3 Common Mistakes When Delegating (And How To Correct Them)

In my years working with biz owners, I’ve seen pretty much every size and structure of business there is to see!

But whether it’s a young business with a small team or a 7-figure CEO growing and thriving, there’s ONE thing that every business has in common: they all need to delegate.

Delegation is one of those crucial business tasks that nobody actually teaches us how to do. We just have to figure it out as we go.

And that often leads to making mistakes.

To help save you the time lost from making these same mistakes yourself, I’ve listed 3 of the most common mistakes made when delegating…and how you can correct them.

Mistake 1 - Asking your team to check in with you at every stage

It can be hard to step away from tasks in your business. Chances are, you’ve been doing them for years now and doing them well.

But if you ask your team to constantly check in with you, you’re not going to get ANYTHING done.

You become the bottleneck in your business.

Many biz owners worry that they’ll lose control if they delegate to their team, but you’re really empowering your team by giving them true ownership of their tasks.

Give your team some ownership and enjoy the new focus time that comes when you don’t have everything hitting your desk!

Mistake 2 – Not giving feedback for a job well done (or not)

It can be easy to think that delegation is a one-way street.

You assign a task, your team member goes off and does it, the end.

But if you follow this approach, you’re going to run into problems.

Feedback is a critical part of the delegation process and needs to be implemented when something has gone well as well as where there have been issues.

If everything has worked well, taking the time to feed this back will boost your team member’s confidence and morale, making them even BETTER at taking ownership in the future.

If there have been problems, the only way to eliminate these in the future is to let them know. This doesn’t mean you automatically have to take the task on yourself, you just need to look for how you (or another team member) can offer additional support.

And if you struggle with how to give effective feedback, I love the tips in this article.

Mistake 3 - Giving the wrong tasks to the wrong people

Not all tasks you delegate are created equal – and not everyone in your team will be the right fit for them all.

Firstly, you want to consider the tasks you want to get off your desk.

- Where’s your zone of genius?

- What takes a lot of time but doesn’t need to be done by you?

- What tasks do you hate because they’re not a personal strength?

(and if you want a comprehensive list of tasks you could delegate, I have just the thing for you!)

Once you have this list, consider who in your team would be best suited to each task. If you’ve completed personality testing on your team, this can help but it’s not a must-have.

Look at their strengths, their weaknesses and where they thrive in the team.

You’ll soon know exactly what tasks should go and who they should go to.

Closing Thought

Have you made any of these mistakes in the past when delegating?

Learning how to effectively delegate is a skill and can take practice, but if you want to get help from a delegation expert (that’s me!), you could be delegating like a pro in no time!

Book a game plan call with me to see how I can help.

All my best,

Selina