Written by Today we answer the question, what is the best way for me to start delegating tasks? Delegating tasks is you saying as a business owner that I am no longer going to be the end all be all. I’m not going to be a solo entrepreneur. I have to add to my team. Whether you have to add to your team because your company is growing and because of the growth, you have to grow your team. Or it’s because you’re noticing that there’s a bottleneck in your company and you are that bottleneck.
You spend so much time with so many different hats on, that it just doesn’t seem there’s enough hours in the day for you to get everything done. Or you just simply are saying, you know what; I’m at a point in my business where I’m interested in spending a little bit less time actively in the business, and maybe a little bit more time outside of my business. Where I can get a high level view and make small changes and tweaks that will help the overall efficiency of my company. Instead of me doing the little things that are necessary just to keep the lights on.
Who can I get to do a task?
When it comes to delegating tasks in your company, a great place to start for you to know where you should delegate a task is to start by saying, who can I get to do a task? Not how can I do this task? It’s a very subtle difference.
But if you spend a lot of time, like me maybe watching a YouTube channel on a tutorial, I’ve done so many things at my house. And I probably have like a 90% success rate. You know, I’ve messed some stuff up. I’ve broke some pipes. I’ve flooded a house. Like I’ve messed up along the way, but overall, I’ve done a really good job of everything.
And one of the things I’ve gotten better at is saying if this task takes a certain amount of time and it’s not even going to be the same quality as a professional, then that would be a task that I would say I should probably look at getting someone else to do that.
How do you delegate the task to someone?
Now, when it comes to you and your business, and how do you delegate the task to someone, it becomes important to make sure that you’re finding someone who is a critical thinker and someone who is trustworthy.
Those two are most important because there is no way that you could write out every single little thing, you can’t solve every single problem for the person before they even start working. You want the person to be able to critically think in the sense that, Hey, if you can think of a better way to do this, then I’m all ears.
And go ahead and try that. Now we can talk about it. And as you can already tell that would require a significant amount of trust from you. So you need someone that is a critical thinker, where they’re adding value to your company. Where they are saying this was a good start, and I’m going to grow this position. Almost an entrepreneur mindset in many ways, but it’s okay just to search for a critical thinker.
Once you find a critical thinker in someone that you can trust, it’s important that you set them up on a weekly schedule. Meet with them on a regular basis. You need to be able to have feedback and metrics. What does success look like?
Open communication is key
And you want to be able to get their feedback. Hey, what did you see this week? What is it that you think we could do better? What is it that you need help with? By checking in on the person, they don’t feel like they’re all alone. But you’re not micromanaging or you’re checking in too often. But by checking in once a week, you can check with them, say, Hey, is once a week good for you? Am I able to answer your questions? Do you want to set up some other way for us to be able to engage with each other?
Now, naturally, that also is tied to your schedule. The whole reason that you added someone is because you were running out of time to be able to manage it that actively. But you do know in the early going, you’re going to have to invest a little bit more time in the person.
Putting the time in, in the beginning is going to set you up for long term success; no doubt! The third thing that I like to do is from each meeting, based on the feedback that I get, I will make a video tutorial to explain it to them. I rarely would just go over it one time in the meeting, because they may have a question again and again and again.
Create a library
And so I would create a library. Where I’m like, Hey, this is the question that you had. This is how I do it. This is my thought process. Sometimes I just talk about myself a little bit. Where there is value in them, understanding what your goals are. What your vision is and how they can help you accomplish it.
Versus giving them a task. And then they’re like, okay, I did my task, what do I do next? Well, I did that task. What do you want me to do now? When you spend the time getting them to understand the vision, it then gives them the freedom to say, I have a few ideas that can help us accomplish that vision, where they are a process owner.
Create process owners
You don’t want the person to feel like they just are doing tasks. And as they finish the task, they check it off. And then they check in with you. You want them to be a process owner. If you’re going to delegate something to someone, give it to them completely. Tell them that you trust them and you expect them to critically think, and it’s okay to fail. That all failure is, is a feedback loop.
And what that means is if I see that you’re doing something that I wouldn’t have done it that way. On our next weekly meeting, I’m going to ask, Hey, I noticed that you did this. What, what was the thought process behind that? And as they explain that, you’ll say, wow, that that’s actually a pretty good idea. I normally do it this way and this was my thought process.
To where nobody feels like they have to defend themselves. And I’ll let you know on a secret. They say, don’t ask people “why” they did something. Why is a paralyzing word, because most of us don’t really know why we’re doing things. When you were a kid and your parents asked you why you just had a deer in headlight, look where you’re like, oh geez, I, I don’t really know why I did that.
Ask the right questions
I just have this urge, this feeling, this thought and, and I did it and here we are. And now I know that you probably don’t want me to do it anymore. It’s the same, even as adults. We ask ourselves and other people why we do something and it’s very difficult to understand why. So instead, try to use the other ones, like “what” and “how” and “where”, and “when”. I often will use what a lot, or like, what were you thinking when you did this?
What were we hoping to accomplish when you did that? Where do you see that plan leading the company in the future? To where they are now separated from your question. Where they don’t feel like they have to defend themselves. Now granted, some people are just sensitive, right. And, and that’s okay.
It’s a normal part of life
That’s a normal part of life. But the thing you can do to help them feel a little bit more comfortable is to ask questions without saying why?
Because we naturally feel like, okay, you’re questioning my thought process to the point that I feel like you must not agree with me. And that may or may not be the case. But when we don’t use why people are saying, you’re asking about this thing over here. You just want a better understanding of what I’m doing.
Invest in your staff
And sometimes I tell people that, Hey, this is just a meeting for me to get a better understanding of what you’re doing to see how I can help you. And the last step of effective delegation is you want the person to know that you’re going to grow the position with them. That we’re going to start it off small.
We’re going to start with a few things. We’re going to see if you like it, because you may feel that I didn’t give a clear picture of the role. Let’s check in, see if you like it. I’ll see if I still think you’re a best fit. Where we’re just feeling each other out. As we feel each other out, I’ll add more work and you just let me know. My goal isn’t for you to freak out and get scared away.
keep them excited
But I do want to make sure that you feel engaged and challenged. So I don’t want you to be bored and I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. We’re just going to have these meetings. And as you say, I got that. We’re going to add another step to the process and another step to the process and another step. And as each of you have new ideas, you’ll bring them to each other.
Grow the position with them
As you grow the process. Where they’re like, okay, I didn’t understand the first step as much as I do now that I have steps one, two. Or I didn’t understand the first portion of this until I got to see how it ended. And now I understand what we were setting up for. You don’t want to overwhelm them with all the information ahead of time.
But innately, all humans want progress. We want to feel like we’re moving towards something. So advancement and feedback and praise and new opportunities are important. Where if you’re delegating tasks, that will provide an immediate benefit to your company, that person is gonna feel that their work is valuable. They can see the results of what they’re doing.
Learn to teach
Now on a side note, that also means that you can’t give someone a role that you haven’t done. Where some people are like, well, I don’t want to do that work, so I’m going to hire somebody. You really can’t train someone if you’ve never done the work yourself. So you do want to go through the process.
You want to be able to give them something. Where you’re like, Hey, I’ve been doing this for three or four months. These are the problems that I ran into. These are some of the things that I hope that you’re able to come up with a better solution for, but I will tell you that I’ve made these tweaks along the way. We will continue meeting and then we will figure this out together. To where the person’s not like, here’s a Udemy video. Go ahead and watch that and then get started. Yeah. That, that sometimes can work, but it, it doesn’t really have the benefit of creating a role in a culture within your organization. Where that person understands how vital they are. When you make it seem like an afterthought where you’re just going to give them this video. Then they’re going to do it on their own.
Final thoughts
Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. And the only time they see or talk with you is when they’re messing up. That person’s going to be looking for a new opportunity pretty quickly. Talk with a person, whether things are going up or things are going down. To where they are just enjoying the relationship. That you’re investing in them. That you’re spending time, understanding them, their goals, their needs, and then you’re tailoring your roles to help them achieve their goals.
Everybody wants progress. Everybody wants advancement. Nobody likes feeling like they’re spinning in the hamster wheel.
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