Leadership through Delegation.

HERE are five steps, each with specific actions you can take, to get you on the road to delegating effectively.

DETERMINE WHAT TO GIVE AWAY AND WHAT TO KEEP.

First, consider your strengths. What are you directly contributing to your business that is making it successful? Those are the things you should continue doing. The tasks that are outside your expertise or those that could easily be performed by others are the first things to delegate.

YOUR ACTIONS: Make a list of everything you do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Then go through the list and determine what’s essential for you to keep doing and what can be given away.

CREATE A PLAN

Consider what you need to accomplish and how you want the task done. In order for delegation to be effective, you must be able to tell someone what exactly you want him or her to do. Maybe ‘no one does it better than you’ because no one truly understands what you want to be done. So plan out what needs to be accomplished and exactly how you want it done.
YOUR ACTIONS:

Create your processes. Determine what the final outcome should be and create the specific, detailed steps needed to get there.

HIRE THE RIGHT PERSON

The key to finding the right person for the job is to determine what skill sets your position requires. Once you know what skills you need, search for a person who has exactly the skills you need. Don’t just hire the first person who happens to be available.
YOUR ACTIONS:

Look at the tasks being performed, and decide what skill sets are needed. When interviewing candidates, ask open-ended questions that allow you to discover if that person has the expertise you’re looking for.

ASSIGN RESULTS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

One of the most important steps to successful delegation is to plan ahead by determining what the end results should be. Picture what you want to be holding when those final deliverables are handed to you. Then communicate those expectations. And remember, all expectations have to be reasonable, clear and measurable. For example, you may want to require that someone ‘complete a minimum of 30 sales call per week’ as opposed to just ‘complete sales calls’. Accountability is not a bad word — there ought to be consequences if the results you need are not being met.
YOUR ACTIONS:

Create specific goals, quotas or outcomes that need to be accomplished by the person you’re delegating work to. Effectively communicate those expectations, and create consequences if the results you expect aren’t being accomplished.

CHECK IN FROM TIME TO TIME

‘Set it and forget it’. Some people think that this rule applies to tasks that have been delegated. People are human. They make mistakes, they accidentally skip over things. Instead of leaving them alone once you’ve assigned them work, establish specific times you’ll check in to see how they’re doing.
YOUR ACTIONS:

Establish a check-in schedule that works for both you and your employee. And then be sure to touch base when you say you will.