“Whether you own a $500K business or a $50 million one, delegation is the way to grow your business without having to work harder and give up more personal time. Delegation always makes sense.”
That’s what I wrote in my last article on the subject of delegation. Since then, there’s been some exciting research into the subject of delegation.
A correlation proven: Increased delegation means increased profit
Earlier this week, research was published that actually quantifies the returns of delegation. In the article “Delegating More Can Increase Your Earnings,” the authors found that delegating work allows a business leader to earn 20 percent more. And that’s if you’re an average business leader. Top-performing business leaders, those who have the most skill to leverage, earn at least 50 percent more if they delegate than if they don’t delegate.
The argument against delegation has always been, “it takes me more time to develop someone else and then follow up to make sure they do it than it does to just do it myself.” Delegation doesn’t come naturally to most of us. I confess I’m one that has to work at it. But, pardon my frankness, it’s myopic thinking to keep doing it all yourself. At some point, you max out how many hours you can work in a day— and it’s at this point that your business’ growth stagnates.
How does delegation translate into more money?
If you’re like a lot of business owners, you’re the face of the organization. And that translates to increased business as you’re the one who seals the deal with prospects, the Chief Sales Officer. As the spokesperson for your company, you’re the one who can soothe a troubled customer and keep from losing them.
Then there’s the business—the money—you lose, some of it without even knowing you lost it, when the company is, or you are, too busy to handle it.
Finally, some of what you delegate, maybe much of what you delegate, can be done by someone who earns less than you. If you’re taking $150K out of the business as your salary each year, you can probably hire others at an amount less than that, and in some cases, way less than that.
How can you delegate—and earn—more?
In my experience working with my business coaching clients, delegating successfully depends on two things:
- First, determine WHAT you can delegate. Generally, look to delegate any recurring tasks and low-priority tasks so you can focus on the revenue-producing tasks like networking, meeting clients/prospects, talking to strategic alliances or centers of influence, and expanding into new markets. I wrote a step-by-step way to identify what you can delegate in this blogpost.
- Second, delegate effectively. You want to be confident that your delegee does the work the way you want it done—without you having to spend too much time on it. I wrote about a 4-step method for delegating with confidence here.
Delegating. Once you get the habit of doing it effectively, you’ll be rewarded with more profit—not to mention more time, a calmer existence, and an empowered and more satisfied staff. Delegation is the path to freedom, growth, and profit.
Delegating More Can Increase Your Earnings article here: https://hbr.org/2016/08/research-delegating-more-can-increase-your-earnings
