Delegating Tasks Effectively
“Just have someone else do it for you.”
“You don’t need to be doing that yourself.”
“This should be delegated.”
What do these all have in common…they are all easier said than done.
Thinking about the tasks you don’t like to do is simple. Thinking about offloading those tasks to someone else can feel dicey, stressful, and sometimes implausible.
Will they complete the task up to my expectations?
How much time do I even have to train someone on this?
How will I make sure that things are getting done?
These are all valid concerns when considering which tasks you’ll be delegating. The fact of the matter is that you have to delegate certain things or you will always be ‘time poor’, which can have real effects on profitability potential.
There’s nothing arrogant about categorizing a task as not worth your time. As a CEO, executive, or manager, your time is valued by the revenue you’re bringing in. Your tasks should be evaluated with this type of lens. It’s not harsh. It’s practical.
To learn how to effectively delegate our tasks so that we can use our time wisely, we need to know what a team member needs to accomplish a task and how we need to respond to their task assignments.
What To Provide
There are three essential components to ensuring a team member is set up for success when delegating tasks to them.
Clear Expectations
Why is the task important? What is the objective? Team members should understand what result they should be delivering to you. If you’re asking for a slide deck for an upcoming presentation, then you would want to communicate what type of information you want to make sure is included, who you’ll be speaking to, and important notes on the speaking/presentation event.
Clear Instructions
The easiest way to ensure quality is maintained when offloading a task is to have processes in place. Your SOPs do not need to be rigid but they should be detailed. Providing clear processes to team members allows them to always have a resource to refer to when doubting how something should be done and it allows you to breathe a little knowing that they have clarity on the tasks.
Clear Timelines
Setting deadlines is crucial. If you’re not used to delegating and you do not provide a deadline, you’re likely to think about the task, wonder why it’s taking the team member so long, and possibly end up doing it yourself. Setting deadlines doesn’t just help your team members understand the priority of the task, it also helps you ignore the task until it’s time to check in about it. Try using a task management system to track task due dates and more. Our personal favorite is Monday.com.
What To Keep In Mind
Once you’ve equipped your team members with clarity on tasks and projects, you need to evaluate your mindset.
Patience
First and foremost, it takes time for people to learn new tasks and projects even with processes in place. You need to allow team members to figure their way through tasks and projects. Give them the space they need to do their best work.
Understanding
Be prepared for some mistakes along the way. Mistakes do not immediately represent incompetence or lack of attention to detail. Understanding that team members need to fail to be better is key to delegating and building up a team that can think through problems.
Feedback
If mistakes happen, you need to communicate them clearly to your team members. They should be held accountable but you should also communicate why mistakes like that matter and how to avoid them.
Effective delegation comes down to effective communication. From creating clarity on how tasks should be done, to providing clear, actionable feedback, your team needs you to communicate with them. Once you’ve started to delegate more and more, your team will have more confidence and ownership over their tasks and you’ll be more confident in their capabilities.
Not sure which tasks to delegate first? Check out our Stay Focused & Delegate guide.