How to Delegate for Results
As career women and women entrepreneurs, we wear many hats and spin many plates. The trick to keeping those plates spinning is focused time management and planning.
If there is anything that can send those plates spinning out of control, it’s when we, as over-achievers, add more plates than we can possibly control. Soon everything we’re trying to do starts crashing around us. Before it does, it’s time to delegate!
Seven Tips for Successful Delegation
1. To determine what you should delegate, first look at your list of to-do’s. Highlight in blue all the tasks that depend on your unique gifts and talents. These are the activities that you are the best at and that normally fuel your spirit and your revenue.
2. Highlight in yellow everything that can be done by someone else.
3. Now, look at the people you can delegate to. What skills does each of them possess? What types of tasks are they best at doing? Now mark a person’s name next to each task you wish to delegate.
4. Never delegate a task to someone if that task does not fit the person’s unique capabilities. They will fail. You will be frustrated, they will feel frustrated and it will undermine their self-esteem and confidence. And frankly, this will all be your fault. You need to match the delegated task to the skills of the person to whom you will assign responsibility. You want this to be a WIN for you and a WIN for them.
5. DELEGATE does not mean ABDICATE. This took me a long time to understand. I’d give, or throw, a task at someone, thinking that they totally understood how and when I wanted the task accomplished. That did not work well for me…or them.
6. Take time to plan a meeting with the person to whom you’re delegating the task. It can be just a few minutes, but do it. Make sure they understand what needs to be done, how you’d like it done, and by when it needs to be done. Also, if it’s something that will take some time, make sure you set times to follow up on how they are progressing so that you can get a heads-up if there are any issues.
7. Don’t do all the talking. Let your staff members ask questions. Let them offer you a new way to accomplish the task if they think they have an easier way. If they keep nodding but still look confused, note that they probably do not understand. Let them know that they look confused and ask them to reiterate the plan for accomplishment back to you. That will usually show you exactly where the communication is breaking down.
Letting go and delegating is the key to your ability to build your business and achieve rapid success. It’s also critical to staff morale and empowerment. By letting go you allow others to shine and expand. And you give yourself the ability to focus on the important and crucial tasks in your business. So let go and get going on your way to ultimate success and life fulfillment.
Kathleen Aston is the authority on creating confident, courageous, successful women who strive to reach purpose-driven prosperity. Ms. Aston’s proprietary systems help women to build solid foundations of self and rapid-fire business growth, profits and success. Discover The #1 Secret to Stop Procrastination and Boost Profits! https://www.kathleenastonintl.com/getgoing/