I was recently talking with a fellow CEO, and he expressed surprise at how on earth I had time to work on this new project I’d been toying around with for awhile. My secret? Fierce delegation.  

As the head of an organization, many things will trickle up to you to decide and act upon. It can become very easy for this to overwhelm you. Couple this with the tasks already on your plate, and stuff will inevitably begin to fall through the cracks. 

‘Offload Your Plate’

That is unless you offload your plate. In truth, a CEO should do very few things. There’s even a book that says we should do only three: focus on culture, people, and numbers. Where, then, does everything else go?  

There are three great tactics CEOs can use to lighten the load. First, eliminate those tasks that simply are not a priority or shouldn’t be done at all. We often find ourselves doing work for others because we failed to say no or underestimated the time commitment to get it done.

CEOs must become comfortable saying no early and often to requests that do not fit our company’s or organization’s mission or that aren’t a priority at the present time. So much of our time suck comes from doing work that isn’t meant to be. Quit doing it.  

Automate, Automate, Automate

Second, automate tasks that must be done but can be made more efficient. Embrace AI or software to streamline parts of your job for you, create shortcuts for lengthy texts that you type over and over, and find other means to offload menial tasks.  

Finally, and most importantly: delegate, delegate, delegate. Hire the right people, empower them to own their area, give them the tools and resources to succeed, and get out of their way.  

Use the A-B-C Test

An easy rule of thumb to decide what can and should be delegated is the A-B-C test. Those responsibilities that only you can do as the CEO or that you are the best person on your team to do fall in category A. If you’re pretty good at something but others are too, that would go in category B. So too would tasks that perhaps you can delegate most of, while retaining some oversight. Everything else belongs in category C and must be delegated. 

You’ll never free up more time than you will by delegating properly. Tell your team that you are doing it and ask them to hold you accountable. Not only will you get better results if you rely on talented team members to do their jobs better than you could do it for them, you’ll literally earn back hours in your week.  

‘Freedom in Delegation’

So, now what do you do with all that free time? Fill it with more highly leveraged initiatives, of course.  

That new entity or capacity that you’ve been contemplating launching? Go launch it. 

That big donor prospect that’s been on your mind? Go meet with them and ask them for money.  

That talented person you’ve been watching succeed in a competing organization or company? Go hire them. And then delegate fiercely to them, too.  

There is great freedom in fierce delegation. It’s great for your team’s growth, it’s great for your sanity and, most importantly, it gets better results for those you serve. Now excuse me while I delegate the editing of this article to someone else.  

Justin Owen is the CEO of the Beacon Center of Tennessee and a senior fellow for leadership development at the State Policy Network.