Learning to Delegate Effectively

Anyone in a position of management will at one time or another struggle with delegating tasks to employees. Giving up responsibility to your team can be uncomfortable, to say the least. However, delegation is also an essential component for leadership. To take your delegation abilities up a notch, consider the following tips.

Decide What to Delegate

If you’re new to delegation, start with a small task and work your way up to more important mission critical tasks. Avoid going all in and ease yourself into the process by defining the best projects to delegate.

Find the Right People

Take a comprehensive look at the type of work that the project entails and then look at the people in your team to determine the right fit. Delegating properly involves understanding your staff, so analyze their skillset before assigning tasks to a team member.

Establish Expectations

You cannot expect a positive result without first communicating your expectations with your staff. Establish expectations for your task and don’t hold back on what those might be. Expect the best to get the best from your team.

Give Them Space

Once you’ve established your expectations, it’s time to step back and let your team handle the work. Don’t overstep your boundaries or insist on micro-managing your staff. Simply check-in when necessary and let the rest go.

Give Credit and Reward Effort

After your project is completed, give credit and reward where it’s due. This encourages a positive relationship between you and your team and paves the way for more positive delegation in the future.

Delegating tasks to the right people, establishing expectations, and properly rewarding hard work can help make you a better leader and manager. Utilize these tips to build a better business and management strategy.

What to Do with Low Priority Items

Every good manager or business owner has a to-do list that keeps them on the straight and narrow. However, issues can easily arise if you’re not simplifying your list wherever possible. For example, if you find yourself spending most of your time replying to customer inquiries, it might be time to pass on this task to a qualified individual. Doing so will help you knock out your to-do list, while at the same time assist you in keeping up with important information.

Low priority items can be any range of tasks from picking up dry cleaning, sending out invoices to scheduling staff meetings. The key is to know who to pass these work items off to while maintaining a high quality result. To determine what to do with your low priority to-do list items, consider a few important questions we’ve outlined below.

Can you make the task more efficient?

If you can streamline common tasks, such as providing business information directly on your website for clients to easily access, then do so. Ask yourself if the task can be completed in a simpler, yet efficient manner and then act on the answer.

Can you eliminate the task altogether?

If you’re completing tasks that largely go unnoticed by your customers, then why not consider eliminating it, or at the very least reducing it? Unimportant tasks can eat up your time without providing any financial benefit. Sort out these time-vacuums and start eliminating them.

Are there shortcuts available for the task?

You cannot receive an answer to a question you never asked, so start by asking yourself if and what shortcuts are available for repetitive tasks on your list. You might be surprised at what technology can do for you, and doing a bit of research will help you discover shortcuts you never knew existed.

Productivity is all about value, so if you can find a way to reduce the amount of work you’re doing then by all means do it!

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