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Business consultant and coach advice
Mark Sinclair

A fundamental rule for success – Delegate!

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Delegation matters!

No matter what size or type of business or organisation you work in or own, delegation matters. If you are a leader then invest the time to learn and become a great delegator.

The first rule of management is delegation. Don’t try and do everything yourself because you can’t.” … Anthea Turner

“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself”. … Andrew Carnegie.

Delegation is a fundamental leadership skill and essential for leadership success. Leaders cannot perform all the work expected in their area themselves. Consequently, effective allocation of work to individuals or teams is essential. Delegation can have different purposes, including to distribute work, balance the use of resources, reduce bottlenecks, provide development opportunities, build engagement, motivate, improve productivity and to ensure appropriate expertise is applied to tasks.

Delegation requires planning, a structured approach, discipline, support, coaching and follow-up.

Some of the common causes for not delegating effectively include lack of trust, perfectionism, unrealistic expectations, poor delegation skills and a failure to invest properly in the process.

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” … Theodore Roosevelt

Delegation tips

  • Are you too busy?  Doing too much yourself? Ask yourself – is this a task I should be doing? Manage your time better, get out of the detail and decide what you should delegate.
  • Not sure where to start? Take the time to analyse what is stopping you from delegating – perfectionism, trust, skills, concern for others, risk aversion, prefer doing it yourself, worry about the quality if you let go, excuse for not focusing on the critical?
  • Analyse your day. Write down all your responsibilities or tasks. Look at your desk or inbox. Review your email Inbox. Consider what you are paid to do. What are others paid to do? Is the balance right? What is the best investment of your time? What are you doing that you should not be doing? What are you not doing that you should be doing? Decide what is important and essential that you perform. Be ruthless. Delegate the rest.
  • Where needed, spend your time helping others learn to do it rather than doing it yourself. That is an investment that will pay major dividends.
  • Invest the time to delegate properly. One mistake is failing to plan the delegation. Don’t simply throw work at people.  Delegation is an investment that requires careful planning and execution. Be clear about the aims for delegating, performance expected, timeframe for delivery, how you will communicate, the skills required versus the skills of the person or team, what support will be required and what the follow up plan is.
  • Follow a structured and disciplined delegation process.  If you don’t have a structured delegation model then get one. Search the web, find relevant readings, review previous training materials, ask your manager or mentor, and find out if your organisation uses a specific model.
  • Provide people with clarity about what has to be done, why and when.
  • Set clear objectives, perform regular reviews, be available to support and give valuable feedback.
  • Allow realistic timeframes – expect that others will take longer to perform tasks than you. Don’t set timeframes based on your own capability.
  • Ask your team – what work do I perform that you could do and what help would you need?
  • Don’t micromanage!  Set checkpoints and be available to help but don’t look over shoulders.

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” … General George Smith Patton, Jr.

“Don’t be a bottleneck; If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it; Force responsibility down and out; Find problem areas, add structure and delegate; The pressure is to do the reverse; Resist it.” … Donald Rumsfeld

“Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works too”. … Robert Half

“If you don’t know what to do with many of the papers piled on your desk, stick a dozen colleagues initials on them and pass them along. When in doubt, route.” … Malcom S. Forbes

Business technology systems and innovation
Mark Sinclair

Tip for improving business results – Challenge the status quo!

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Interested in improving business results?  How does the saying go? If you continue to do what you have always done you will get the same result.  Well that may or may not be true in business. True, poor processes or poor service will no doubt lead to continued poor results. On the other hand, business results may have been very good but continuing to do the same thing may lead to future decreases in business performance and possibly even business failure. This could be due to factors like changing customer needs, habits or buying processes, new competitor offerings, competitor use of new technologies, new products or services displacing ours, supply chain factors, political changes, economic changes and more. Also, just because results are very good does not necessarily mean they could not be even better.

An essential skill for any small business owner is the ability to challenge the status quo with a view to improving business results, service, products, business processes, staying ahead of competitors, engaging staff or suppliers and ultimately ensuring ongoing success and more profit.

So, business owners and leaders should continually ask questions and seriously challenge the current ways of working. Who should they ask – themselves, their leaders, their staff, their customers, their suppliers and other experts. All of them! Questions for improving business results could include the following and many more.

  • Is there is there a better way to deliver our service or product?
  • How can we better serve our customers?
  • In what ways could we be more efficient?
  • Are we properly focused on market opportunities? How can we be better at maximising our market opportunities?
  • How could we better engage our staff?
  • What do we know about our competitors and what they are doing?
  • Do we understand available and potential new technologies and how they could benefit our business (or our competitors if not us)? Have we actually tried to experience these technologies.
  • How could we improve our processes to benefit customers, staff and management?
  • Have we identified critical risks and implemented mitigation plans? Are we truly prepared if they eventuate?

Here are a few suggestions:

  • Take a serious look at competitors and potential competitors. Look at their website. Call them. Visit their premises if they have one. Try buying something. Find their customers and ask them about their experience with the competitor.
  • Take a field trip. Go and spend time with customers, visit competitors, visit suppliers. Go to a different market or geographic region to see what they are doing.
  • Experiment. Try it. Experiential learning is critical. For example, if you don’t experience a new technology, service or product then how can you understand the potential uses, benefits and implications for your business or how it may be implemented?
  • Ask your customers.  Talk to them about their needs and their experience of your service or products. Conduct a survey (but make it brief and targeted – don’t bombard them).
  • Ask your staff. Engage them in the process. You might be surprised at the ideas and knowledge they have.
  • Talk to suppliers. They may have invaluable knowledge about opportunities. They are also likely supplying your competitors and have knowledge about them.
  • Look around. Look at other business and industries to see what you can learn from them.
  • Do some targeted research. Check out the web, YouTube, readings and other sources.

The capacity to challenge the status quo is a critical skill for business leaders in improving business results.  If you would like to find out more about how we can help, please contact Simulthink or click here for more information on our innovation management services.

Business coaching
Mark Sinclair

A tip for Small Business owners and leaders – Take time out from the operations to Think and Act strategically!

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Business owners and leaders constantly find themselves caught up in the operational and day to day. That is completely understandable.  Small business owners typically have to be a jack of all trades. Customers, marketing, sales, products, services, systems, processes, human resources, financial, technology, communications don’t wait. They all have to be managed by someone – and usually there is no department to do it. Just the owner or business leader and a hand full of staff.  No wonder one of the major pitfalls for business owners is failing to take the time out from operations to think and act strategically or do some business planning. Somehow, business leaders need to find the time to do both – the strategic planning and the operational.  So, here are a few simple steps and tips to get started and create the time for business planning and strategy.

In summary, the key steps are:

  1. Delegate
  2. Do something different
  3. Summarise the current business or AS-IS
  4. Define the Vision for the business or TO-BE
  5. Articulate a compelling Case for Action
  6. Develop and execute the plan

The first step for business owners and leaders is to DELEGATE as much of their operational and tactical workload as possible.  Leaders should review their role and separate out their operational workload from their strategic workload. Seriously ask – how much time do I spend on planning for the future.  Then get curious about the future and invest the right amount of time in planning for it.

The second step is to DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT from the normal day to day. Get out of the office.  Take key staff with you. Go on a field trip. Use the wealth of strategic planning processes and tools available – SWOT, Visioning, Values development, BCG Matrix, Portfolio Analysis, Competitor analysis, etc. There are many tools available to help business leaders think differently. In need, get a consultant to help.

The third step is to clearly articulate the current state of the business or the AS-IS and summarise it – finances, resources, operations, staff, structure, customers, services, products, systems, processes, technology, communications, etc.?  Understanding the starting point is fundamental to any journey.

The fourth step is to take the time to consider the possibilities and imagine the future or TO-BE for the business. Describe the vision for the business and time frame to achieve it. In other words, what will the business look like in the future and when? What markets will be served? What services or products will be offered?  What is happening in the industry elsewhere in the world? What will the customers look like? What will the staff look like and what skills will they have? What will the systems and processes look like?  What technology opportunities will be leveraged? What will competitors be doing and offering? If you cannot articulate the future then how will you know what needs to be achieved for success?

The fifth step is to create the CASE FOR ACTION. Consider both the AS-IS (current state of the business) and the TO-BE (or vision for the business) and make a list of the compelling reasons for change. The Vision needs to be inspiring but the Case for Action has to be the driving and motivating reasons for change. Maybe customers won’t need your current services.  Maybe new technologies will make your products or services obsolete. You may have to create new efficiencies to remain profitable or to be competitive. Staff may need completely new skill sets to achieve the vision. Create an explicit list.

Beyond these steps, the plan will need to be developed and executed.  But that will be another tip. In our experience, Execution matters more than the inspiration. Great strategies and business plans require great execution.  Without effective execution, plans are worthless.  That is why we created Simulthink – to help leaders, business owners and teams Think and Act Together!  Click here for more information about business planning and strategy.

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