by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
Having watched in awe the truly inspirational Lionesses pitching at our Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague last month (see here the event page with all their brilliant pitches), we recognised that here was a group of businesswomen all seriously engaged, knowing how to take their companies to the next level. They were all in growth or high growth mode and were obviously loving the journey.
But what is the secret to ensuring sustainable growth as you fire up the turbo chargers of growth and head higher? Is it determination, or drive, or leadership? Is it bringing the entire company behind the vision and racing ahead together, always assuming you have the basics right first - a cool product solving huge problems with a large market nearby that is begging to be served, of course! Whilst it is true all of these are incredibly powerful in moving a company forward (some more than others), one of the most powerful strengths one can have to push a company forward and to ensure such growth is sustainable, turns out to be the power of delegation. The art of trusting another to do a job you know you can do perfectly well in half the time. Said like that is sounds scary to just hand something so important over to another - and for many, it is!
The US Inc Magazine each year rank the fastest growing “U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent--not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies” businesses (see here). These are the kind that are shooting out the lights so high, we as mere mortals can’t even start to see them, let alone dream of shooting them out! Unsure what we mean? The list of 500 privately held companies for 2023 had $358 billion in 2022 revenue (that’s an average of US$716 million btw) with 1,187,266 jobs created.
Gallup (here) whilst investigating what made the top performers in this top performing list, er… top, realised that it came down to a factor of how well they delegated. Those who showed a high level of ‘Delegator talent’ posted a three year average growth rate of 1,751% (before we all feel incredibly inadequate - remember these are the top 500 across the whole of the States), 112% above those who struggled with delegation. This in numbers meant 33% greater revenue in the previous year (than the strugglers). Gallup investigated if this pattern continued further down the ‘blowing the lights out’ curve, and indeed it did. It seems delegation matters whether you shot out the stars with your incredible growth, or are simply moving your company into a larger office, factory or warehouse as your growth begins to exponentially expand.
So let’s delegate!
Easy eh?
It appears not!
Gallup recognised that a massive 75% of ‘employer entrepreneurs’ had “limited-to-low levels of Delegator talent, jeopardizing their ability to build teams that can positively influence company performance.” Gallup concluding that: “These executives struggle with people management, which greatly hampers their company's potential growth."
So only 25% of employer entrepreneurs ‘have-it’ - this secret sauce?
What were the differencing factors? And can we even learn them, or is this one of those ‘born with it’ abilities? Broken down into bite sized chunks, we see hope!
It seems that Gallup found six key differentials:
“Delegators know that they can't accomplish everything themselves.” Yes, you know who you are - it is surprising how many of you are out there that still need to do everything because you started the company, you have always labelled, packed, wrapped, labelled (again), stacked, and sent - whilst also doing the books. Now you have a team of 17, you still want to do it all (perhaps because ‘it’ll just take too long to explain?’). Please stop. If you just opened up a little your stress levels would be eased, and perhaps your employees (also stressed out and exhausted just by watching you race around) would remember how to breathe again!
“Delegators develop team capacity using a strengths-based approach.” Delegation is not about finding just anyone to do the job, find the right one who has the interest in that particular field, they will grow in that role. Think about round pegs and square holes. We each have our particular strengths, as a leader we have to find them in our employees and then grow these. A Ferrari can’t pull a 40 foot container…just saying!
“Delegators ensure that employees have everything they need to do their jobs.” You wouldn’t expect a carpenter to do the job with no tools, so why expect your employees? Give them the right tools - and that includes training and guidance. This also includes giving them the right authority to do the task, such as - if it means them potentially using a different department’s resources, you need to clear that up, don’t just leave it hanging - “Oh don’t worry, Mary won’t mind if you borrow some of her people for that!” - You check with Mary first please
“Delegators focus on outcomes, not processes.” Focusing on outcomes means setting very clear expectations. What is a win for you, including timings. As Harvard write here: “…what the desired end goal is, why the task is important, and help address any gaps between the outcome and their current skill set.” This also means monitoring (NOT micro-managing) and encouraging.
"Delegators encourage new ideas and approaches to accomplishing goals.” The phrase 'we have always done it this way’ is one of the most costly phrases in business (think Blockbuster). If you do not have an open mind of the possibility that someone in your team may have a way of doing something quicker, or better, or more efficiently, then chances are high one of your competitors will…(that will concentrate your mind fast!).
“Delegators communicate frequently with employees.” Again we are not talking micro-managing, but showing them that you still know this job is being done and still support them. This means a channel for the employee to both ask questions and also provide updates. Feedback is essential as is congratulating employees if something is being done well. There is nothing like a bit of mutual trust and respect to make an employee, team and company glow!
Whilst Gallup stop at six, Harvard add two more which we particularly like and are pretty self explanatory:
Allow for failure and Be patient!
At the end of the day, delegation is how you grow employees into supervisors, into managers. Delegation if seen as a ‘hospital pass’, or if given to someone clearly unsuited will simply create a drag on the company, but done well it becomes a strong and sustainable turbo booster for your company’s growth.
What’s not to love!
Stay safe.