design and sell projects.

3. The team concept was a great way to train new salespeople in a supportive environment.

I definitely did not lose control. I found that the more I delegated, the more my career grew and the more the company grew.

Common barriers (and how to overcome them)

• “It’s faster if I do it myself.” True short-term. False long-term. Training is an investment that pays compounding returns.

• Fear of losing control. Control outcomes, not methods. Clear expectations replace micromanagement.

• Perfectionism. Aim for “done well enough to achieve the goal,” not “exactly how I’d do it.”

What to Delegate? Use this simple filter:

• Low value/repeatable tasks (admin, reporting, scheduling)

• Tasks others can do 70- to 80% as well as you can

• Developmental work that stretches someone’s skills

Where do I start? Delegation is easier said than done. Start by writing down everything you do in a day, a week and a month. Identify all the phone calls, answering emails, writing proposals, meeting with clients and supervising your crews. I think you will be shocked at all the “time robbers” that disrupt you daily.

The 10-step delegation process:

1. On your lengthy task list, identify the tasks that you could delegate with one color of highlighter.

2. With another color, identify the tasks that you should delegate.

3. Document the tasks that you are going to delegate.

4. Determine who you can delegate the task to. Not everyone on your team can handle some projects.

5. Identify the timeline (deadline) for the project.

6. Be clear on what success looks like. Let them know exactly what you are expecting. Don’t be vague.

7. Identify what resources are available. What you need, when you need it and tools, templates or resources they should use.

8. Check on progress, but don’t micromanage. Ownership in a task or project builds confidence.

9. Schedule follow-up meetings to review outcomes together. Celebrate what went well and offer guidance on how to improve next time.

10. Provide feedback. Delegation becomes a leadership tool when it’s paired with meaningful feedback.

Conclusion

Delegation is more than a management tactic; it’s a growth strategy. By entrusting others with responsibility, you create space to focus on the bigger picture, drive innovation and lead with vision.