Mastering Delegation: 7 Steps to Breaking The Cycle of Overwork

As a female entrepreneur with a service-based business, you’re passionate about what you do. You’ve poured your heart and soul into building your company from the ground up, and your hard work has paid off with steady growth. However, along with success comes the inevitable challenge of managing an ever-expanding workload. 

If you find yourself burning the midnight oil, feeling overwhelmed with tasks, and struggling to keep up with the demands of your business, you’re not alone. Many entrepreneurs face the same struggle, particularly when it comes to delegation.

The common reason many of my clients struggle with delegation is due to a lack of clear delegation strategies. It’s common to fall into the trap of trying to do everything yourself, fearing that no one else can do it as well as they can or wanting to be liked and trying not to ‘seem mean’. 

However, this mindset not only leads to holding onto more work yourself, overwork and burnout which often also means your growth, profitability and scalability of your business is hindered.

So – what’s the solution?

Mastering the art of delegation!

Viewing this as a skill that you need to master knowing that it IS the secret to reclaiming your time, reducing stress, and allowing you AND your business to thrive. 

Here are 7 actionable steps to follow to support you to develop a clear delegation strategies:

1. Identify Your Zone Of Genius – Start by looking in the mirror and identifying the tasks that only you can do.  The jobs and tasks that truly fall within your unique skills, expertise, and vision for the business. These should be your top priority but it’s often that less important other tasks take up the time and your true genius or important tasks are de-prioritised. 
2. Assess Your Team’s Strengths – Look around at your existing team and assess their skills, strengths, knowledge and capacity. You’ll then be able to assign tasks based on their abilities and delegating responsibilities that align with their expertise and interests OR you’ll find you have a hiring gap.
3. Clearly Define Expectations – When delegating tasks, you need to be specific about what needs to be done, why it’s important, and when it needs to be completed. You will also need to consider what instructions, training or guidance they’ll need to be set up for success.
4. Establish Accountability – Set up systems to track progress, monitor deadlines, and ensure accountability. This will include regular check-ins and feedback sessions will help keep everyone on track and address any issues or concerns along the way.
5. Foster a Culture of Trust… and actually trust your team. Trust is the foundation of effective delegation and to be able to trust and empower your team you need to know their decision making authority and what responsibility they truly do (or don’t!) hold. Once this is clear, empower your team members to make decisions and take ownership of their work. Give them the autonomy and support they need to succeed.
6. Learn to Let Go – As a leader, it is challenging to relinquish control and trust others to handle important tasks. However, learning to let go and delegate with confidence is essential for your own well-being and the growth of your business.
7. Continuously Review and Adjust – Delegation is not a one-time task – it’s an ongoing process that requires continuous evaluation and refinement. Regularly assess your delegation strategies, learn from successes and failures, and make adjustments as needed.

Overwork is a common challenge for female entrepreneurs, but it doesn’t have to be a permanent state. 

By mastering the art of delegation, you can free up your time, reduce stress, and position your business for long-term success.

Learn More

Paula teaches the Art of Delegation in her self study course Fundamentals of Leadership. 

Listen to the Mastering Delegation podcast episode 115 of the Big Dreams Great Teams podcast.