Let someone else do it!

More and more I realize that the secret to running a successful business is delegating.

You already have too much to do. To succeed, business owners must: leverage their time and their strengths; empower and engage their employees by assigning challenging tasks that encourage initiative and creativity; and restrict their time on projects to simply adding that extra drop of value that only they can provide.

Otherwise, they will never develop their employees properly, create the mutual trust they need, or build a business that will ever reach its full potential.

How do you start delegating? MarketingProfs.com’s small business newsletter today has an article called, “Be a Super Delegator.” In it Jane Schulte, author of Work Smart, Not Hard!, offers six pointers for successful delegation:

* Start small, then increase delegation as skills develop.
* Define clear goals, deadlines and criteria for success.
* Provide all the needed resources and information.
* Give your subordinate full authority over the project.
* Offer guidance and advice without interfering.
* Focus on results, not the process.

If the project is successful, says Shulte, credit the person who got it done. If there was a problem, shield the subordinate from blame. "Learn from the experience so you can delegate more effectively, provide more training or delegate the next project to a different person," she says.

You can read the full article here.