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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 a corporate sense, I often find it's simply a management skill that is expected, sits theoretically in the lower echelons of the managerial skill set and yet is rarely taught or trained in. Less, or even never, is it valued as a benefit to the organization in financial or managerial terms. In my experience, it is usually positioned as a skill which benefits team motivation; trite acronyms accompany an expectation that rank will facilitate necessary delegation. ‘I am more senior, therefore I will pass my workload to you and you will enjoy and feel motivated by the additional responsibility because it says you are trusted and worthy.’ I'm simplifying and exaggerating to make a point here, but the MBA I studied didn't give much more than this, to be honest.

It took some time for me to realize I had been in the business of delegation for well over a decade; sharing my secretary with others to save costs led to a small business that was established in 2001 not just surviving, but still going strong well into its second decade. Every visit to that office reinforces the relief that business owners and department managers must or would feel when they hear those words, ‘Leave it with me, I'll sort it out for you.’ It makes my heart dance. Even more so when the person being delegated to loves the prospect of helping out by doing work they love.

There is a hugely pleasant feeling that accompanies successful delegation but it is most definitely a habit and, for some people, it's a bit like developing the habit of exercise or going to the gym. It takes effort to break the barrier of not delegating and doing it for oneself. Overcome that barrier and the upside worms its way into the psyche, which makes it addictive because the benefits are so evident.

I focus a lot on time being the biggest benefit of delegation, with the proviso that what you do with it is the ergo benefit(s). However, as delegation always works laterally, it is possible to collaborate and redistribute work according to who is good at, or loves, doing certain things, so it can also mean that you get to do more of what you're great at and presumably love doing most.

In addition, it means that you're surrounded by people who are doing the stuff that you're not good at, and we know that that is a winning strategy. Always get someone who is better than you to do stuff for you: it means a better job gets done – if ever there was a no-brainer, how much encouragement do you need?

Either way, delegation means you get to fill more of your time with stuff you want to do, as opposed to being overwhelmed with things you don't like doing so much, which therefore take longer to do and longer to mentally move away from once done, and in doing so cost even more time. That's a mouthful, but it's true.

This book is intended to get the message out there that sharing, or in other words delegating downwards, upwards and sideways, is good for us individually, as a family, as a team, as a small business, as a department, as a big business and thus as an economy. I don't think we do it enough, I don't think we're taught how to do it or that it is a good thing to do and I'm hoping this book, the accompanying online programme and the available workshops help to change that.

Good luck. Delegate and grow.