If you think about your business as a human being, it has its strengths and its weaknesses.

One of the major weaknesses facing firms today is the habit of ‘systemic under delegation’.

What would the result be do you think, if you were to ask every member of your team this one simple question:

“What percentage of your professional time is spent doing things that a more junior person could do, if we got organised and trained the junior to do it with quality?”

The answer — the honest answer — is pretty staggering: 40–50%.

Translate that across your entire firm, and that’s 40–50% productive capacity consumed with a higher priced person doing a lower value task. Which means a business’s delivery system is high cost. Not an ideal situation in anyone’s language.

Many business owners are under the impression that if their customers are willing to pay for this, then it’s fine. But the truth of the matter is very different.

The reason to change this pattern of thought? Competition.

When an owner’s time is taken up doing lower-level work, as opposed to adding real value to the work they do for their customers, they are unwittingly giving their competition an edge.

Overcoming the challenge of under delegation can be difficult — even a little daunting — but by following a few simples steps, the results you’ll get for your business, and for your customers will have made the exercise well worthwhile.

Does under delegation exist in your business? Can you imagine what your team could achieve if you could eliminate it, even partially?