As a business owner, two things you will need to eventually pair together are effective management and delegation. These two things are going to become a priority as you grow and will be a necessity if you wish to continue to grow.
That’s why this post will focus on the importance of delegation and the steps you can take to ensure things that need doing get done without you having to necessarily micromanage everything. So keep reading to learn more about effective management and delegation, why the two are intertwined, and what they mean for you as a thriving small business owner.
Cultivating Your Management Skill for Your Company’s Growth
When it comes to the leadership abilities you need to possess for the sake of moving your business forward, knowing when it’s better for someone else to handle a certain task is one of the most important. When you start your business, you’re likely handling just about every aspect of its operation: from day-to-day to long term goal development.
As the company grows, however, you will need to focus on some areas over others. Once you hit that point, you will need to either:
- Build a business team to handle the additional work that needs to be done
- Keep doing things on your own after determining what the most important parts of your company’s future development are.
Hopefully, you choose to do the first thing. And if you do, that’s where the delegation of tasks comes in. Just like large companies have chains of command that go from the head of the company to department heads, managers, and whoever else is assigned responsibility for certain jobs that keep things moving forward, you need a network of people to carry out tasks around your business.
That process of delegation can sometimes be as simple as outsourcing your accounting or as involved as hiring a staff to handle various parts of your operation. It all depends on your needs, of course, but you should never ignore the fact that effective management and delegation allows you to pay more attention to other aspects of your business’s development.
That could be anything from your sales, to your business to business relationships, to developing your brand position. Whatever needs to be done, delegation of unrelated tasks will make it easier to do those things. So what can you do to make sure you get the most out of that work being handled by someone else while you focus on big picture thinking?
- Establish Accountability – Accountability is something you should be practicing as you hone your managerial skills and it’s something that you need to encourage in those to whom you delegate responsibility. Make sure that people know just what they are responsible for, what is expected of them, and the fact that they will be the go-to when it comes to any questions or concerns about that responsibility.This not only paints a clear picture about what they should be doing, but makes it clear that they’re actions have an effect on operations, which is motivation to do things as well as possible.
- Keep Lines of Communication Open – One thing you’ll quickly learn when it comes to effective management and delegation is that things go much more smoothly when communication is clear. If you’re hiring employees or working with outsourced services for the first time, then improving workplace communication is something that needs to take priority.You need to make sure that you are always available to answer questions when needed, so that nothing gets overlooked and your business can develop exactly as planned. Developing strong communication skills complements effective management and delegation and makes you much stronger manager overall, so it’s definitely something you want to work at.
- Check In and Evaluate – Even after you assign responsibility and authority, you don’t want to just walk away. Make sure you check in from time to time to ensure things are going smoothly and address any issues that might arise. Even if you’ve assigned responsibility to a subordinate or outsourced something to someone else, it pays to ensure that things are going the way you want. After all, you never know when you might encounter an issue that got overlooked. By checking in, you can take care of it sooner rather than later.
Effective management and delegation are all about letting go and being able to focus on core areas of your business, while other tasks get taken care of by people that you can trust.
Remember, running a business successfully does not need to be complicated. Keep it simple!
For more interesting topics on successfully managing the challenges of growing your business profitably, please search our blog at our website www.portalcfo.com.
Manny Skevofilax is a consultant and speaker that helps his clients successfully navigate the challenges of growing their businesses profitably. Since 2003, Manny helps businesses enhance their results by using his experience in strategic planning, financial statement analysis, operations, organizational development, and team-building. His consulting firm, PORTAL CFO Consulting, Inc., has attracted clients from diverse industries in the United States and abroad.
Manny can be reached at 410-808-3441 or via email at manny@portalcfo.com.