How to Actually Delegate a Task to a Team Member
Episode 741: Show Notes
Today we’re sharing a bit of our progress when it comes to delegating. We started out being bad at getting things off our plates, but now we are getting better and better and we want you to learn from our mistakes. Delegation is truly the stepping stone to get the right people on your team! Ultimately, you’re going to need to hire extra team members to take on some tasks in your business. If you need help with hiring, we would love to help you out, so book a call with us to learn more.
Most of what we’re talking about today is how to delegate to an employee properly and while there are overlaps when it comes to delegating to a contractor, there are definitely nuanced differences. Today we are specifically looking at delegating to existing team members who have been through the full onboarding process and understand you and your business very well. To us, proper delegation comes down to communication! Listen carefully because we want you to document all of these things we are discussing today and explain them to the person you want to delegate to.
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Getting Clear on What You’re Doing and How to Document Those Tasks
One of the first steps to getting things off your plate is becoming clear on what you’re actually doing. We know it can feel like you have a thousand things to do and your mind is racing a million miles per hour, but you really need to take time to document once-off things, routine things, strategic things etcetera so that you can figure out what is sitting on your plate. We don’t want you to jump ahead of yourself by trying to think about the end game. You need to start documenting what you’re doing in your business without judgment!
Starting off with a brain dump on a document before breaking these tasks down by departments and skillset, we will be able to see where we are heavy in a specific category which allows us to decide if we need to bring someone in to assist with some of the tasks. It’s fine if initially you only want to delegate part of specific tasks. However, you have to get clear on all the related things and take stock of how much time each task takes you so that you can figure out what you can take off your plate.
Finding Where You Shine and Prioritizing That (at Least For Now)
This is an incredible opportunity for you to evaluate what you’re great at and what you’re not great at. We want you to identify not only your strengths and weaknesses, but also what you’re more and less efficient at doing, what you do and don’t enjoy, and so much more! These tasks are not things you will never ever be involved in as the founder of your company but you will be more capable of honing in on what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing. Those will be your highlights and areas of opportunity! It is critical for you to shine strongly in one to two departments as the leader of your company. But we do recognize that as a single founder, managing multiple people in an array of departments can be exhausting.
It is critical to figure out what is most important versus what is least important. Just because you are good at something, doesn’t mean it is essential for your business and as you grow from delegating the weak spots, you may need to give some of your strong tasks away with full autonomy to make space for more important tasks. We never want to remove you from everything in your business, this is about placing you in the position to move your business forward and sometimes that may mean letting go of something you love.
Using Systems and Softwares as a Step Before Hiring
We know there is quite a scary conversation at the moment about AI and the fear that it is going to take away jobs, but we want you to be mindful that you’re a small business and it’s always going to be cheaper to utilize a system or a software over a person. If you haven’t hired an employee yet, there is an opportunity ahead of that– looking at a task that you can delegate right now! There are so many systems and softwares out there that can take things off your plate. You might not be able to afford to hire someone yet so this would be a great middle-ground that you need to make additional sales and give you the time you need in order to afford to pay someone to do the job. This is an important first step before hiring!
Transitioning a Task from You to Another Team Member
How do we take something that’s on our plate right now and effectively and proactively give it to someone else to handle? You need to be very very very clear on what ‘done’ looks like to you and communicate effectively. Overly communicate, overly explain, and get super detailed about what you’re expecting from your team members. Most people only consider the ‘what’ when it comes to delegating but we need you to think about the what, where, when, why, and how!
We want you to uncover the objective and goal of the specific task you are delegating before breaking down the skills that are needed in order to achieve that goal. You may even find that you want to delegate part of the task but not the entire thing. When you decide whether you have someone on your team that can complete this task, work out if they have the time for it, and really consider why you want to delegate it to that person. Finally, look at how much you can trust the person and work out a transition plan for them.
Why You Cannot Miss the ‘Why’
Break down everything involved in this conversation instead of just focusing on what the task being delegated is. However, if you miss the ‘why’ everything is going to fall apart. This person needs to know why you chose them to take this task over from you as well as how the task impacts the bottom line of the business. We have seen a lot of people handing tasks over to get it off their plate without explaining why the delegated person has been chosen specifically and not only is that rude, but it gives that person no motivation to do it at all!
The One Thing We Want You to Do About Your Micromanaging Tendencies
When you truly delegate, you may have some tendencies to micromanage and you need to release them and instead take ownership of your business! You’ve outlined what ‘done’ looks like and initially, you have to critique every step of the process and as part of your transition plan, remove yourself slowly. Your team members getting feedback is going to help them do better! If you have ever felt that you could’ve done a job better yourself, it almost always comes back to not delegating properly. As part of the transition plan, you will decide how much you will check in on this person. We want you to take ownership of these things without micromanaging. If you are a service-based business owner looking to hire, book a no-obligation conversation with us to chat about our C-Suite on Demand!
Quote This
Your job is to grow the business and to make the decisions that keep the business around.
Highlights
Getting Clear on What You’re Doing and How to Document Those Tasks. [0:09:47]
Finding Where You Shine and Prioritizing That (at Least For Now). [0:14:15]
Looking at What You Can Delegate Right Now Using Systems and Softwares. [0:20:47]
Figuring Out What ‘Done’ Looks Like to You. [0:27:08]
Why You Cannot Miss the ‘Why’. [0:31:26]
The One Thing We Want You to Do About Your Micromanaging Tendencies. [0:37:09]
Today’s Guest:
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
The Strategy Hour Podcast is a twice weekly show hosted by Abagail Pumphrey and Emylee Williams, the founders of Boss Project. Join us for semi-ranty biz conversations for service providers looking to ethically grow their agency businesses. Episodes cover everything from lead generation to leadership mindset to team culture and beyond.
Key Topics:
Delegating, Team Members, Hiring, Prioritizing, Expectations, Why, Purpose
