How Delegating Your Work Rocks

Scenario: I'm working day and night like a mad person. Deep down, I want work less, but freakishly boost performance at the same time. That's impossible, I know. Not if you're a badass businessperson.

Peep this scenario:

You're running your monthly biz magazine that's raking in good cash. You're writing 10 articles in each issue, and you're feeling some pressure to continue your pace. Now, you have two options:

  • Option 1: Continue writing the 30 articles.
  • Option 2: Hire writers to take the load off you.

Option 1 lets you keep all the money you make, whereas you'll have to pay your writers if you choose Option 2. Most business owners continue with the Option 1 mindset. That is, they get in the "I-have-to-keep-all-the-money-I-make" attitude. But the consequences with this mindset:

  • It leads to burnout.

    Incessantly working without resting depletes your energy reserves, according to Jim Loehr. Without delegation, you have to continue working to achieve the results you've built. It's as if you're a mouse trapped running on an exercise wheel that never stops. (You probably know what will eventually happen.)
  • It gets bad results.

    Ever felt the entrepreneurial burnout? What happened? If you were like us, you probably experienced disastrous outcomes. You tried to please everybody by doing everything, but ended up pleasing nobody. An over-worked, burnt out brain produces horrible results.
  • It kills potential profits.

    It's the 80/20 rule we were talking about earlier. If you're confronted with a $5 task or a $500 (both taking the same amount of time to do), you take the $500 task. But without delegation, you're forced to do the $5 task, instead of pursuing more $500 tasks.

So whenever you're confronted with the above situation, we urge you to choose Option 2. Option 2 maintains your entrepreneurial energy, your ridiculously cool results, and fattens your profits.

That is, delegate your work.

So how do you delegate?

  1. Hire passionate people who are super good at what they do.

    ...and who are super better than you at doing whatever your company needs done. When people love their work, their productivity goes off the roof. Here's an illustration: Right now, think of something you do that you absolutely love. Now, picture your best friend's brother doing the same thing. Chances are, you do it 20x better, quicker, and sexier than your he ever have or ever will.
  2. Provide a destination -- but not a car, a map, or a GPS system.

    That is, provide an end point and the necessary resources to get there, then get the $^@%^ out of the way.

    If you have passionate people working on things they excel at, they'll find a better way to the destination than you ever will.

    That not only increases kick-ass performance, but also increases your time to work on something else. Says Stephen Covey:
    Find out what each of your direct reports does best and loves doing most, then marry their unique talents and passion to the job's needs. With passion, people don't need supervision: They'll generate creative solutions to problems on their own.
  3. Then, start empowering and designating your employees as badass leaders -- not subordinates.

    To paraphrase The Change Agent's Patti Hathaway, denoting someone as a leader drives that person to do whatever's necessary to achieve kick-ass results. Empowerment drives people to seek the best solutions, the best books, the best people to solve their problems. They won't come to you incessantly with the incessant "Is this what you want?" So when an employee asks you: "Is this okay?" -- in most cases, don't decide; instead, let the person judge work him/herself. That gets the person into thinking like a badass leader who produces ridiculously sexy results.

As a rule of thumb, remember: the more you delegate, the more you boost your productivity. At Trizzy, we constantly find ways to increase our delegation time. Here's a rockin' template to get you started:

"_______ is freakishly more passionate and freakishly better than me at: _______ . I will delegate the work to this person to increase company productivity, as well as my productivity by also letting me focus on what I do best: _________."

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Posted on September 13

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