Delegate the Right Things the Right Way

Quick Insight

Very few things can never be delegated. All else is better done by others but needs to be reviewed by you. Keep your focus on where you provide the most value and your roles as owner.


What can you delegate and what should you delegate? When are you delegating tasks and when are you just abdicating your responsibilities?

Strategy can never be outsourced. That doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. You need other people to help you develop your ideas and test them for reasonableness. It’s better to have your ideas rejected by trusted colleagues and advisors than to have the market mercilessly expose your plan’s weaknesses.

Most tasks can and should be delegated. Other people can likely do them better and cheaper. Holding on to these because you think you can do it cheaper or faster is just jumping over dollars to save dimes. I recently started using a virtual assistant company and love it. It's saved me many hours and dollars.

Your role is to set boundaries and let others roam free in those boundaries to create value for you. However, these delegated processes need to be reviewed by you for effectiveness and efficiency. Not reviewing delegated tasks is an abdication of your responsibility – and profits. I can tell you horror stories of employees that took advantage of owners who abdicated their oversight responsibility.

I wish you focus on where you provide the most value. I wish you well.

- Rob Stephens


Further Insight


CFO Perspective Resources

  • Free Download: Start Stop Continue Template - This fillable PDF template is a quick way to summarize what you should start, stop, and continue based on ideas from you, your customers and your employees.
  • Free Download: Objectives and Tasks Worksheet - This worksheet helps you map out your quarterly objectives (a.k.a. goals) and the tasks to achieve those objectives.
  • Free Download: Prioritization Pack - When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. Employees are scrambling to keep up with too many tasks. Everyone is frustrated by the lack of direction. Deadlines are missed. The Prioritization Pack gives you a head start on using four methods to prioritize your goals and tasks.
  • Course: ACE - Strategic Planning for Small Businesses - Small business strategic planning should quickly lead you from defining where you are going to deciding how to get there. Getting there takes a well-built strategy and implementation plan. Get planning and management tools with the basics of how to use them.
  • Course: Creating Value - Business Success from Shared Value - You get what you value when you provide value to others. Business success comes from creating value for owners, customers, and employees. In this program, you'll identify exactly what each of these three groups value and how to increase that value - and your success.

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