At some point in the development of your business or career the amount of work coming across your desk or in your in-box will require new strategies and delegating can be well worth the effort to let go of something you have done “forever”.

This week I was a visitor to a MasterMind group to talk about finding and operating from your genius (or unique capability). We had a lively conversation about the need to do things yourself either in order to have control or to get them done RIGHT. During the discussion we talked about what to say YES to and what to say NO to in building your business or managing your daily workload. While the goal is to free up more time and energy to do the things that are aligned with your natural creativity, there is still a reluctance to let go of the things that we do well even if someone else could do then just about as well aka good enough.

If you have a preference for Judging, you naturally gravitate to making decisions. Order follows as a result of having things decided. Those who have a preference for Perceiving defer making decisions as they keep options open. These two preferences lead to very different working styles and may be something to negotiate when you are delegating work to others. The focus needs to focus on the success criteria for a job well done rather than managing every aspect of the process the person uses to get the desired results.

I am not talking about policies and procedures that you have established as part of your business brand. I am really talking about micro-managing. As one of the seasoned professionals in this MasterMind group pointed out “It is a lot easier to delegate if you don’t watch.”

Another woman told about deciding to end the procrastination and stagnation that was happening because she hadn’t learned to both say NO to work that didn’t match what she was genius (read great) at. She finally decided to do what was fun and natural for her in a way that aligned with her calling. She was an expert on stress but she noticed that as she read other authors’ books about stress they all had a page that acknowledged the multitudes of professionals who kept them together body and soul during the stress of writing the book. This woman decided to write a book about stress in a stress free way in order to do this she refused to burn the midnight oil and she ended each chapter when it was good enough.

She walked her talk around stress management and because she modeled what she was trying to convey to others she gained trust and found followers of her writing and teaching. I suspect that this was also in alignment with her preference for perceiving.

Are you considering letting some aspect of your work go? The benefits of learning to delegate are well worth any bumps all the way as you transition part of your workload to someone else.