How to Delegate Your Tasks with Confidence

Do you ever feel that you are doing tasks which are below your pay grade? 

Finance leaders are essential to any company given your unique combination of knowledge, skills and experience. This puts you in a fantastic position to focus on high-value activities such as supporting decision-making, initiating change and delivering the strategic business plan. 

Despite this, too many finance leaders waste valuable time doing tasks that more junior team members could do, if given the right level of training and support. These tasks carry a huge opportunity cost to your business and often make finance leaders feel overwhelmed with work.

During this blog post, we will talk through the benefits of delegation, why finance leaders don’t delegate enough and how to delegate effectively.

Benefits of delegation

When finance leaders delegate tasks, they are putting their trust in others. This can be a difficult thing to do, but it is important for building strong teams who remain loyal to their leader. When team members feel trusted, they are more likely to put their best effort into their work. 

Delegating tasks to team members gives them an opportunity to learn and grow. These new opportunities help to develop their skills and knowledge, whilst gaining exposure to different activities and building new relationships. This supports career progression by allowing them to step up and take on new responsibilities.

Delegating also shows that the leader has confidence in their team’s abilities. This can be motivating for team members and help them to achieve more, resulting in a team of trusted individuals who can help to carry out their vision.

When you delegate tasks effectively, the entire team becomes more productive and efficient, which frees up your time to focus on more important matters. This allows you to deliver more value-enhancing activities, such as:

• Acting as a catalyst for change by identifying profit and cash improvement initiatives;
• Collaborating with the wider business to support decision-making; and
• Delivering the strategic business plan by driving actions and monitoring progress 

By spending more time on these tasks, finance leaders can deliver their full potential to the business and be more impactful within their role.

Why finance leaders don’t delegate enough

Many finance leaders struggle with delegating tasks, but it is essential for success. Here are three reasons why people do not delegate enough tasks:

Finance leaders are often highly capable individuals who have worked their way up the ladder by taking on more and more responsibility. As a result, they may feel that they are the only ones who can do a task properly, and they are reluctant to delegate.

Additionally, many finance leaders are afraid to let go of control. They may feel that if they delegate a task, it will not be done correctly or on time. This can lead to micromanagement and decreased efficiency.

Finally, some finance leaders simply do not trust others to do the job right. This may be due to past experiences or a general mistrust of employees. Whatever the reason, this lack of trust can prevent finance leaders from delegating tasks and ultimately hinder their own productivity.

If you’re a finance leader who struggles with delegation, try to overcome these challenges by considering the benefits of delegation. Delegating tasks can help you focus on your own work, develop trust in your team, and improve efficiency overall.

How to delegate effectively

These are the biggest challenges for delegating tasks and some tips regarding how finance leaders can delegate more effectively:

One of the most difficult challenges for delegating tasks is ensuring that the person you delegate to is capable of completing the task. It can be tempting to want to do everything yourself to maintain control, but this ultimately leads to burnout. A good way to assess whether someone can complete a task is by asking them to complete a small part of it first and then reviewing their output. If they can do so successfully, then you can feel more confident in delegating the rest of the task to them.

Another common challenge when delegating tasks is making sure that the person understands what needs to be done and how you expect them to do it. This can be difficult to do when you are not able to be physically present with the person you are delegating to. To overcome this challenge, it is important to be very clear about what the task entails and how you expect it to be completed. You may also want to provide them with any additional resources that they may need to complete the task.

Finally, one of the biggest challenges for delegating tasks is simply finding the time to do it. As a finance leader, you are likely to already be very busy and may not have a lot of extra time to delegate tasks. However, it is important to remember that delegation can save you significant time in the long run. By delegating low-value tasks, you can free up your time so that you can focus on more important activities.

Developing your team

Finance leaders need to continuously develop their teams to feel confident about delegating their biggest tasks.

GrowCFO has worked closely with the finance leader community to create ten online courses that will help your team step up and be ready to take on more responsibility from you. These courses collectively cover the 50 biggest skills gaps within most finance teams, as highlighted in a recent survey of 200 finance leaders.

The courses feature many experienced CFOs and professional mentors who share proven techniques and practical suggestions to help develop your finance team members. They also provide real-life examples from inspirational CFOs.

Find out more about GrowCFO for Finance Teams here.