Articles - Org Development

If you struggle with delegating work to your employees, you’re not alone. Entrusting parts of your business, your blood, sweat, money and reputation is scary and you wouldn’t be normal if you didn’t have a fair amount of trepidation about it. However, if you are an entrepreneur, you simply can’t afford not to delegate.

What I hear frequently is, “I want to delegate, but how can I guarantee he/she won’t screw things up?”

Here is a 3 step plan to guarantee against employee screw ups:

1. Accept the fact that your employees are going to screw up. There are no such guarantees and there is no 3 step plan. Sorry.
2. Instead of focusing on preventing the inevitable, focus on mitigating the inevitable.
3. You can mitigate the impact of screw ups by knowing your employees’ skills, giving them clear directions and carefully choosing what responsibilities you give them.

The Best Delegation Advice I’ve Ever Heard

I should be a delegation expert. After all, before I started my own company, I worked in Corporate HR for 15 years. I am certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources. I’ve attended expensive conferences, I’ve heard international keynotes speakers, received training, read countless books and consumed gobs of white papers.

Yet the best advice I ever heard about delegation came from Will Hayden, founder of Red Jacket Firearms and “star” of the Discovery Channel’s newest hit reality show “Sons of Guns.” The show follows the team at Red Jacket as they repair, rebuild, convert, suppress and modify weapons such as AK47s and even a Civil War era cannon.

Will is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, served our country in the Marine Corps and now leads a small team of employees in what the firearms community considers to be one of the most creative, leading edge weapons builders in the country. And if you watch the show, you know that Will is an easy going, salt of the earth entrepreneur who is fiercely protective of his brand. I love Sons of Guns because I love watching him in action – leading his people.

In the episode “The Bazooka; Kris’ Birthday,” (which aired last night, Wednesday, February 16th) Will gave his employee Kris a project – which Kris screwed up big time. When Kris, fearfully told his boss about it, Will literally gave him a butt tap with his foot. Then he said:

“Son, I don’t put you on nothing that you could f#*% up to the point that I couldn’t fix it.”

Get past the grammar and swearing and really look at what he said. In case you don’t speak Southern, it sounds a little bit like:

“Son, I give you things to do that I can fix if you screw them up.”

How’s that for some down-home, Louisiana, bread and butter delegation advice?

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Biography

Alicia Arenas is the Founder and CEO of Sanera, The People Development Company. After 15 years of Fortune 500 HR leadership experience, Alicia left the corporate world to assist small business owners as a coach and consultant. She is master speaker and facilitator, earned her certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources in 2002 and has built a reputation around her highly creative and transformative training programs. She specializes in business development, branding, leadership, communication, social media and sales. In 2010 she launched Sanera Camp (www.saneracamp.com), a six week business building “boot camp” for small business owners and sales teams. Alicia has been featured in and has written for the San Antonio Business Journal, her blog www.sanerapdc.com was listed in the Top 10 San Antonio blogs by WOAI and the San Antonio Business Media Public Relationships association named her the best Business Social Media Practitioner in San Antonio. In 2009, Alicia was one of five bloggers selected from around the country to audit the Disney Institute leadership courses and provide feedback to the Institute's executive team.

Contact for Alicia -
Phone: 1-888-954-4999
Email: alicia@sanerapdc.com 
Blog: http://www.sanerapdc.com
Twitter: @AliciaSanera

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