It is essential that you realise you cannot do everything. Delegation therefore is required if you are going to get things done. By assigning the authority to complete tasks to others you free up some of your time. This allows you to focus.
There are two obvious forms of delegation:
- Delegate work to colleagues
- Outsourcing
Before starting out on your journey into delegation it is worth considering that much like automation… You shouldn’t delegate work that does not add value to your business. It is also important to not delegate work that can be automated. Delegation should only occur where the task can only be completed by a human and it can be clearly defined what the task is and how to complete it.
Delegate work to colleagues
The first form on delegation is common place in organisations where teams are built to manage and complete specific business functions. If you operate with such a team then you should identify opportunities to delegate. If you have subordinates, they normally would get the brunt of this. However some of the smartest delegation can happen when you pass work to peers or other departments. This is because those not directly under your control will sanity check the need to do this task.
When you delegate work to someone else it is important that you:
- clearly define the goal
- define success is measured
- set a deadline for completion
Also it is worth considering that shorter deadlines usually result in greater efficiency. Therefore if you have a big piece of work to hand break it into smaller chunks and set short deadlines on these.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing wouldn’t work in environments where you have lots of sensitive data included in the task. So, in many large businesses before outsourcing occurs the task needs to either be stripped of this kind of data, due diligence done on the outsourcer or tasks without sensitive data passed on.
Before you start stripping data or a lengthy due diligence piece of work it makes sense to trial outsourcing small bits of work without sensitive data.
There are a number of web sites set up which facilitate the outsourcing of small bits of work. Two sites of note are www.elance.com and www.fiverr.com. Both will provide you with access to outsourcers across the globe that will complete tasks on your behalf. In doing so you get laser guided expertise and pieces of work done for you – sometimes whilst you sleep.
Before outsourcing a task it is worth ensuring that you have:
- clearly defined goals
- a means of checking the progress towards the goal
- a measurement of success
- well defined deadlines
Also before an outsourcer starts work on a task it is vital that you get them to replay back to you in their own words. It’s easy to assume that someone understands the delegated work. That may not be the case so by checking understanding you could save a whole heap of wasted effort.
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