Delegation
The truth is that it is not usually sustainable for you or your business to do everything yourself. If you can only manage to make one change as a leader right now, learn when to delegate.
Rule 1: Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
Avoid the pitfall of being capable and willing: doing everything yourself. The issue here is, firstly, that other people do not learn unless they jump in and secondly, in the future you will probably be called on to do the same thing as before because the competency wasn't transmitted. Both of these consequences can slow down your efficiency and productivity.
Employees are happiest when they're working on tasks they enjoy (instead of the ones they can delegate), or new projects and tasks (which is what they can do when we delegate).
When any leader says they are overworked, I ask them why they don’t give a task to someone else. Then, I explain how in the long term it is better to take the time to train someone earlier on so that, eventually, they can do it by themselves. If the leader complains again that they're too busy, I know it's because they didn't delegate. At this point, I take the time and sit with them to help them delegate because perhaps they need to learn that skill.
Rule 2: If something is on your to-do list for too long, delegate.
Let's look at that long to-do list. If it was important and urgent, you would make time for it, but if you haven’t by now, it's time to delegate.
I know, you may be justifying not delegating by saying:
• The other person isn’t as qualified as you. This might be true, but you aren't helping them resolve this issue by not giving them the task, are you?
• They won’t do it as well as you would. Possibly, but even if they don’t do a perfect job, it would still be better than if the task doesn't move at all.
• It was your idea, and you're attached to it. I get it, and it's great that you care, but you may need to let go of some control and see what other people can bring to your idea.
• You believe you’ll get to it. This is a nice idea, but you probably won’t -- and if you promised you’d do it, you could look unprofessional as time marches on.
• You don’t have time to brief "person x" properly. Go back to Rule 1, because “spending 10 minutes today can save you 10 hours tomorrow.” Let your team member know what the outcome should look like and let them run with it.
If you have hired smart, talented people who can achieve amazing things with the guidance and space to do so, why not give them the chance?
Rule 3: If you delegate, take time to validate:
Once you delegate your to-do list, I've found that it's important to have the right amount of check-ins -- typically more at the beginning and end of a project when guidance can be more valuable. Check-ins allow you to monitor and avert large failures that could have been prevented. You'll notice that the more often you delegate the same task, you can go from many check-ins to very few or none.