The Gift of Time
‘A combination of research and practical experience make this well-written book invaluable for those struggling to effectively delegate and manage a team.’
‘Anyone wanting to take control over their life, enjoying the work that they do, continuously, needs this “Gift”. The online programme also brings the whole subject to life.’
‘Businesses succeed when they delegate, spreading responsibility and autonomy upwards, downwards and sideways. Gail Thomas's extensive personal experience translates into valuable words of wisdom on what we might soon call “the art of delegating”. ’
THE GIFT OF TIME
HOW DELEGATION CAN GIVE YOU SPACE TO SUCCEED
GAIL THOMAS
This edition first published 2015
© 2015 Gail Thomas
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INTRODUCTION
A whole book on the subject of delegation? Who'd have thought?
Personally, I love short paragraphs and chapters: I'm a total ‘cut to it’ person. No fluff required. If you're like that too, here's your reason to stick with this book, even though it's longer than an article:
There's loads in it for you, to make other things shorter and your life better.
If you need a bit more, here's the next part:
• Delegation is a multi-media, multi-directional necessity of life (how thoroughly modern of me).
• There are many benefits to getting delegation right in life: at home as well as at work.
• The potential of successful delegation to the UK economy at just under £300 billion per annum – you should take your share of that.
• I know that clients I've dealt with are usually disappointed that there is no quick fix. Great delegation takes time (for many reasons TIME is the biggest barrier to successful delegation) but the benefits are MASSIVE – I'm a real live case study and I talk about it readily at the drop of a hat.
A grandiose and somewhat unachievable sound bite from Vince Cable at MADE Festival for start-up businesses in 2012 was the inspiration for this book. He said, and I paraphrase, ‘If we had 900 000 new businesses in the UK tomorrow, we would not have an economic problem. Unemployment would be reduced to an acceptable level, the economic deficit would be eradicated and our future pensions problem would be resolved.’
As a serial starter of businesses, I found what he said massively appealing, but as one who knows how tricky it is to get going in the first place, let alone keep a young business afloat, I knew in truth it was a big, if not impossible, ask.
But the maths intrigued me and wouldn't let me go. I knew that the UK at that point had some 4.5 million businesses and thus 900 000 as a proportion of that was 20 %. So, give or take, if the businesses that we already had grew by 20 %, one could presume that the net effect on the economy would be the same.
So how does a business go about growing by 20 %? All manner of ways, I suspect: brand extension, product development, asset leverage, marketing sales, economies of scale, process-reengineering, social media and business development. It matters not, to be honest. Growth takes time and money, but mainly time – especially if you've just come out of a recession and the banks aren't lending!
So if growth, enough to eradicate our economic woes (ref Vince Cable), takes time from those with the skills to create it, then – I figured – the only way to give these people the time they need is to reduce their workload. The only way to make this happen is by delegating; and if that is true, it de facto means there is value in delegation.
So I asked the question: ‘If you could reduce your workload by 10 %, what would you do with the time?’
Over 90 % of respondents from SMEs said they would grow the business.
And so I asked them how much by. Somewhat ironically, given the Vince Cable starting point, the average response was always just over 20 %.
Then if you take the current government statistics on SMEs alone and apply the figures to owner-led businesses, the resulting expected growth, on delegating 10 % of workload alone, is almost £300 billion per annum.
So if you were wondering how this book got its title, there you are.
For those who like the greater explanation, here's your bit:
Mastering the art of delegation is so much more than that, more than ‘just’ more money. There is much written on delegation in many media and forms and I'm sure I've only touched the very outside in my own reading. What I've seen, though, doesn't differ from the bits of delegation theory that I read when I studied for my MBA. It's absolutely right in its content but it's less compelling if it isn't clear why you might partake. Let me expand here, because this is the nub of the justification of one whole book dedicated to the single subject of delegation.
In