“You’re a bottleneck, you say you’ll deal with stuff but you’re too busy. Stop being such a control freak, why don’t you let one of us do that.”

If you’ve had this, or similar “feedback” from your team, chances are that delegation is causing friction in your startup. 

In most cases, however, the reason for not delegating is not “control freakery”, but instead an expectation that delegation will fail and the task will end up back on your to-do list.

I believe that there are three common mistakes that cause delegation to fail:

1. delegating the wrong things to the wrong people
2. vague or incomplete instructions
3. a fear of wasting money

1. What and who are the wrong things and the wrong people?

Knowing what not to delegate is pretty straight forward, on the whole you should avoid delegating activities that:

• must, or can only be done by you; 
• are high-risk, private & confidential or legally must be done by you;
• you find super easy and quick, or really enjoy doing.

If it’s not one of these, then chances are it’s delegatable. 

But it’s not always as simple to figure out who to delegate to. Startups tend to have small specialist teams, everyone is working hard and putting in long days. Notoriously staff are expected to wear many hats and to muck in where needed; the variety, challenge and exposure are part of what draws people to the sector.

However, being constantly asked to do things outside your area of expertise, or finding that projects stall because infrastructure isn’t in place, can wear thin and become frustrating for your team (and you!) 

In all businesses there are general operational tasks that must be done but don’t (directly) generate income. If you are delegating these tasks to your team of specialists on a regular basis chances are they are getting fed up of: 

• having work to do when they’re already at full capacity; 
• feeling stupid because they don’t know where to start with apparently simple tasks; 
• not being left alone to get on with the job they were hired to do.

For example, you know more resource is needed in your dev team to deliver the big project you just won. You delegate the recruitment process to your CTO only to find 2 weeks later that the job ad hasn’t even been drafted. So, a bit grumpily, you say you’ll sort it…  another fortnight later the job ad is written and live on a couple of job boards, but you’ve lost at least a month and now everything’s running behind. The team is under more pressure and now your inbox is full of hundreds of applications that you need to review…

Your CTO (or whoever) probably was too busy to do this, but also, I’m guessing they don’t have much experience of writing job ads and probably didn’t know where to start. Maybe they did start but aren’t great with words so felt embarrassed or frustrated so kept putting it off. 

Regardless of the reasons, this can be damaging to team morale and leave staff feeling frustrated. Plus, the task is delayed and ends up back on your to do list.

So who is the right person? Well, it's someone with the time and experience to handle the type of tasks you want to delegate, oh and bonus points if they actually like doing these sort of operational tasks too!

That could be an office manager, an admin assistant, or you could consider a more flexible option and use a Virtual Assistant (basically a freelance Personal Assistant). 

The important thing is to have someone you who will focus on the task and deliver.

2. How do vague and incomplete instructions deter delegation? 

I know so many brilliant founders who are absolutely hopeless when it comes to distilling ideas and tasks into a simple brief. 

Believe it or not the following do not constitute a “proper” brief:

• a rambling explanation of why the task needs to be done, why it hasn’t been done and who said they’d do it but then didn’t (and digressions into 2 other things that you also need done); 
• hand-drawn squiggly diagrams with illegible labels; 
• one and a half Slack messages.

If you are already delegating to the wrong person, giving vague and incomplete instructions is pretty much suicide to any attempted delegation. The person you’re delegating to is going to be unsure about what you want them to do, or how to go about it; this will make them feel vulnerable and exposed.

Odds are they won’t do it (or at least not quickly or efficiently), will make errors that could be expensive and time-consuming to fix later, and will keep coming back with a gazillion questions. This will piss you off and you’ll end up taking it back and doing it yourself. 

If this makes you feel a bit panicky, then one solution could be to find a talented mind-reader  who can transform your brain-fog into a coherent brief with a click of their fingers. If no mind-readers are available, then maybe an “Intelligent Doer” would be a close second. An Intelligent Doer is someone who: 

• understands what you need, even if it’s not what you actually asked for;
• asks relevant questions and challenges you if instructions or outcomes make no sense;
• will liaise with your team to figure out how things work (if your explanation was clear as mud);
• does their own research and presents solutions to you, rather than just coming back with more questions;
• quickly grasps the business imperatives and sensitivities;
• supports with empathy and humour, they get that doing what you do isn’t easy and genuinely wants your business to succeed.

3. How can delegating save you money?

I saw you wincing earlier when I suggested you delegate to an Office Manager or Admin Assistant. The last thing you need is another salary to cover, right?! 

Anyway, there’s probably not enough work to keep them busy all the time, and to get someone senior enough so you don't have to spoon-feed them all the time, you’re going to have to pay a competitive salary.

Maybe you’ve looked at a freelance option (like a VA) as the flexibility appeals, but again, the idea of paying someone when that cost can’t be recharged to a client or doesn’t contribute directly to a product sticks in your throat. 

Okay, so do this:

1. Pick a task, any task that fits the “non-profit generating / general operations” definition
2. Pick someone from your existing team to do it 
3. Estimate how long it will take them to do it
4. Multiply that by their hourly rate
5. Now add on the cost of your time re-doing it

It is already costing you money

Now do this:

1. Take that same employee
2. Consider what you could have billed had they spent those hours on profit-generating work 

It is costing you double 

And consider:

1. They are doing it slower, less efficiently and probably less thoroughly;
2. How draining and distracting juggling all these things is for you;
3. How productive you could be and what you could achieve if you didn’t have to constantly chase, cajole, coerce and deal with squabbles in your team relating to this stuff;
4. Think of the strategies you could develop, the funding rounds you could deliver, the new clients you could be schmoozing...

It is costing you triple

Stop tying your team up with tasks which distract from their core purIpose. Instead find yourself a flexible resource that fits and get delegating. 

If you’re in need of an Intelligent Doer to set your team free - click here to book a call with me.