This year I’ve been acting on the advice of my coaching group to delegate more and do less myself. I’ve been using more contractors and outside professionals to take over work I used to do. I’m talking stuff like building a new office inside our plant, and preparing the company income taxes.

I’ve had a few major delegation “fails” as I try to learn this new skill set. In case any of you can benefit from my mistakes, here they are:

• I chose someone who wasn’t competent enough. I had a bad experience with a tax preparer who was not up to the job. I replaced him with a tax preparer from the top of the competency spectrum. Huge improvement. If in doubt, choose higher competency. The highest competency you can find in a contractor or professional might be your best value.
• I didn’t specify deadlines. I was thinking a couple of weeks, which turned into eight weeks, then I set a deadline. Tasks without deadlines tend go to the bottom of the pile and never get done. With every task you delegate, agree on a specific date for the next step to be completed.
• I didn’t give clear instructions. This resulted in a contractor ordering a new roll-up door for the entirely wrong building. Not fun for anyone. Be clear about your parameters and expectations.

I’ve noticed that delegating more puts a lot of my to-do list in a state of “waiting” for someone else. It feels a little weird going over my to-do list and not having direct control over many of the items. Delegating more also requires more people skills in my job as I am doing more deals and fewer tasks. I gotta say though, seeing work getting done while I’m busy doing something else entirely is empowering.

I’m also seeing in my financial reports that delegating costs more than doing things myself. My challenge now is to use the freed-up time to do what only I can do – lead the company, and do this effectively enough to come out ahead. I’ll let you know how that goes.