There is an image of a good business owner who juggles everything, doesn't ask employees to do tasks themselves, and has their finger in every pie. Sometimes this is the result of having spent time as a sole proprietor, or you might have it instilled in you that this is the way to do things.
However, running a successful business is too much for any one person. There is a point of growth at which the ability to delegate becomes vital. Here are some reasons why you should not try to do it all.
Overwork is Unhealthy
How many hours did you put in last week? If the answer is over 100, you are overworking yourself badly. Even if it's only 60 to 80, you are doing yourself a disservice. Working too hard can put you at risk of health issues such as high blood pressure, elevated risk of strokes, impaired sleep, depression, and impaired memory. Heavy drinking and other forms of self-medication also often ensue from overwork.
Bluntly, you can't help your company if your health is poor. By keeping your hours reasonable (under 55 a week), you will keep yourself in better condition. Even if you find work is a haven, you will be happier if you allow yourself time to recharge, such as spending time with your family or doing valued hobbies.
Overwork is also bad for your employees. If you set an example of working ridiculous hours, they may fear for their jobs if they don't follow suit. Instead, set a good example of a good work-life balance. Just telling people, they don't need to work 80 hours a week won't help if you are always the first person in the office and the last out. They will think you are saying it to sound good.
On top of that, taking on too much makes us less productive. Studies of overworked employees show that they make more mistakes and are less productive. Most people start to decline in productivity after the sixth hour of the working day. Taking regular breaks helps.
Working too hard means you are more likely to get sick, more likely to make mistakes, and likely to get less done. Delegating work to others as your company grows is an important skill.
Doing Too Many Things Increases Mistakes
Doing too many tasks at once means you are not doing any of them well, and your divided focus leads to lots of mistakes. Our brains are not designed to handle multiple tasks and waste a lot of time switching from one task to another. Multi-tasking also impairs executive function, which is how your brain decides how and in what order to process things. Multi-tasking more does not make you better at it. Frequent multitaskers do tasks less well, and doing so also increases their stress and anxiety.
Instead, prioritize your tasks, work out what you can delegate or outsource, and focus on doing the things that are your personal responsibility. Many business owners try to do payroll themselves. Payroll is a tedious task that often results in low engagement, but mistakes in payroll cause disaster for your company. If you find you must multi-task to "get everything done," then you need to start delegating and outsourcing more. You only have so many hours in the day, after all.
You are the owner of the company for reasons. Remind yourself of what those are and focus on the strategic tasks only you can do, and do one of them at a time, moving on to the next only when you have finished the first. Even checking email should wait until a good breakpoint.
Teamwork Makes Companies Stronger
When you try to do everything yourself, you sacrifice the strength that comes from teamwork. You have good ideas, but your team has different ideas. By delegating to your employees and working with them, you leverage their diverse backgrounds, work, and life experience. You are more likely to come up with good ideas by giving yourself a break and deferring to others who may see things differently.
By no means should your pull everyone into endless meetings. Instead, you should encourage seamless ongoing collaboration and communication using collaboration tools. Listen to what your employees have to say. On top of potentially finding excellent ideas, you would have personally missed, listening to them helps them feel valued and wanted. Even if you don't use their suggestion, letting them know you heard it and thought about it encourages employees, especially younger ones, to stick around.
Doing so prevents isolating departments as companies grow, where the sales team does not talk to production and neither talks to HR. The free flow of ideas between you and your employees is vital to growing a strong company.
As the business owner, you may feel that you need to do it all, but you don't. Freeing yourself to focus on critical elements of growing your business and the things only you can do ensures a faster and more sustainable growth. That includes delegating to trusted employees, outsourcing tedious tasks such as payroll and benefits administration, and learning to keep your focus on the task at hand.
