- Stop trying to know everything. Our computer’s not working, we don’t try to fix it we call the experts . We need headshots, I don’t take a photography class, I call in a headshot photographer . You don’t need to figure out the details of how it’s done when it’s time to delegate. You just need to identify what you want to delegate and how you want to work.
- Make a high value list. On a clean piece of paper write down all of the item’s you’ve already identified as high value but that you don’t love doing. These are your low hanging delegation fruit. You will experience highest delight while ensuring mission critical items are being taken care of. Draw a line under the last item you’ve added to the list.
- Create your Nice to Have list. Add any uncircled items from your previous list. These are your nice to have tasks for delegation. They don’t bring you joy, they aren’t super high value and you don’t feel only you can do them. Being able to delegate these tasks means you will free up a substantial amount of your time to focus on what you love.
- Think about how you best like to communicate. This step seems like a no-brainer, but it’s critical AND it’s critical that you’re honest with yourself. I cannot tell you how many clients will say “email” and then never respond to email. If the person you are delegating to requires feedback or more information should they call, text, email, create a task in your system, one email per questions, one email with many questions? What do you want?
- Review this list and your preferred method of communication with your All Star Admin Assistant or Virtual Assistant. This is the best part, remember in Step 1 I said “stop trying to know everything”? A great VA’s skill set includes knowing how to accept delegation. They will take your list, ask more questions and then build the system that will allow you to delegate with ease.
Delegating is Empowerment
On a final note, us can-do business owners may feel that delegating is a sign of weakness (we can’t do it all) or elitism (I’m too good for this task). Some even stress about the tasks not being done exactly perfectly the way we would do it (please read this article to address that concern). Delegating doesn’t just free up your time to grow your business (or heaven forbid take time off) it is a form of empowerment for you team. When you delegate high value tasks to members of your team what they hear is “I trust you” “you are an important part of this team” “we’re in it together.” Delegation is not for the weak or lazy; it is for the leaders, builders and visionaries.
If you don’t have an All Star Admin Assistant (or they’re too busy and could use an Assistant to assist them with your work)