Your to-do list is packed full of more stuff than you’ll ever complete.

You’re stressed out because you feel like you need to be everything to everyone – everywhere all the same time.

You’re so busy with what’s right in front of you that work you know you must do keeps getting kicked to next week, and the week, after that – and then next month. Well, maybe next year.

There is a way to break the cycle and retake control of your business – and your life.

It’s called delegation.

Hold on … I know you know it is important to delegate things, and that delegating will save you time and make you more money.

But you’ve got good reasons why you’re not doing it – or not doing it well. Some of the common excuses for not delegating are:

1. I have to do it myself
2. It takes too long to delegate/I do it faster, better
3. I don’t have the time to learn how to do it well
4. I don’t have anyone to delegate to
5. Other people can’t meet my standards (perfectionist)
6. I can’t trust the work to the people I have on my team
7. I’ll just have to redo the work I get back anyway
8. I’ve tried it before, and it just doesn’t work for me.

These stories (aka excuses) will keep you from growing your practice. They will bring you to work early, and keep you late each night – and absorb your weekends. All while your people work regular hours and enjoy the life that you’d like to be enjoying.

I get it. Delegating is hard.

It’s doubly difficult because few people have received proper training on how to delegate well – and to address all of the messy people issues that come with it.

Effective delegation can be learned.

You’re going to need TRUST others, and yourself.

It requires SKILLS. It’s not just about the skills of the people on your team. You are going to need to build and practice your own skills in delegation and the development of your people.

You must have a PROCESS so that you consistently execute the steps to effective delegation, management and leadership.

I’ll talk about each of these areas in future posts.

For now, let’s unpack some of the top reasons why professionals avoid delegating.

TIME

Time objections include the time it takes to explain it to someone else or how long the person will take to complete the task. It feels faster to do it yourself.

The problem with this one is it might actually be true initially.

The truth is that for routine, repetitive tasks that don’t require your skill and expertise, the time you spend you spend creating a system to delegate the work and training people to do the work is an investment in your future that pays off many many times over.

It takes longer at first, but once you got it, you will significantly accelerate whatever the process is that you’d like to delegate.

It ultimately frees up your time to do the work you like to do – and that creates real value in your business.

No People

The second obstacle is that you don’t feel like you have somebody to delegate the work to.

This might be especially true if you’re in an office by yourself or with one other person. And so you conclude that you can’t delegate because there are no people to delegate it to.

In today’s virtual interconnected workplace it’s easier than ever to delegate work to people who are not physically present in your office. You can also outsource to specialists without hiring them as employees or having them travel to your office.

This applies to everything from bookkeeping, to marketing, to answering the phones to doing professional and administrative work.

You’re only limited by your imagination and your delegation and management skills.

The effort that you put into figuring out what exactly you need to have done and delegating it and supervising it pays off many times over.

Trust

The third obstacle to delegating effectively is trust.

You’re going to need strategies to build trust in the skills of others and in their ability to keep information secure and confidential.

The other part of the trust is trusting yourself and having the confidence that you can figure out exactly what needs to happen and how it needs to happen and that you can manage it properly.

One of the insidious little problems with this is that when you delegate work to someone else and you want to build trust, there are going to be times when things don’t work out the way you want. It’s part of the learning process.

You’ll have to have a process not only on how to delegate the initial work but to retain responsibility, authority, and control. And to have a potentially difficult conversation with the person to whom you delegated the work about how their work may or may not be meeting the standard and how to improve.

I’ve seen so many professionals who avoid delegating because they are not comfortable having these difficult conversations. Instead, they tolerate situations that make their life more complicated.

The Fix

The fix is to recognize that delegating is a skill that can be learned.

If you’re determined to be in control of your future – and have the life you’ve always wanted then make it your business to learn and develop your delegation skills.

Start by considering how delegation is working for you now – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Here are a few questions to get you started:

1. Are there things you feel like you should be delegating but you aren’t doing it? Why not?
2. Do you have a defined process for delegation and completion of work? How is it working?
3. Do your people have the skills they need to do the work you need them to do?
4. How confident are you in your delegation, supervision, and follow-up skills? Do you have a routine and a process or do you just wing it? How’s that working for you?
5. When is the last time you received feedback from your team on how you’re doing as a delegator?

What’s your #1 challenge in delegating work? Leave a comment below and let’s talk.

P.S… Delegating well is a skill it takes a lifetime to master. And just when you think you’re done – your not. Mastery doesn’t come by reading a blog post, a book, or a checklist. Masters become masters because they have a guide to help them along the way. If you’re interested in mastery of delegation skills and your practice – and seeing whether I’d be a good guide for you then click here and let’s talk

The key to more productivity and less stress is not time management. It is energy management.

The world’s best productivity strategies don’t work if you don’t have the energy to put them into

action – and stick with them.

The reality of time management – and why it doesn’t work

Time is relentless and continuous. We can’t speed it up, slow it down, or have a do-over. Yet here we are playing a game of beat-the-clock we can’t win.

What’s worse is that so many professions (like lawyers) are built on the notion of trading time for money – a losing proposition to be sure.

If you only make more money by working more then you don’t really have a sustainable business. You’re just setting yourself up for burnout and exhaustion.

So when we say “time management” we are really talking about making better choices about how we use our time.

And that’s good because you can be in control of your time choices.

Manage energy first …

When you focus on managing your energy you will make better choices about mostly everything – including how you invest your time. You will also feel more in control, and less stressed out.

Thinking about energy management in four buckets really helped me with my energy management:

– Physical energy is about your health and fitness. It provides the power for everything, and it is a finite resource. Elements include the things you may take for granted – or skimp on, like sleep, exercise, nutrition, and periods of rest and recovery.

– Mental energy is about your focus and attention. It is the element that helps you avoid distractions, solve problems and do the intellectual work of being a leader and a professional.

– Emotional energy describes the quality of your interactions with the world, and yourself. It is about emotions and attitudes around the work you do. Negative energy depletes your physical and mental energy faster and makes it harder to recharge. The opposite is also true.

– Spiritual energy provides a perspective based on your purpose and position in the world – and your need for contribution and meaning. When you are working in alignment with your purpose and mission this can feed into the other energy types. The opposite is also true.

Here are some top strategies that I teach (and use) to create, protect, and focus physical, mental, and emotional energy for lawyers and business professionals.

Jettison the Energy Busters

Energy busters are the people, situations, habits, and activities that consume energy without adding value.

Energy busters are everywhere and they can be hard to identify – like the apps in the background are forever draining your cell phone battery. If you look closely you’ll start to see them.

They are distractions from your phone, texting, social media, internet surfing, or the pile of stuff around your desk that you finally decide to organize, or the dog that needs walking.

You’ll also find the energy vampires, or for vintage SNL fans, Debbie Downers.

Once you identify the energy busters pick one that has the most negative impact on your physical, emotional, or mental energy. Then take steps to reduce or eliminate it. One at a time.

Now, you may find that your clients, co-workers, or the type of work you are practicing all occupy the top of your energy buster’s list. It happens.

And there is often a fix that is less extreme than firing your clients, quitting your practice, and jetting off to Bora Bora (as nice as that may sound). And yes, we can help with that.

Accumulate Energy Boosters …

Identify the things in your life and your work that give you energy and be intentional about fostering those activities and relationships.

Our energy follows our focus. I am not suggesting that you only focus on positive things – because that’s not realistic. However, I find that you can get an energy boost from a negative situation when you focus on what you can learn and do differently that is within your control.

The key is focusing on what you control – and while you can’t control the world around you, you can control how you respond (rather than react) to it.

Try this out for a week.

Be intentional every morning about managing your energy.

Something physical. Something mental. And something emotional.

Check in with yourself several times throughout the day and at the end of the day. You won’t be great all day, or even most of it.

But there will be moments to start, and then more to follow. I bet you’ll find a difference in many ways – including your relationship with time.

Let me know how it goes.

-Doug