Before jumping into the tips and strategies, let’s look at what delegation is and why it’s so important.
Delegation means effectively assigning tasks or projects to others. When you delegate work, you ask someone else to complete a task on your behalf. This could be as simple as sending an email to one of your employees with specific instructions for completing the project or as complex as training an employee on how to do something new to help your business grow in the long term.
So why should you bother delegating? There are many good reasons why delegation is essential for any successful business owner. Put simply, it helps manage time and work. However, delegation is not as simple as it may sound.
Know Which Tasks to Delegate
Before delegating, find out what your staff is good at and what they are not. You don’t want to give them tasks that they are not capable of or interested in completing. However, if there is something that you do have to delegate, but you don’t have the right in-house candidate for it, you should opt for outsourcing to assistants.
You can easily find an executive assistant staffing agency on the internet. Select the one that can help meet your requirements and start delegating your work.
Second, know what you can do better than your staff. Sometimes it is better to do it yourself instead of assigning that task to someone else if the result won’t be as good as if you did it yourself.
Finally, find out what your staff wants to learn from you and where their passion lies. If something excites your employees about a particular project and they want more responsibility for it, let them take charge!
Define Responsibilities Clearly
Defining responsibilities is key to delegating work. First, ask yourself the following questions:
- What do I want this person to do?
- When do I want it done?
- Who will be responsible for what aspects of the project?
- How will they be rewarded or penalized if they succeed or fail at meeting our deadlines and targets?
- What resources are available to help them with their tasks, such as tools and technology (apps, computers), other people (co-workers), etc.
Once you have answered these questions, you will be able to define the responsibilities precisely so that there is no scope for miscommunication.
Be Clear About Timelines
First, decide how long you want the task completed. Is it a short-term goal? Say, within a few days or weeks? Or is it something that can be done over time and is subject to ongoing progress? How much time do you want to spend on this project?
It’s important to consider how much time will be required for each part of the process. Suppose we’re delegating out our design work. In that case, we need to make sure that our designers know how many hours they should spend on research before creating any mockups or prototypes—and then what kind of quality they should expect from those mockups and prototypes (this can include things like color choice).
And suppose we’re delegating out content creation. In that case, our writers need to know exactly how much effort goes into creating high-quality content–and how long they have until the deadline approaches so there’s no last-minute scramble!
Explain Why the Task Is Important
When delegating work, it’s essential to clearly explain why the task is necessary. To do this, ask yourself what success looks like for each of these stakeholders:
- For the company. What does success look like for your business? Are you trying to increase revenue by 10% over the next year? Increase customer retention by 50% over the next six months? Become more profitable in three months than you have been in any other quarter since launching? Each goal requires different strategies and tactics, which means that you need a team that can adapt quickly as new opportunities emerge (or old ones disappear). When choosing who should be involved in each project or task, include only those people who will help achieve these goals. If someone doesn’t add value to achieving those outcomes, they should probably be left out entirely.
- Your direct reports are prime examples for individuals involved in a project or task! What does success look like for them personally? Do they want more significant titles at work to impress their parents/significant others/children/etc.? Do they need money because their credit card debt is crushing them under its weight (or maybe just crushing them)? Or perhaps they just want an opportunity to learn something new about themselves or what makes them happy before moving on to something else—whatever their reasons may be for wanting more out of life than just another paycheck.
Offer Explicit Guidelines, but Allow Some Freedom
You need to offer explicit guidelines to delegate effectively. When employees are given tasks they don’t understand or have never done before, they may not know where to start. They might also take longer than expected if you don’t clarify what needs to be done and how it should be done.
As long as the whole idea of delegation is new for them (it’s new for everyone), consider providing an example or two of what an acceptable result looks like at first so they can see how your expectations line up with their understanding of the task at hand.
However — and this isn’t always easy — allow some freedom in completing the task as micromanagement can have adverse consequences. Freedom will allow your employee to feel invested in it and motivated by its outcome instead of just following orders blindly without a thought about how best to achieve them (and why).
Review the Work and Give Feedback
After you have delegated work to an employee, it’s essential to review the results of their project and give feedback. If you find that the employee did not perform well or made mistakes in their work, you should correct them immediately. However, if you see that they did a good job and completed all of the tasks on time, praise them for their excellent performance!
Reward Accomplishers
One of the best ways to show someone that you appreciate their work is by rewarding them. You can reward them with a raise, bonus, or promotion. You can reward them with praise. You can pat them on the back for doing such a great job and tell your boss how lucky he is to have an employee like this in his or her company. There are many other ways of rewarding your employees if they follow through with what was asked.
Whatever you decide to do as a reward for following through with what was asked of them will depend on what kind of person they are and how much effort they put into their jobs (or tasks).
If your employee has been working hard all year long on projects that were given to him/her by management, then perhaps it would be appropriate if this person gets rewarded when those projects come live at work—something like being allowed access to executive meetings where vital information about future plans within the company would be discussed among executives only; maybe even getting invited once in a while so that there’s no reason why others should feel jealous about not having gotten invited themselves!
Conclusion
Delegation is a skill that can be learned, improved, and developed over time. When you delegate work to someone else, it frees up your time to focus on what needs your attention. It also helps your staff grow and develop their skills, which will make them more valuable employees in the long run.