Delegating is the hardest when you need it most. We tend to “muscle” through busy times. By that, I mean we continue to do tasks that we have not become comfortable with delegating. Can you relate?
That practice is no longer possible when the work exceeds your bandwidth – despite working late and on weekends. Delegating has become a must.
But there is a problem: When you were less busy, you didn’t feel comfortable delegating tasks you thought were too difficult or time-consuming to teach to someone else. Even though you were busy, it is nothing compared to the situation you are in now.
Now that your business has grown and more and more work is pouring in, you REALLY don’t have time. How are you going to go about delegating now?
Of course, you can attempt to hire people who bring a lot of knowledge with them. Even so, there are many things they don’t know about your company’s best practices, your clients or customers, and more.
Finding these people can take a while – or prove difficult, period.
Additionally, the more knowledge you expect new staff to bring, the more you will have to pay them.
Two Stories
I have seen companies go through this situation numerous times. It almost always is chaotic. Often, expensive mistakes happen. For example:
- A company in the construction sector hires an estimator. The person is recommended by one of the company’s long-time staff, the person has 15 years of experience in the industry, and the person is urgently needed. Voila, he is hired quickly. Things seem to be going well. Quickly, he brings in three sizable deals. But the celebration doesn’t last long. Soon, the company finds out that all three jobs are massively underpriced. Each of these jobs costs the company a loss of half a million dollars! How could this happen? Too little due diligence and no training in how the company prices its jobs. A closer look revealed that while the estimator had 15 years of experience, the projects he had worked on were far less complex, and hence, pricing was much more straightforward!
- An IT services company experiences explosive growth. Big companies give them huge orders to install AV systems nationwide. More and more large orders are pouring in. Within a couple of months, the intention to build a solid (but pragmatic) approach to training the many new staff collapses. Yet, these people are needed to execute the work. Mistakes happen. The principles rush all over the place to fix them. The big companies also pay slowly. Bills and stress are mounting.
What do these two stories teach us? Delegating may never seem easy, especially when the task is somewhat complex. But it is the hardest if you wait until delegating is utterly unavoidable.
The Solution
The solution: Start sooner!
What if you are already in trouble? Be smart. Get help with making the delegating go more smoothly. I promise you it will be cheaper than not doing that!
I’m Curious
Have you ever experienced the dilemma of delegating being the hardest when you need it most?
Dr. Stephie
P.S.: I appreciate you commenting and sharing this with others. Thank you!
