How to Become a Master Delegator
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Delegation is an important skill for any business owner to master, but it’s especially important for small business owners who have very little time and money to devote to bottlenecks, accidental duplication of efforts, and missed deadlines. If you learn to delegate well, you’ll have more time to devote your energy to more important tasks. Here are eight steps to follow as you start to delegate tasks:
Set up a fail-safe system – Before you start delegating, it’s important to set up a system. An online project management system probably is your best bet. You want one place where you and your team can keep track of everything related to each project.
Streamline your processes – Review the processes you use to do the tasks now, and write them down so you can figure out how to streamline the processes. This process will help you determine which tasks you can delegate to others.
Hire the right people for the job – Don’t expect to hire someone who can do everything perfectly. Instead, choose someone for each task. Find someone who likes doing it, wants to do it, and considers it their expertise.
Give clear instructions – Provide the contractor with the requirements, deadlines, scope of authority, purpose, goals, potential problems, and tools available to them, including passwords and sign-in information.
Ask for feedback – Open up the communication lines by asking the contractor if he or she has questions based on your instructions. That way they won’t be worried about asking anything, even if it’s “stupid.” The worst thing you can do is criticize a contractor for asking a question. And of course, you need to respond quickly with your answers.
Focus on deliverables – Your contractors may want you to focus more on deadlines and deliverables rather than the details. How your contractors complete the task should not be as important as the ultimate result.
Give constructive feedback – As often as possible, give feedback to your contractors. This is especially true if you want to continue working with someone but would like something done differently. Give the feedback by giving compliments on what was done well, then what could be done better, and finally something good again to help build up the contractor’s confidence.
Allow for mistakes – No one is perfect, and contractors sometimes will misunderstand your directions. As long as something isn’t blatant – such as constantly missing deadlines or poor quality of work – accept some mistakes. If your contractors are afraid of making mistakes, it could stifle their creativity. Be open to new ideas and potential mistakes, while also being clear about your expectations.
The best way to become a master delegator is to let go and just do it. Start with something small, such as writing a report, creating graphics or logos, managing your website, or coordinating your social media efforts. The more you delegate tasks, the more you’ll want to do it.
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