Delegating tasks to your employees can be a bit unnerving.  Certain projects and responsibilities you reserve for yourself because you know that you are the best person to handle them.  All the other tasks? You might want to consider putting them on someone else’s plate for a change.

Although you’d love to keep your fingers in all those pies, if you are honest with yourself, you know that they are just bogging you down–maybe to the point where you are less effective in the things that are critical for your business. Trying to directly control every aspect of your company or department will inevitably stretch you too thin.

There may be a reason why you have trouble letting go:  If you are older than Generation X, you may be plagued with a mindset that resists giving up control and makes you want to do it all by yourself.  The Greatest Generation and Baby Boomers share this tendency.  Believe it or not, even Millennials have this stubborn streak—but not for the same reasons.

Our Greatest Generation, the ones who stood up to Hitler and the Japanese after Pearl Harbor, believed that every person had the right to live free and make decisions for him or herself.  They knew deep in their hearts that no barrier was too high or too strong to overcome.

So they faced life’s challenges with persistence and resourcefulness and came out on the other side as business owners, entrepreneurs and self-confident farmers, factory workers and parents.

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Their motto was, “If you put your mind to it, you can do it.”

Baby Boomers internalized that motto growing up, but after going through Woodstock, Civil Rights and the Feminist Movement, transformed it into a personal mission to leave their mark on the world—“to make a difference.”  They took more chances, often risking stability to win others over to their cause.  As they matured into adults with their own families, they each adapted their calling to their changing lifestyles and became committed to their jobs, working hard to achieve the most they could while instilling hope for the future into their children.

Today’s Millennials are often branded as selfish and immature, but unfairly so.  These late teens, twenties and early thirties have a strange blend of “what’s in it for me” and wild creativity.  They embrace the newest technology and immediately use it to try to “build a better mousetrap.”

Their ingenuity has blessed modern life with young CEOs who have accomplished more with their new companies than many of their parents could during their entire careers.  They know how to build upon what they have been given.

While it is comforting to know that our desire to accomplish everything on our own is rooted in our heritage, it can become a serious stumbling block to reaching our goals in life.   If we try to do everything ourselves, we end up being excellent at nothing, or in other words, as the saying goes, “Jack of all trades; master of none.”  What good is that?

Delegate for Efficiency

So, in order to achieve our goals for our business, our passions and even our life, we have to “figure out what we are best at and delegate the rest.”  This allows us to make the most of our time and energy.  By delegating, we also maximize our resources, both business and personal.   As a result, we will accomplish more and achieve a higher level of exceptionalism—without exhausting ourselves in the process.

So much of our business success relies on communicating clearly, but that takes time and effort.  Where are you going to find the time to revamp a marketing piece that isn’t worded right?  Do you have the right skill set to revise your website so that it engages visitors better?

You don’t have to be an expert at everything.  It is time to stop trying to control every inch of your business.  Look at the people around you and size up their talents and experience.  Surely you can find the right individuals to handle quite a few of the tasks that are weighing you down and sapping your energy.

Delegate to make yourself and your company more efficient and effective.  When it comes to reworking and rewriting your marketing and web content, for example, free yourself up by outsourcing to a ghostwriter.  That way, you can concentrate on the aspects of your business that you are best at.

Delegate for Effectiveness

Deciding to delegate does not mean that you have failed or are somehow inadequate.  Rather, it means that you value the skills and abilities of others and know how to focus their assets to achieve your business goals.  This is the sign of a wise leader and a true entrepreneur.

Delegating also becomes a team effort, taking the pressure off you.  You may have to consciously change your own self-image from being the “go-to” guy or gal who has all the answers to the person who knows who has the answers.

We have previous generations to thank for inspiring us to wholeheartedly go after our dreams, but let’s allow ourselves the flexibility to make smart moves by delegating in order to reach them.

To explore ways to delegate some of your marketing for your company, check the tabs at the top of this page.