As your company grows, delegating tasks becomes a necessity.
If you don’t delegate efficiently, you will end up overwhelmed and unable to complete all the tasks, while the skills of your employees will go to waste and your company’s progress will be halted.
Your goal should not be to handle everything yourself, but to create the best possible team. And for that to happen, effective delegation and leadership skills are necessary.
Here are 5 signs that you need to delegate more.
1. You Spend Most of Your Time on Routine Tasks
How many times have you caught yourself doing a basic daily task and felt that someone else should be doing it instead?
The main idea of delegating is to take some burden off your shoulders. That way, you can focus on what a business owner should really do, and that’s expanding and growing the business.
And you can’t do that if you’re swamped with administrative tasks that a Virtual Assistant (VA) could easily do for you.
The best way to determine whether you’re overwhelmed with routine tasks is to put everything on paper.
Write down a list of all the things your working on (doing this every hour for a few days works wonders) and then separate complex and strategic tasks from those that could easily be passed on to someone else. Think about all the everyday tasks that are currently taking too much of your time – these are the ones you want to get rid of.
If you are not sure what those might be, here’s our list of 25 tasks you can delegate to your virtual assistant.
2. You Work Too Much
Are you constantly stressed? Do you find it hard to maintain a work-life balance?
If so, you are probably working too much.
Some employers refuse to relinquish control as they feel that it’s quicker and easier to do everything by themselves. But a growing business always comes to the point when you need help.
If you take the time to teach someone else to do all the overwhelming tasks that are taking up your time, you will never have to deal with those tasks again.
And after all, the successful business you’re hoping to build has to be built on team effort.
3. You’re Missing Deadlines
If you can’t complete all your tasks despite working hard, it’s a sign that you need to delegate more.
On the other hand, if the entire team is struggling with deadlines, you might have a problem with communication and prioritization.
For remote teams, communication needs to be clear throughout the entire process. Make sure that everyone is up to speed through every step of the project.
4. Your Employees Are Underworked
Delegating does not only mean hiring employees and assigning responsibilities.
In order for everything to work, you need to know how to delegate properly.
Some employers hire help, but they have trouble determining how much work to give them.
If you are constantly overworked, but your employees constantly have free time and never ask for an extension on a deadline, it means that you are not delegating enough.
Every worker is different – some may enjoy the free ride while others might get bored and look for opportunities elsewhere. Either way, this will not benefit your business, so try to make sure that each of your employees has enough tasks and is satisfied with their responsibilities.
5. You Don’t Trust Your Team
One of the biggest mistakes you can make when delegating is not trusting your employees.
Employers who have a problem with this usually go in one of two directions.
They either try to avoid delegating by doing it all by themselves, or they make an effort to delegate tasks but still ruin the entire process by micromanaging their employees.
Micromanagement can seriously damage your business.
In fact, one survey showed that 69% of workers considered changing their job because of micromanagement.
There is no point in hiring workers unless you’re going to let them do the job you’re paying them for. There’s also no point in wasting your precious time on controlling every little thing they do.
It will result in low morale and a lack of productivity.
If you want to have a motivated team, give your employees a chance to do their job without constantly interfering. You will be pleasantly surprised.
This was our list of the top 5 signs you need to delegate more tasks to your employees.
And if you feel like you need to start delegating tasks and hire additional members to your team, we have excellent remote workers right here on JobRack. Regardless of the position you’re looking to fill, we have thousands of high-quality Eastern European remote workers ready to make the difference for your business. Click here to find out more.
