Delegation is important to furthering your bookkeeping firm’s success, but it can be difficult to overcome perfectionism. You may not feel ready to hand over work to others, or you may be afraid the transition will just be too much of a hassle. Here are our five best tips for delegating work and empowering your bookkeeping team to take on new challenges!

Learn to Let Go

The first step for delegation at your bookkeeping firm is… letting go. It might sound simple, but it can be tough to relinquish control over a project you’re used to handling yourself. You might fear that others may not complete it as well — or you could just decide that training someone else for the task will take too much time. But learning to let go and trust in your staff will only help strengthen your firm. It can also help YOU avoid burnout, and your health is every bit as important as the health of your firm. 

Pick the Right Person

Every member of your team has different strengths and weaknesses. When you’re delegating, you have to pay close attention to your team’s unique skills and play to them. Take into account your staff’s experience, talents, desire to learn, and professional goals when assigning new work. 

Make Sure Your Expectations Are Clear

Unclear instructions will only lead to disappointment for both parties. The best way to ensure that your team feels empowered to do their jobs is to give them the tools they need upfront. You can do this by utilizing checklists that carefully detail the steps your team member needs to take to complete the job. Need some help getting started with checklists? Check out our other blog here!

Create a Feedback Loop

When mastering any new skill in the workplace, it’s important to have guidance and continuous feedback. Keep in mind that any time you delegate assignments to your team, they are likely just as eager to complete the job well as you are to see it done. Feedback allows your staff to know what they are doing well and what needs improvement as they learn new things. But feedback goes both ways! Make sure that your team has a way to talk to you if instructions aren’t clear or if they need extra help.

Make Room for Failure — and Success

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your operations won’t change overnight. When you start divvying up work, expect things to not go smoothly right away. Be understanding when your staff doesn’t get things right on the first try. Likewise, when things do go the right way, celebrate! Make sure you’re giving proper credit and celebrating milestones as a team!

Prioritizing delegation at your bookkeeping firm will help both you AND your team. And the more you empower your team to take on new challenges, the more they’ll help your firm grow in the long run! Let us know your best tips for delegation in the comments below!