By Victoria Sunday
A quick look at the day's schedule dazzles you with how much you have to finish before the end of the day. While you try to settle for the day's job, you quickly remember that innovation meeting you have with your potential partners of course, you completely forgot to add that to the schedule. And it's 8 am already, while this most important meeting is by 10 am. "No worries, I still have 2 hours to juggle around the other activities", you thought to yourself.
Ping!!! On your phone, it's a message from a dissatisfied client. What are you going to do now? Will you ignore that client to make a post on your new improved product?
"I can reply to her later, let me focus on the improved product". You get on the job. It was 9 a.m., and you checked your marketing campaigns, "Why are they not running yet?" Oh! You forgot to schedule the campaigns for them to run at the proper time.
Just a quick scheduling; "What! I haven't prepared for them and it's just an hour until my all-important meeting". A quick rush to see what you can achieve within that time frame.
It's 9:45 a.m., and you've got it covered already. A hero's smile on your face since you have overcome it.
"Now let's zoom to the meeting". You are just a few steps away from your office, and you remember that you are missing something… "Where are my slides for presentation to my potential partners?"
Handling all your business activities may seem engaging, but it will not grow your business.
Following through in this article, you are going to see how delegating business tasks can significantly improve your business, and boost productivity.
THE ART OF DELEGATION
Delegation is a very important skill in business operations. It helps you focus on your areas of expertise, and gives you the required time needed to handle the most important aspects of your business.
Delegation is simply the art and process of assigning tasks and responsibilities to a team member or an individual, who is better positioned to get such tasks done. In order words, it is giving authority to someone, to make decisions and carry out relevant roles.
Delegation is among the most important factors of business success. It's also a key factor to show if your business is organized.
WHY YOU NEED TO DELEGATE?
It is impractical for a business leader to manage the entire volume of work that comes with the day-to-day running of a business. Delegation helps you manage your work, which allows you more time to concentrate on impactful activities in your business.
Such as planning, plotting, scheming, business analysis, etc.
Business Growth: With the administrative and repetitive tasks being taken care of, you will have more time to focus on innovative business strategies, exploring new markets, forging partnerships, and identifying growth opportunities. This helps you to expand your business horizons and drive future success.
Attainment of Goals: It is said that 'two heads are better than one because they have a good reward for their labour'. Also, people get to their destination faster when they are in a similar company. Your business goals will be achieved in the shortest possible time when you don't have to do all the work yourself.
Helps Decision Making: As a business leader, you will get to the point where you face a challenge that requires a great deal of expertise and knowledge. In delegating responsibilities, you can benefit from your team's perspectives and ideas that may lead to a very innovative solution. This can occur when a critical decision needs to be taken.
Improve Work-life Balance: Running a business is extremely demanding. It often blurs the line between work and personal life. Entrusting others with your business tasks empowers you to reclaim your time and achieve a better work-life balance. You enjoy more leisure time, focus on personal priorities, reduce burnout, and stay healthy.
EFFECTIVE DELEGATION TECHNIQUES
Most business owners ask themselves: Even if I want to delegate my business activities, how do I go about it?
There is no mountain in the delegation, so here are some simple techniques to follow:
Identify the tasks your business needs to get involved in, to achieve those goals.
Amongst these tasks, list the ones that can be delegated, e.g. tasks that are time-consuming or those that give you a headache.
Choose the right delegate for the tasks.
Clearly explain what needs to be done. Don't be vague in your explanation. Explain the purpose of such tasks, the methods by which they should be done, and the utility of the task.
Communicate properly what, when, and how you need to get the tasks done.
Provide the needed resources where possible.
Establish a good communication channel. The individual you are delegating to should be comfortable with asking you questions, especially when they are stuck with the task.
Check on the progress of the task and give constructive feedback.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT TASKS TO DELEGATE
You may be lost as to what type of business tasks you need to delegate to individuals. Here's a cheat sheet that will help you solve that puzzle.
Delegate the following:
Elfin tasks: These are little tasks, but consume a lot of time, in the process of getting them done. These tasks include sending emails, booking flights, scheduling meetings, etc In the real sense, these tasks take a few minutes of one's time, but it is not worth it, compared to the bigger organisational tasks.
Exhausting tasks: These are tasks that require a lot of time and brain power. They include copying and pasting data from an email marketing tool, preparing presentations, etc. You don't want to use up your brain in these.
Exceptional tasks: These are tasks that require expertise. In most cases, you will not have the expertise to effectively carry out such a task. Roles like creating a marketing campaign, website design or upgrade, digital marketing, writing blog posts and articles, etc. are pieces of stuff that require skilled personnel. You will need to outsource these tasks to boost productivity.
Emotionless tasks: tasks that you are not passionate about doing, you don't get excited at the sound of such tasks. They should be delegated, so that you don't end up messing them up.
Everyday tasks: They are the must-do daily tasks. It's either they are done daily or they are done. These tasks contribute to the success of your business, but you don't want to be burdened with them.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Delegation has proven to be a way of achieving business success. Having to do all the work by yourself will surely lead to burnout, which makes you reach your ceiling of productivity faster.
As a business leader, you should see delegation as a key to expanding your business horizon and breaking new frontiers in your business endeavours.
Furthermore, to cub juggling from pillar to post as a business owner. Delegating to Virtual Assistants is the most efficient way to save time and scale your business faster. This is because they offer cost-effective solutions, they have expertise in different areas of business, they make you focus on your core competencies, and most importantly, they are flexible. Consider getting one for yourself today!
MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victoria Chimnaza Sunday
Victoria Chimnaza Sunday is a skilled Virtual Assistant, dedicated to helping Founders like you complete your time-consuming admin tasks much faster (allowing you to focus on your strengths—and therefore to scale most efficiently). Victoria is also a “Top Administrative Assistance Voice” on LinkedIn:
Contact Victoria—and quote FOUNDERX—for 10% off bespoke VA packages and services.
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