• About
    • Company Overview
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • Who We Work With
    • Bios
    • FAQs
  • Services
    • Services Overview
    • Consulting Solutions
      • Overview
      • Organizational Assessment
      • Strategic Planning
      • Organizational Structure
      • Performance Management
      • Culture Management
      • Merger Integration
    • Leadership Development
    • Executive Coaching
    • Workshops and Seminars
      • Overview
      • Building a Breakthrough Company
      • Leading on the Edge
      • Strategic Planning
    • Keynote Speaking
      • Overview
      • From Small to Big: The Roadmap
      • Growth Problems
      • Leading at the Speed of Growth
      • Common Denominators of Growth
      • Getting the Most Out of People
  • Understanding Growth
    • Overview
    • Stages of Growth
    • Growth Problems Index
  • Resources
    • Resources Overview
    • eBooks
    • Videos
    • White Papers
    • eNewsletter Archive
    • Suggested Reading
    • Additional Resources
  • Blog
  • Media
  • Contact
GrowthMine|Blog|Company Building|The Critical Role of Delegation in Fast-Growth Companies
Understand The Stages of Growth Do You Have Growth Problems?
  • Search

  • Free eBook

     Built to Grow

    Sign up to receive exclusive updates via email
    and get a FREE copy of my NEW eBook:

    Built to Grow

    A Survival Manual for Growing Companies


      100% privacy. No sharing or selling
      of your information to any third party.

    • about mark otto

      about mark otto

      Mark Otto is a business consultant, author. and speaker. He draws on a lifetime of experience with the organizational strategic, and leadership challenges of growing companies to offer
      practical and effective advice for improving leadership skils and business performance. Learn More

    • Connect with me

      • Twitter
      • Linkedin
      • Facebook
      • YouTube
      • RSS Feed
      • Subscribe
      • Popular Posts

      • Featured Posts

      Popular Posts

      • Home (12,473)
      • The 4 Stages of Business Growth (4,759)
      • Contact (1,319)
      • Company Overview (1,266)
      • Business Growth Stage 3: Rapid Growth (1,246)

      Featured Posts

      • People Grow Businesses
      • The Fountain of Youth for Business Growth
    • Categories

      • Company Building
      • Leadership
      • Management
      • Marketing & Sales
    ideamine-logo-final

    The Critical Role of Delegation in Fast-Growth Companies

    When the wave of growth hits, a lot of things become necessary. One of the most important is scaling judgment that was once autonomous.
    By Mark Otto on
    November 18, 2013

    “I don’t delegate because it’s easier just to do it myself.” Or “No one can do this as well as I can.”

    Sound familiar? We’ve all said it. But this thinking is flawed.

    Delegating does take time and effort. And maybe you can do it faster or better. But there’s only one of you, and you don’t scale.

    The Delegation Dilemma

    A leader’s direct involvement in all aspects of the business keeps a young company on track. But as the company grows, a leader needs to be able to defer power to managers – you have to find a way to share responsibility.

    It may sound easy, but it’s not. Many executives find it difficult to step back, delegate responsibility, and let their teams do the work.

    It’s easy to spot leaders who haven’t made this shift. They’re perfecting tomorrow’s sales pitch at 4 a.m. Instead of teaching the team to be successful on their own, the leader stays mired in the details.

    It’s common for executives of growing companies to feel like they are the only ones that can handle important parts of the business. Every day you must make decisions, some big and some small, about the organization – about your culture, employees, customers, products, strategy, and more. As a result, very few things get your undivided attention. And that will become a problem.

    In other words: For you to continue to hold on to everything is no longer in the best interests of the company. In fact, your continued growth depends on recognizing that you need the help of others.

    The Bottleneck

    As a business grows so do the responsibilities of its leader. There’s zero chance that you can do it all.

    Having everything go through one leader (or even a small set of leaders) limits growth. If you are the one who has to make every decision, a huge stumbling block is created for getting things done.

    The biggest reason to delegate is that not delegating makes it impossible to scale. It simply doesn’t work over the long term. This is why so many executives of growing companies are overwhelmed and burned out. The business must be able to run without you.

    Get your processes out of your head and documented so that you don’t become the bottleneck in your business. When your employees can’t get things done without you, you can’t focus on growing your team and scaling your business.

    Trust

    Great leaders realize they can’t do everything by themselves. You must learn to let go and trust others.

    Delegation is the unspoken acknowledgement that you trust someone else to get the job done. You need enough trust to delegate authority, not simply tasks. Delegating tasks creates followers; delegating authority creates leaders. The only way to scale judgment in an organization is to give people the freedom to succeed and fail. Your job is to support and coach along the way.

    There’s another important lesson here: By giving the people around you a chance to develop their talents, you’re also giving yourself a chance to grow.

    The Keys to Effective Delegation

    There are four basic keys to effective delegation:

    1. Delegate responsibility;
    2. Agree upon the desired objectives;
    3. Grant others the authority to take the actions needed to achieve the objectives; and
    4. Monitor progress; provide feedback, support, and coaching.

    Good Delegators Are Good Teachers

    To embrace delegation you have to acknowledge that what comes naturally to you may have to be learned by others who will sometimes make mistakes. Delegation means letting go, trusting others, teaching, and it takes patience. It takes listening to the challenges people are having, it takes getting the right people in the right positions, and it takes accepting mistakes as part of the process. You’ve got to learn to live with the fact that people will not always get it right. Your job is to teach, coach, and correct.

    Effective delegation doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s absolutely critical to the long-term success of a growing company.

    Although you remain the ultimate decision authority, you must turn over some responsibilities and authority to others and share your knowledge with them so they can learn. If you keep yourself buried in the details, you’ll never have the time or perspective to move on to bigger things.

    Are you an effective delegator?

     

    (Visited 38 times, 1 visits today)

    Lead Your Business to the Next Level

    Join the thousands who get my email updates and get a copy of my NEW eBook:
    BUILT TO GROW, additional resources, exclusive articles, and more!

      100% privacy. No sharing or selling of your information to any third party.

      Comments are closed.

      Lead Your Business to the Next Level of Growth


      Built to Grow distills the knowledge I have gathered as an executive, enterpreneur, and consultant into a step-by-step blueprint for building and leading a business that will achieve repeatable and scalable success.

      You can’t buy Built to Grow. There’s only one way to get it - by subscribing to my FREE email newsletter.

      Trying to manage business growth through trial and error will lend to years of frustration and failure. Learn what actually happens as successful companies grow. Sign up today!

        • About
          • Company Overview
          • Who We Are
          • What We Do
          • Who We Work With
          • Bios
          • FAQs
        • Services
          • Services Overview
          • Consulting Solutions
          • Leadership Development
          • Executive Coaching
          • Workshops and Seminars
          • Keynote Speaking
        • Understanding Growth
          • Overview
          • The Stages of Growth
          • Growth Problems Index
        • Resources
          • Resources Overview
          • eBooks
          • Videos
          • White Papers
          • eNewsletter Archive
          • Suggested Reading
          • Additional Resources
        • Blog
          • GrowthMine Blog
          • Comment Policy
        • Media
          • News
          • Media Kit
        • Connect
          • Twitter
          • LinkedIn
          • Facebook
          • Google+
          • YouTube
          • RSS Feed
          • Subscribe
        GrowthMine LLC
        Copyright © 2025 GrowthMine LLC. All Rights Reserved.  |  Terms of Use  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us