As a business owner, you have 30 different priorities at all times. You’re trying to keep all the plates spinning, and you know you should delegate. The problem is – if you’re like me – you’re guilty of “drive-by delegating.” 

I know a task would be better handled by someone else, so I quickly assign it to that person before moving on to my next meeting or responsibility. They do the assignment and bring it back to me – and it’s not at all what I envisioned.   

Sound familiar?  

This tends to be the curse of many entrepreneurs and especially visionaries. We have grand ideas in our heads, and we assume that our team can read our minds. In fact, this is a trap that keeps many business owners from being able to grow. Inefficient delegation from ownership to a team member results in wasted time, lost productivity, and dissatisfaction on both ends.  

It can also keep a business owner from hiring new team members. If an entrepreneur isn’t comfortable with their delegation skills, he or she will hesitate to bring on the staff that’s needed to drive the business forward.  

And since delegating is a skill I’ve been working on, I thought I’d pass along the following delegating best practices for any other entrepreneur who finds themselves guilty of “drive-by delegating.”  

By Delegating and Empowering Others, You Empower Yourself  

First, let’s examine why delegation is so critical to your success as a business owner in the first place. When you delegate well, you’re not just getting tasks off your plate – you're freeing yourself up to focus on your Unique Ability® (as defined by Strategic Coach). This is the work that brings you energy and drives your business forward. It includes the ideas, decisions, and relationships that only you can handle. 

At the same time, your team wants ownership and trust. A study found that 77% of employees say micromanagement hurts their morale, and 32% say they have left a job because of it. People want ownership and trust – not tasks with no context. 

When you delegate well, you build a stronger team and a business that doesn’t depend on you doing everything yourself.  

1. Focus on the Outcome, Not the Task  

Traditionally, we’re used to assigning tasks to our team members. “Run this report”, “Call these prospects”, “Create this presentation”...  

The problem with those assignments is that there are a million ways to go about handling those tasks. And sure, you could walk your team step by step how you want them to do the project. But that would take an enormous amount of your time, it would border on micromanaging – and frankly, that’s not something that most visionaries want to do.  

Rather than focusing on how the project gets accomplished, if you clearly explain why you want the task completed and detail your vision for your team member of the end product – you can then allow your team member to go about their work any which way they choose.  

For instance, let’s say you want your team member to handle client onboarding. Don’t just say, “Get our new clients onboarded.” 

A better way to paint the picture would be: “I want our new clients to feel confident and excited to work with us from day one. Please send a welcome email, schedule a kickoff call within 48 hours, and make sure they have all the information they need so they feel supported and clear on next steps.” 

From there, your team member can take ownership of the onboarding process, anticipate questions, and create a great first impression – without needing you to hold their hand through every detail.

2. Assign Ownership, Not Just Action  

This takes us to how you can achieve even greater results: by not just assigning tasks but assigning ownership.  

Think about it — when you rent a house for a week, you make sure everything is in working order and do what you can not to ruin it. But when you own a home – it’s a completely different ballgame. You keep it in pristine condition, you put in sweat equity, and you invest in upgrades. There’s a sense of pride that comes with ownership. 

It may not make sense to assign ownership for every item you delegate. But when you can, completely hand areas of responsibility over to someone else to own that outcome. For those businesses that follow the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, their EOS Scorecard™ is a helpful way of doing this. It assigns a team member to individual measurable results that they own on a week-to-week basis. 

By assigning ownership, you put the ball in your employee's court to ask questions, get the details they need, and develop a strategy to accomplish your vision.  

3. Follow Up Without Micromanaging

When entrepreneurs delegate, they tend to do one of two things after the fact:  

1. Check in too often. This can make a team member feel you don’t trust them to get the job done and chip away at their confidence.   
2. Forget about the task altogether. After all, you assigned it. You don’t have to think about it again…right? The only problem here is that it can be deflating to your team when they carry out something you’ve delegated to them – only for it to never be spoken of again.
    

And listen, I get that this is a tightrope walk. But if you are truly invested in delegating tasks so that you can save time and focus on higher-level work or have more personal time, getting this right is essential.  

Creating systems and rhythms within your business – such as a weekly scorecard, regular one-on-one meetings or project management tools – can ensure that delegated projects receive the follow-up attention they deserve.  

While it can take an extra couple of minutes to enter a project into a software system or create a calendar reminder – those seemingly small inputs will pay off in the long run. Investing in proper delegation techniques will help you eventually pass ownership to your team as you build a business that no longer requires your involvement in low-payoff activities.  

Effective Delegation Is a Bridge Between Chaos and Growth  

Delegation is ultimately not just about getting tasks off your plate. It’s a transfer of trust. And as owners who have built our businesses from the ground up, transferring that trust tests more than just our delegation skills.  

It often tests whether we’ve hired the right people and provided them with the skills, tools, and training to carry out those tasks effectively. It can also test whether we have enough people on our team to carry out our vision.  

If you’re ready to offload more of your day-to-day tasks, but worried you won’t delegate effectively, know this: the solution isn’t doing more yourself. It’s hiring the right people and setting them up to win.  

That’s exactly what we help business owners do at WorkBetterNow. Our full-time, pre-vetted talent from Latin America integrates seamlessly into your team, helping you delegate with confidence and finally get back to the high-level work that only you can do. 

Schedule a free consult today and see what’s possible when you stop being a drive-by delegator and start building the business you’ve always envisioned. 

WorkBetterNow (WBN) provides outstanding remote talent to small and midsize businesses. WBN’s highly skilled and pre-vetted Latin American professionals are hand-matched for each client’s unique needs. Hundreds of growing businesses turn to WBN to unleash their potential through our exceptional talent, ease of hiring, and ongoing support. Request a consult today!