Do you wear every hat in your business? Should you?
If you are interested in growing your business, you are going to have to do two things. One is to implement systems. And two is to attain help. That help may be an employee, a contractor, a virtual assistant or your 16-year old daughter. (See the October 24 Business Brief for tips on hiring the right person).
Once you have that help on board, there are 5 steps to effectively delegating projects to them. They are:
1. Determine the appropriate level of ownership
2. Set clear expectations
3. Be prepared to provide support and resources
4. Have the handoff conversation
5. Provide useful follow up and feedback
Two reasons people typically don’t delegate is first, they want to do the work. After all, they do it best, right? (wink, wink). Secondly, they don’t know how to effectively delegate. After all, how do you tell them their work is not the best, if that is the case?
The key is to give meaningful feedback, whether positive or constructive, to people who are doing work for you. Making it meaningful is as easy as telling the person why their work is great or needs improving. Be specific. For example, “This is great. You delivered the project on time with no revisions needed. That made us look like rockstars to our client. Thank you.”
On the other hand, “Thank you for your work on this project so far. The last revision had a lot of mistakes. We need to deliver our best product to keep this client. If you have questions about the project, ask me right away. Let’s make sure it’s our best quality. OK?”
Learning how to effectively delegate is an important skill. After all, having other people handle the daily operations is the way to grow your business.
