To successfully delegate, there must be a balance between letting go and simultaneously maintaining control. And knowing to get started and see how to do this is vital to the success of any business..
Know What To and What Not To Delegate
To be able to delegate, you first need to understand what you are doing on a day-to-day basis for your business. Draw a list of all tasks and activities.
Decide on the work that I can be assigned or outsourced to others. Then work on the process of getting clarity on the task, the system to do it, how long it takes, etc.
As a guide, keep only the tasks that will allow you to spend your time where it gives the most returns to your business, and your life.
Take Time To Train
While virtual assistants these days may already possess certain skills and level of competence when you hire them, you still need to train them to be fully suited to the needs of your business.
A one-time instruction is not enough to train someone and be an instant master of the assigned task. Learning is progressive, and it does take time to become proficient at what they do.
Set Up Processes and Systems
Having processes and systems in your business is important in effectively delegating tasks to others, more so, when operating in a virtual environment.
The right work flows, SOPs and tools will provide the needed structure for your team to operate smoothly, You have to ensure that you have good systems and processes for your virtual teams to follow, and have built accountability around it, to ensure that tasks help you get done.
Be Extremely Specific
Clarity can be a challenge when delegating tasks. What seems clear to you may not be so clear to the person receiving it. It is often important to be specific with expectations and output, and ensure that there is a common understanding on this. Allow the recipient of the task to ask questions, clarify and sum up the discussion to ensure that they got it.
Regular Check-Ins
Here is how NOT to delegate: Give your team a task list and leave them on their own with now communication for days or weeks on it, until perhaps the deadline. MOst things left unattended will end up– unattended.
An effective delegation involves regular check-ins: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, depending on the need and scope of the task, and the responsibilities of the team.
Invest Time in Relationships
When you are paying people to work for you, you sometimes want to get the most out of them. While this is valid, it can sometimes encourage a lack of connection, take the fun out of the work being done, and can lead to a burnout. People need to realize how pivotal and important is the relationship you have together.
Having an avenue where the team can comfortably connect with you, talk openly, and allow free flowing communication improves coordination, commitment and your ability to delegate.
Putting the Right People In Place
As a business owner, you value your time so much, you’d rather invest it on things that can drive your business forward, than wasting it on admin tasks.
And to do this, you need to be able to find the right persons for particular tasks with a clear process, a clear understanding of their roles and their deadlines. Having great people in each seat will require little management from you.
And this will allow you the time to focus on building your business to move it forward.
Hire People With Specialization
Although there are Virtual Assistants that you can hire who have a variety of technical skills, remember that the more things that one person does, the more one-to-one management they need, this will take a lot of quality control.
Instead, take someone.who is highly specialised in one area and put more of your time to train them around that specific skill. When that person becomes ready and proficient, you can bring in more people and have that first person delegate tasks to and manage.
Delegate to Scale
Business owners may have a lot of different reasons to delegate. But the most important reason is delegating in order to grow and scale your business. And to do this, a business owner needs to work ON the business, and not in it.
The goal is to delegate everything, and learn how to do it efficiently.
Effective delegation is a skill every business owner MUST master. Because being able to do it well is the only way to improve your productivity, focus on growing your customers, scale your business, and build your business for the long haul.
Remember, no man is an island. As a business owner, do not try to do everything yourself because you can’t. And you don’t have to.