Delegating is a real job

With so many thing to do to keep our business and personal lives going, there is plenty of room to delegate. Often we are better off delegating certain jobs and spending our time doing something more productive or more fun. There will always be a person out there who will appreciate the opportunity to help you with those jobs.

But there are challenges that come with delegation. For example, when we choose to offload a job to someone else, it might be because we don’t really want to do it ourselves. In this situation, we may feel an internal resistance to dealing with that particular task, and our tendency might be to get it off our plate as quickly as possible and give inadequate instructions.

If we are delegating because we are simply short of time, we may also shortcut the delegating process because of that time pressure.

 This is a big mistake. Racing through or even omitting the delegation process in any way can cost you big time later.

The people who help you are not mind readers. You need to take the necessary time to be thorough when you ask for help if you want it done right. Here are some tips on how to delegate effectively to set yourself up for success.

 Be ultra clear

You can never be too clear. Be really clear, and then be twice as clear as that. Don’t skimp on instructions because you are afraid of sounding like a control freak or insulting someone’s intelligence.

 Resources

Share any information that you would use to get the job done, such as people to call, websites to visit, or other strategies that could help. The person you are delegating to doesn’t have to use them, but it might make his or her job a lot easier.

Timing

Give a clear time frame. How long do you expect this person to spend on the job and when do you want it completed? Someone else might plan on taking two hours to finish what you think is a 15-minute project.

 Desired outcome

Give a desired outcome. This is rarely done, but it should be done more often. Describing the ideal result will give a clear goal that will match your vision of how it should look when finished. What your helper envisions as a finished product may not even be close to yours. This way, you’re on the same page before anything is done.

In summary, take the extra time to delegate jobs properly and you will save yourself a lot of time and disappointment down the road — and make your helper’s job a lot easier and more rewarding.

Brooke Loening is a life coach in Sharon who works with individuals, and runs weekly coaching groups on achieving growth in career, health and relationships. To make column suggestions, e-mail him at bloening@snet.net.