Delegating is a MUST when growing your team.
The whole purpose of a team is to allow you to get back the time that you may spend on less-than-ideal tasks that may be keeping you from doing the real work of a business owner — running the business.
But knowing what and how to delegate can be tricky.
I’ve put together five tips that I’ve used time and again to delegate tasks.
- Audit Your Tasks: Start by listing down everything you do and determine what can be delegated. If you were to be working in your “zone of genius” and doing ONLY the things that you are uniquely skilled to do, what would they be?
- Choose Right: Delegate tasks not just based on skills but also on interests. A keen team member will put the energy into learning and excelling at the task.
Some areas need to be delegated across a number of team members e.g. your VA (virtual assistant) isn’t necessarily going to function well as your customer service and social media person because the three roles require different strengths. - Clarity: Make sure your team knows what’s expected. Systemise and document the processes so that your team can be successful. Set key performance indicators. For example, when is a task due to be completed and what does completed look like, exactly?
- Check-Ins: Regularly follow up but don’t micromanage. Set up a way of measuring progress. E.g. work in progress meetings or huddles, or a project management system. Pro tip: This is a rooky mistake I see MY team make when they delegate. Never assume that something handed off is something complete – have a way for everyone to know the status of projects.
- Feedback Loop: Make it a learning experience for both parties. It can take time to fully delegate a task. The key is not to abdicate responsibility – but instead to train and support the person to do the task effectively.
If a task keeps falling back into your lap or is not completed successfully, look at the systems and training you have provided and the skills sets of those you have delegated to.
Mastering delegation can open up so much more time for you to focus on business growth. And business growth is your MAIN job as a business owners.
You’ve got the team, now leverage it!
Here’s to doing what you love,
Suzi
PS Every day inside the HerBusiness Network we’re helping women grow strong, profitable businesses and to grow teams they can rely on. Join us inside the network to get access to our amazing community of like-minded women.
