Perfect pitch in voice, body-lines in ballet or nimble hands and feet in sports, all these things are considered talents and gifts in our society. A less glamorous but still very valuable talent, one that is especially showcased in business, is the ability to delegate. A common problem in business leadership is a feeling of being overwhelmed. Though each business has their own case-by-case scenarios, many problems stem from a lack in proper and smart delegation and communication.
One business spectrum that often needs delegating is the area of IT. All companies today need their computers to never go down, for their information to be protected, and to have proper and safe storage. But to create an IT department can be costly. Is it better to delegate IT out to an existing company or should it all be done in house? In this discussion there are two terms floating around, managed hosting services and managed services. With managed hosting services the exchange is offsite, stored, managed and run by a contractual company, while managed services will be inside the individual customers’ data center and can be managed remotely if necessary.
On the site, webhostinggeeks.com they write, “The typical IT infrastructure calls for an organization to not only spend big on costly resources, but spend time maintaining them as well. A managed hosting provider frees up IT teams, allowing them to provide greater value to the company by placing their focus on non-critical IT tasks. In most cases, the hosting provider is better fit to handle such tasks.” Emphasizing the above point that in some cases deferring to others’ expertise can strengthen your business’s ability to perform, webhostinggeeks.com also explains, “This service allows small and mid-sized businesses to save money on an expensive in-house infrastructure and still get the necessary resources to maintain their IT environment and obtain the scalability to compensate evolving needs. In addition, larger businesses can achieve a tighter integration of IT and access to technical expertise to support their operations and customer base.”
One of the reasons why people struggle with delegation is because a big aspect of it is trust and dealing with feelings of loss of control. Research and knowledge must be the prequel to assignments or contractual work. James Bucki writes on operationstech.about.com, “Since you will be turning over part of the operations of your business to another company, you will now be tied to the financial well-being of that company.” Though Bucki is speaking more on the topic of outsourcing, it is still important to do your research when contracting an IT company since you will be giving them access to all your information and charge them with the duty of your security.
When you know the team that you have surrounded yourself with and each team members’ specific expertise and their areas of weakness, then you are able to optimize peoples’ individual talents and properly assign tasks. Like trying to hang a picture with a nail and a screw driver, not having the proper tool or the correct person in the right spot can either make the task more difficult or a failure completely. In business, it is a necessary talent to know what your company is good at and when you should and need to request help.
