Delegation for the Control-Freak

Do you try to do everything yourself? Do you feel like you’re the only one that can do it the right way? If that sounds like you, there’s a better way.

Delegating tasks can be very difficult for many people. Do you act like a micro-manager who feels you need to be the one to do everything? It can be hard to let others share the load or the glory. You may be a certified control freak.

You may have tried to delegate tasks in the past. Perhaps the quality of work wasn’t good enough for you so you ended up redoing everything. There’s no sense in delegating tasks in the first place if you know you’ll end up redoing them, right?

Here are three problems you might be using as excuses for not delegating:

    you feel you can do the job better yourself.

    there’s not enough time to train someone else to do the job.

    you feel like you have to redo someone else’s work.

If you’re facing these challenges, perhaps it’s time to look at some strategies you can use to find success in delegating.

Consider using these delegation techniques:

Face the truth

If you feel you can do the job better yourself, take time to think things through.

Other people may not do the job the same way you would, but that doesn’t mean they won’t do an adequate job. 
Remember, done is better than perfect.

The people on your team may be eager to do a great job and need only your encouragement, rather than for you to take over. You may be surprised at the great job others do, and perhaps even bring something better to the project that you didn’t even think of.

Take time to train
Perhaps those working with you do need some additional training. This shouldn’t be a reason to do everything yourself.

Look at the need for additional training as a means to be better prepared in the future. Short-term training now can have a huge pay off later on. If you take the time to train your staff (or your kids, hint, hint) now, they’ll be better prepared for the next project.

Relax
There’s no sense in letting pressure for perfection bring you undue stress. Unless you’re a brain surgeon or architect perfection is probably not imperative.

Give yourself a break. It’s just not possible for you to do everything yourself, nor should you want to, ever. I promise.

Other people can do the work even if you don’t think they’ll do as good a job as you. And again, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Follow a successful plan.
If you’re the head of the team and certain tasks are critical for the success of the project, you may want to do the major work on those. However, the more routine tasks could be passed along to other people on the team.

FOLLOW THESE TIPS TO STOP BEING A CONTROL FREAK:

Delegate the task itself, not the way in which it’s completed. 
You can figure out the process or the way you want it done, and let someone else follow your lead. Think of yourself as a chef creating recipes, letting your cooks take the reigns once you’ve “perfected” the recipe.

Assign tasks based on strengths. Take the time to figure out what a person’s strengths are and assign work based on those strengths. Give writing assignments to those with great grammar skills, technical work to someone computer savvy and PR work to someone outgoing. By ensuring the door mouse researching expert isn’t the one making the sales presentations you’ll be on your way to successful delegation.

Require progress reports at specified deadlines over the course of the project. If anyone is having problems meeting the deadlines, instead of assuming they’re not going to get the job done, ask them if there’s anything you can do to help them meet the next deadline.

Expect that your team will do a great job and you won’t be disappointed. People usually rise to our expectations.

Finally, give praise and positive feedback when the project is finished. 

Instead of being a control-freak on your next project, decide now to let go of some of the responsibilities. Look for ways you can use the talents of your staff (or family) in the future. You may find that working with a team and delegating tasks makes your job much easier and the atmosphere at work much better for everyone.

Here’s to living the life you LOVE!