Let’s keep the idea of delegation going this month! Great CEOs recognize the importance of developing their leadership team and that means more than simply giving them a title. It means truly assigning those team members responsibility for some of the most important tasks in your office!

Last month, we created a category for those tasks that, while incredibly important for the success of your business, simply should not fall into your lap as the CEO. We looked at who should be responsible for re-assigning tasks within your admin team when one person calls in sick.

If your phones stop ringing, you know your business will be in trouble. So delegating complete responsibility for this task does not mean it is not important. You don’t get to keep all the important stuff for you! It is just that some tasks, as vital as they are, do not fall into the purview of the CEO. In fact, if your organization is running at peak efficiency, you may never even realize someone called in sick that day. Your office manager and your team will have handled things so well, there was no reason to let you know. Just as it should be!

Sometimes, as much as you might wish you could totally delegate all aspects of human resource management to another team member, you do have to at least be aware of what is going on. I hate to break it to you, but even CEO’s have to know some of the things happening in that department!

So this moves me to the next category of delegation: the category where your manager may still be the one who “runs with the ball,” but they should let you know what they are planning and why.

To help illustrate this category, let’s consider the example of the situation where an admin team member has resigned and you need to hire a replacement. If you want to delegate this task to your office manager, I recommend that you still make sure you are at least updated as to its progress.

There are multiple reasons for this. Perhaps you contract out part of your HR management to a company that specializes in helping you find the right candidate. Your office manager may then initiate this process, but you want to be informed because there is a cost to this. So have your manager provide you with updates and you can decide if you need to become more involved.

If your manager looks after hiring in house, you may still want to make sure it is not becoming too huge a burden. You don’t need to micromanage what is going on, but have your manager report their progress to you and make them feel like it is okay for them to express any concerns about the process to see if you need to become more involved.

Whether you use the services of an HR company or your manager looks after hiring directly, as the CEO, you have a vested interest in knowing your team! You will want to ensure you play some role in onboarding your new team member. Doing so can ensure this individual understands your vision from Day 1.

If part of your vision is being the ideal team leader, nothing screams leader more than a CEO who takes an interest in the newest of members. You will not train them, you will not become their “go-to” person with every concern they have. But if you let them know THEY matter by making yourself available, you can increase your chances of creating the ideal team member you are looking for!

So don’t overextend your involvement in the hiring process. However, when you delegate this task, it might not be something you will want to delegate and then forget. Building your ideal team just may require you to put this under the category of “keep me posted.” It may pay huge dividends down the road!