Overcoming the “I Can Do it Better” Syndrome

‘Anything you can do, I can do better.

I can do anything better than you.’

Does this sound familiar? It’s a little song most of us heard as children. And it’s also a way many of us want to do business as adults.

The reasoning is pretty simple: it’s your business. Who knows it better than you? And there’s also a matter of control. The only way to make sure it’s done properly is to do it yourself, right?

This strategy may work if you’re just running a small business out of your spare room or garage, but as your operation expands, so do the responsibilities. Pretty soon you begin to feel like butter that’s been spread over too much bread. In the end, there’s only one of you to go around.

Whether you like it or not, you’re going to have to start delegating at some point. It sounds great, at least on the surface, until it’s time to actually do it and then we hesitate. Why do we avoid doing something that, in theory, should make our lives easier?

If you still need convincing about the need to delegate, try keeping a time diary of your daily business activities. What are you actually doing with your time? What eats up the most hours in your day? Is it emails? Social media? Scheduling?

Next consider the particular tasks in terms of your overall business. How vital is it? Do you have unique skills that allow you to perform the task most efficiently? Or is it something that someone else could handle just as well? The ideal task for delegating is one that can be easily tracked (so you can keep an eye on the person doing it), has a time frame (so you can measure the results of their efforts) and would benefit the business as a whole for another person to be able to do.

When you choose to delegate, take the time to explain to the other person why the job is important and how it fits into the larger picture. Create context for them. Doing so engenders a sense of ownership for the task.

It’s a chance to develop talent in your business or expand the talent on your team— talent that you’ll need if your business is to grow and thrive in the future.

It’s also important that you spend time working ON your business, and not just IN your business. It’s your business. You’re the one who has the vision of what you want it to be. You’ll need time to look at the big picture and figure out how to best realize that goal.

While details are important, you don’t want to be in a situation where you can’t see the forest through the trees. That’s why delegating is so important.

So the next time you feel overwhelmed, instead of stressing, delegate.