How to Prioritize Tasks and Delegate Them to Your Team

You’ve probably seen it already: As your business grows, there are more issues tugging at your precious time. So it’s critical to use your time more wisely. Prioritize in the most fundamental way. Divide tasks into two buckets: essential and non-essential. Once you’ve identified your most critical issues and initiatives, focus on those. And the less essential tasks? The ones that eat up your time and leave you wondering where the day went? Those should be delegated to others.
 
A critically important corollary to prioritizing is delegating. One of the most difficult challenges for a small business owner – and not coincidentally, one of the keys to successfully growing a business – is letting go of some business decisions, and turning them over to others. According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, 38 percent of small business employers plan to hire full-time employees in 2018. The survey also found that of the 40 percent of small business owners who plan to hire temporary employees, 58 percent plan to hire them permanently. Delegating is essential to getting a business to the next level. Empower key employees to make some decisions, give them clear expectations… and step away. Trying to do it all doesn’t promote growth; it prevents it.
 

Game Plan

Begin by focusing on and answering key questions, such as:
 
  • What are critical tasks or business decisions that you need to make, and which can you give to someone else? Don’t be afraid to write it down – see how long your list of tasks is, and estimate the time each week or month you spend on each item. See how delegating can free your time.
  • Can the task be used as an opportunity to develop team members, and increase what they’re able to do for you? Create job descriptions for each member of the team that lists their functions and responsibilities. Consider periodic meetings to check progress, and set regular due dates.
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