We’ve all heard it before; delegation is a key skill for all business leaders and necessary for any person wanting to get ahead. But what does this actually mean?

It doesn’t matter how efficient you are, you have the same number of hours in the day as anyone else and there is only so much you can fit into 24 hours. Working at super human speed, trying to take care of everything, can be harmful to your well-being and your business. With only one person in charge, there’s only so far you can scale.

It’s important that business owners know when to be strong and when to be stronger and to delegate and outsource. Handing over control shouldn’t nullify your “Superman powers” and immobilise you with pain and nausea; its critical to avoid burnout and to ensure your business grows beyond the constraints of your time. We have our top 5 tips below to help you grow your business.

1. Become more strategic

Do less day-to-day activities and instead spend more time coaching your team so you can be in a position where you trust them to get things done. Allow them to challenge the status quo; leading to opportunities for improvements and great new ideas!

2. Learn to Let Go

If you’re the type of businessperson who still phones the office 43 times per day while on holiday, delegation is definitely going to be a challenge.

You’ll need to take a deep breath and just let go. You may consider yourself the office superhero but others may just consider you the office pest – not to mention a time waster!

If the very thought of delegation makes you uneasy, you should start by delegating a single, low priority task. Just remind yourself how much of your valuable, revenue-generating time you’ll be freeing up; your business can’t grow when you’re focused on the wrong type of work.

3. Outsource / Delegate “Up”

One of the primary reasons why a business may want to outsource a task is when it requires skilled expertise. Many business owners try to do everything themselves but by outsourcing, for example your finances and management reporting, it allows you time to focus on providing a high quality product and service to your customers. Outsourcing to people who can perform the task better makes sense; it allows you to develop your team and use them more efficiently. Just because you can count to 10,000, doesn’t mean you should.

Let’s not forget the bonus benefit of lower cost and potential big savings; getting access to quality services that are offered at a much lower cost!

4. Provide Clear Instructions

The key to efficient delegation is being absolutely clear about what you’re expecting for the outcome. How much direction you provide to get from point A to B will depend on the level of expertise of the person doing the task.

You need to absolutely clear about your expectations and goals.

5. Empower Your Staff

You need to teach your team to do the rights things and do the things right.

Of course, in order to empower others, you need to delegate, not dump. Effective delegation is not about dumping the dirty work off your desk or asking someone to fix something that you let fall through the cracks.

Empowering your staff will allow them to feel part of the bigger picture. With good processes, motivated people and consistency, you’ll not be simply trusting to luck!

The only substance on earth that can protect Superman from Kryptonite is lead and the only known substance that Superman cannot see through with his x-ray vision. If you believe that you do most jobs better than everyone else, sort out all of the problems and are ultimately responsible for all the decisions, then it’s not resources, nor timing, nor lack of money preventing your business growth – it’s you!

You can protect your business from Krypotnite; learn to adjust your “office superhero mentality” which inevitably holds businesses back – see through the lead.