Effective delegation

- When I was younger, I was always trying to do too much. I had this endless energy and I didn't know how to say no. So I just kept adding more responsibility to my plate and more and more and then it caught up with me. I was over committed, overwhelmed, exhausted and ruining my marriage. I had to learn how to say no. I had to learn how to stop trying to do everything and outsource and delegate instead. When I finally learned how to delegate properly, everything got done and I had time to be there for my loved ones, made more money, and produced better results. So here's a question for you. What is the least cool lowest value work you should delegate today. How can you do it in a way that will reduce the likelihood of somebody making a mistake? Let me share the five steps I learned to delegate effectively. First, identify one hour of low-value work you do every day. That $25 an hour a work you do even though you're paid $50 an hour. Identify five hours of that. Second, create a Standard Operating Procedure guide or SOP for the work. It should identify what the task is and the best way to do it. When you delegate, do it in writing and you'll reduce mistakes. Don't assume anything, no matter how long the employee you're delegating to has been around you. And depending on the work you're doing, a video may be as valuable as a written SOP. Third, find out if they need any training or further clarification. Perhaps they can even shadow you doing the work. Fourth, find out what they can delegate or stop doing do you don't overwhelm them. Fifth, expect them to have a learning curve and even make a mistake. Because they will. I had a one mistake rule. I can see the logic in making a mistake once but never twice. A couple of quotes helped me greatly. The first is by Ken Blanchard, the author of "The One Minute Manager." He said that a strategic objective done 80% well by a subordinate is better than one not done at all by you. And the billionaire hedge fund manager, Ray Dalio, said, "When I delegate, I expect them to scratch the car, but I won't put them in a position where they could wreck it." The point is when you delegate, don't expect perfection. Just don't let them wreck anything. One last thought about delegation. We always think of it as some kind of top-down exercise. What I learned is you have to invite subordinates to take things away from you. I told my employees that if they wanted to make themselves more valuable, that they should take away my low-value work and they did. Try these five steps and watch the entire team's productivity increase because when you have more time, you can focus on managing and coaching your employees. So what five hours of low-value work will you stop doing and start delegating today.