10 Tips and Best Practices for Effective Delegating

So, you say you have too much to do and not enough time to do it. There are 2 possibilities:

a. You are highly organized, you follow all the best practices for effective time and task management and yet...

b. ...none of the above

If description "b" fits you, you have lots of room for improvement.

If description "a" fits you, it could be that you are genuinely overloaded or that you are taking on more than you can realistically accomplish. It could also be that you are not making use of your ability to delegate certain tasks.

Following are tips and best practices for effective delegating. 

1. One person can only do so much. Be always open to the question: Is it possible to delegate part or all of a task, which you are about to start?
   
   
2. Place a monetary value on your time. Recognize your core competencies. Delegate tasks outside of your "sweet-spot" (like bookkeeping, billing, web design,technology, administrative tasks) to others, who will be able to complete them faster and better than you can.
   
   
3. Teach/train others how to do your work;
   
   
4. Don't have employees, associates or assistants? Look further: you might be able to delegate to your suppliers, your family/friends or even your customers.
   
   
5. Know your priorities and deadlines. Also know the amount of time that a task is likely to take. These will allow you to know when to delegate.
   
   
6. Be careful not to make a name for yourself as the one "who always passes the buck". Also, be open to accept requests from others. Delegating is a two-way street!
   
   
7. You can delegate face-to-face or in writing. The best way is to do both. Meet in person (see or feel the reaction) and document by writing it down.
   
   
8. Minimally, always specify clearly "WHAT?" needs to be done, by "WHO?" and by "WHEN?" Often, you may also want to identify the required resources and other comments.
   
   
9. If you do the above by email, consider writing the above directly in the Subject line. In the body of the email you may wish to insert a table with the "What-Who-When" and "Comments" column-headers.
   
   
10. Make sure that the person to whom you delegated understands the task clearly. Also, make it clear that you expect to hear from him/her immediately, should anything prevent him/her from completing the task on time.

How do you stay on top of your delegated tasks? (Let's assume here, that you use MS Outlook or a similar program.) 

• Create a Task with the following description: "X (the Who) to complete (the What) by (When)"
  
  
• Mark it as category "Waiting"
  
  
• Set a reminder date (before the deadline), which will still allow the completion of the task, even if the person hasn't done anything up till that time.
  
  
• When you get the reminder, call the person and inquire about the status of the task. If (s)he hasn't started, hopefully (s)he will, or if there is any impediment, you can still do something about it. 

Oh, one more thing: Never forget to say "Thank you" after the successful completion of a delegated task.