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How to Delegate Effectively

Guest post by: Kerri Salls

Article Overview: A key piece of the puzzle of leading a championship support team is to learn to delegate effectively so that more of the detail tasks come off your plate, and the crises don’t occur as often. Then strategic planning can take its rightful place as an important use of your time at the helm of your business since effective delegation frees you up for more important pursuits that can raise profits.

How to Delegate Effectively

Nigthingale Successis a weekly newsletter offered by Nightingale/Conant. In one issue Tom Gegax lists 10 Directives for Delegation that hit home with me. I agree with his statement: “Too often leaders who lack the time to think strategically don’t use the full potential of their employees. People who think they can do it better if they do it themselves, or feel they might lose control if they delegate, create more problems than they solve.”

A key piece of the puzzle of leading a championship support team is to learn to delegate effectively so that more of the detail tasks come off your plate, and the crises don’t occur as often. Then strategic planning can take its rightful place as an important use of your time at the helm of your business since effective delegation frees you up for more important pursuits that can raise profits.

Here are his 10 Directives for Delegation with my observations.

• Transfer Ownership – Be very clear that you have relinquished ownership, that the monkey is on their back not yours any more.
• Tell Why – Explain to employees why they are being asked to take on the assigned task – it cultivates support, confidence and initiative.
• Get the Wheels Turning – Mentor or coach the delegate to develop an effective action plan, e.g. ask good questions or leading questions.
• Set Deadlines – A goal without a deadline is only a dream. Agree to a firm deadline to avoid this task slipping to the bottom of the employee’s priority list.
• Ask for a ReCap – Always double check, never assume perfect understanding. You may need to do this multiple times as the project unfolds.
• Monitor – But Don’t Smother – When you delegate you have to let go, so don’t defeat the purpose by micromanaging unless absolutely necessary (e.g. new employee, critical path factors).
• No Take-Backs – This is hardest for the leader who knows how to do the task in his sleep. The opportunity, when the first signs of trouble appear, is to patiently coach your employee back on track rather than usurping the project yourself.
• Play to the Employee’s Strong Suit – Tailor assignments to people’s strengths. Know who is a big-picture thinker and know who is superb with the details.
• Don’t Duplicate – When you delegate, don’t overlap assigned tasks. If two or more people are involved state clearly, up front, who’s in charge.
• Distribute Evenly – This takes some forethought, but you will build a stronger championship team if you delegate some of these challenges to promising less-tested people and not just rely on your star employees.

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Article Tags: championship support team, delegate, delegation, delegation directives, leadership



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LEADERS - L- Loyal E- Eager to learn and serve A- Active D- Delegate E- Efficient R- Reliable S- Smart
Essential Leadership skills - Delegate Serve Creativity optimistic smart Focused Reliable honest Good sense of judgment consistent... It all comes from the confidence from within
Re: Social Media Effectively? - Thanks for your feedback. I am currently reevaluating my use of Twitter as I am the other major networks. Seems that while I have focused on social business networks and have a good presence there, I have not been using Social Media Effectively with the big networks. Some of the better site tools include theses networks in evaluating your marketing strategy. While I don't care for the Twitter limits, I can see that just by cleaning up my following's to focus more on business connections will help
Re: The 3 Factors That are Limiting Your Productivity - Hi Evan, Thanks for a great article and video on 'The 3 Factors That are Limiting Your Productivity'. I think that no matter whether you are self employed like myself or a CEO with staff, it is so important to manage your time so as to maximize the benefit to your business. Your expression Eliminate; Automate; Delegate is easy to remember and will certainly stick in my mind. There are many good business ideas out there but they will ultimately run into difficulty without proper planning and execution so these tips will certainly help. I have also left this comment on the article and will place a link to it on my blog. regards, Mal.
Re: The Best Method for Online Marketing - we must choose the most suitable one to use.. there are so many diffrent strategy here.. 1. Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy. 2. Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques. 3. Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively. 4. Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs. 5. Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant. 6. Build a responsive opt-in email list. 7. Publish articles or get listed in news stories. 8. Write and publish online press releases. 9. Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site. 10. Blog and interact with your visitors.


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