Raise your hand if you’ve ever looked at your partner and said, “It’s fine, I’ll just do it myself.” You could be talking about loading the dishwasher, picking the kids up from school, the list can go on and on. And because I value my marriage, I’m not going to keep on listing them either.

But level with me now… How many of us have fallen victim of keeping tasks to yourself, in both your personal and professional lives, because:

• You know you can do it better yourself
• You’re worried about handing the task off to someone else and potentially waste time because you’ll just have to redo it anyway
• Maybe your pride is getting in the way and you want to prove to everyone that you CAN do it all 

This fear and mindset can emanate from many different places such as a lack of trust in others’ abilities, the belief that no one else can do the task as well as you or a fear of losing control over the outcome. Let me be the one to let you in on a secret… Trying to do everything yourself can actually be extremely counterproductive and lead to burnout. We don’t want that for you! There’s a saying out there that I’m sure everyone’s heard before:

 “Just because you CAN, doesn’t mean you SHOULD”.

By starting something as simple as delegating tasks, you will find you have more time to focus on tasks that are a higher priority AND it gives your team/admin a chance to grow and develop their own skills. Some benefits of delegating tasks are:

• Better time management: You’ll be able to manage your own time more efficiently and focus on more important things.
• Empowering your people: You’re giving responsibilities and opportunities to others that will allow them to develop their own skills and abilities. This will in turn, promote growth and boost confidence!
• Increase overall productivity: Delegating tasks to those who are capable of handling them will improve both efficiency and productivity.
• Improved decision-making: By allowing others to do tasks, you will receive different perspectives to consider when making decisions.
• Enhanced Collaboration: You will be nurturing a collaborative work environment where everyone can mastermind and work towards common goals.

With that being said, I’m not telling you to just dish out tasks to others all willy nilly. Let’s look at some questions to ask yourself before you decide to delegate:

1. Is this a task that can be delegated? Or is it crucial that YOU are the one to complete it?
2. What do my own timelines/deadlines look like?
3. Could this task provide an opportunity to help develop someone else’s skills?
4. How serious is the outcome? Would a failure be tragic or affect the long-term success of the company?
5. Is this a one time task or is it recurring?
6. If you’ve answered all those questions and decide to delegate a task to a team member, be sure to stay mindful of their capabilities/skill and their current workload. Also, be patient – mistakes may happen, but it’s part of the learning process. Who knows, you could end up being pleasantly surprised by the result!

If you’re sitting there reading this thinking, “how am I going to do this?”. I challenge you to let go of that. Right here, right now. Going down the road alone is tough and extremely limiting. Who do you think can help you get to where you want to be? Creating a network or community unlocks so much potential in your career and business!

Why not share the knowledge? Let’s celebrate each other’s successes and learn from our failures! We desperately need to get away from being so competitive with one another and thinking of collaborating as a negative idea. The only HOW you should be looking at is how much further you’re going to be able to go with the right WHO by your side.

If any of this is resonating with you, come join the Real Estate Operations Leaders Facebook group. We got your back and hope you’ll continue to grow and learn right here with us!