How to Effectively Delegate - Part 2

Here are some tips to help you learn to delegate well.

1. Trust yourself. Believe in your gut feeling about others and know that given good instructions a good employee will complete the task. Trust what you know and your gut.

2. If delegating is new to you then try delegating smaller tasks first. You must learn how to build trust in both your ability to delegate to the right person and the person to whom you give tasks.

3. When you are delegating it’s important to ask the person to repeat their understanding of the task back to you in their own words and that you communicate your expectations. People can’t read your mind – be clear and detailed in your communication.

4. Be specific about the time frame you want the task completed in. Most of the time we get very frustrated when people don’t complete tasks in the time frame we want or the way that we want. By communicating specifically when things are due you’ll negate this frustration right up front.

5. Give feedback to the person who accepts the tasks and let them know how they performed. You can give feedback during the task or after but be sure that the person understands exactly how you feel about their performance.

6. Most importantly you have to release control over the task or project. You have to recognize that you can’t do or control everything in your business or your department. By learning to delegate you’ll boost your productivity and will help you focus on more important tasks that will result in an increased bottom line.

These tips are most important when working with virtual assistants who don’t work in the same work space as you do. Detailed communication only helps to make the tasks of delegation more successful.

Resources:

Wright State University: Delegating

http://www.wright.edu/~scott.williams/LeaderLetter/delegating.htm#top

Michael Hyatt: How to Better Track the Tasks you Delegate to Others

http://michaelhyatt.com/how-to-better-track-the-tasks-you-delegate-to-others.html

Houston Chronicle: How to Delegate the tasks for New Employee Orientations

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/delegate-tasks-new-employee-orientations-14150.html

Small Business Trends: How to Let Go and Delegate a task

http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/08/how-to-delegate-task.html