Learning how to delegate work is essential for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses successfully. Here are 5 ways to delegate successfully.
5 Best Practices to Delegate Work
Delegation is difficult for many entrepreneur. You know how to do something perfectly, but you no longer have the time to do it yourself anymore. And so, you have to delegate the process to somebody else. At the same time, you have the feeling that nobody can do this task(s) as well as you. But still, you have to sit back and give others a try if you want to be able to grow your business effectively. So today, we’ll give you 5 best practices to delegate work!
- Delegate to the Right People
Different tasks should be delegated to different people. More basic tasks like scheduling blog posts, emails, and editing may be outsourced and delegated to a virtual assistant, while more challenging tasks like creating content, thinking of new blog ideas, copywriting, etc., may be better suited for somebody on your team. So, know which tasks you want to delegate as well as the challenge that comes along with each task. For the challenging tasks, certain people on your staff may be better suited for certain tasks, while others may have the aptitude but need more training up front.
- Be Okay with a “Hands Off” Approach
Perhaps the most difficult part of delegation is to let get of your own work. You’re dedicated to its success, and you’re not 100% ready to have someone else come in and do it for you. But for delegation to work, you must learn to let go and take a more hands-off approach. To help with the transition, you can start with baby steps. Delegate smaller tasks – this will help you get to know your team and their ability. Then, as you gain more trust in them, you can start to delegate bigger and bigger tasks.
- Create SOPs
An SOP is a standard operating procedure. You should create at least a basic SOP for everything that you delegate. In this SOP, you should provide step-by-step instructions on how to complete the task. The SOP will be fluid. As questions come up, you can add to it. That way, you can easily delegate the task to more people. All they’ll have to do is follow along with the SOP, and they’ll be up to speed.
- Trust Your Team
Delegation won’t work unless you trust your team to complete the tasks at hand. If you’re always getting in and micromanaging, they won’t feel empowered, and you might even create more work for yourself along the way. Instead, trust them to learn a bit for themselves and surprise you with their results. In doing so, you’ll learn which employees do the best work.
- Provide Support
Yes, you should avoid micromanaging. But you should still be there for support. Be available to answer any questions your team has, and perhaps to walk them through a process more thoroughly if they ask. Especially at first, they may have a lot of questions. So patience is key. Make it known that they can come to you for questions. When they feel like you have their support, they’ll have more confidence to do the job well.
Wrapping Up Best Practices to Delegate Work…
Delegation doesn’t have to be painful. You can have others do the work for you through small business outsourcing, and have it be just as good as if you did it yourself! It’s difficult at first, but if you follow the delegation best practices we’ve outlined here, you’ll make sure to get the best out of every task that you delegate. What’s been your biggest challenge of delegating work?
