Thriving Thursday! Delegate or Not, Is Delegation Your Thing?

by | Aug 4, 2011 | Home Based Business, Network Marketing, Small Business, Weekly Productivity

Thriving Thursday – Wow the week is almost over….(What do I mean by Thriving?…)

thrive  (thrv)intr.v. thrived or throve (thrv), thrived or thriv·en (thrvn), thriv·ing, thrives

1. To make steady progress; prosper.

2. To grow vigorously; flourish:

Thriving Thursday is just that – you should be so in your groove that your making progress and even flourishing!  Your Tickler File tasks list for the week should have more cross offs then not and you should have received or secured income too!   If you need help organizing your tasks or your processes, feel free to contact us – we are here to help!

“Delegate” can be not only hard to grasp but even harder to utilize it properly…

Being small business, home based business owners and even network marketing business owners it is a tough concept to grasp.. Delegation, to Delegate.

Delegate (v)

2. To commit or entrust to another: delegate a task to a subordinate.
What can you possibly delegate to someone else to do in YOUR business?  Everything needs YOU to do it.  Who can

Delegate

To much work Delegate!

possibly do tasks as well as YOU?  Only YOU understand what needs to be done.  Do any of these sound familiar?

I have to admit I am a bit of a control freak – even being a Virtual Assistant myself, it is hard for even me to let go of things.  It is important when you are in business for yourself you realize everyone can use some help.  On top of that there ARE other people out there that are qualified to help you! I am happy to say even I have assistants and they are wonderful!
Delegation can be done in several ways:
  • Delegate specific tasks one at a time (like order this, return this call)
  • Delegate a specific ongoing tasks (check phone messages everyday)
  • Delegate a “chore” (every week you are responsible for X)
  • Delegate training (for every new downline/person I register you meet with them and train them on the system)
  • Delegate some of your blog writing (they do a rough draft you come in and edit or add to it)
  • Delegate website maintenance
  • Delegate setting up phone or meeting appointments

You can have several kinds of people in your life you can delegate to:

  • Partner
  • Spouse
  • Responsible Children
  • Local College Student
  • Out of work local Senior
  • Responsible Friend/Neighbor
  • Close Team Member (downline)
  • A Virtual Assistant
  • A Virtual Assistant Company

You don’t have to do it alone!  Delegate! The goal here is to realize the items that are on your task list that you can get help with and to delegate them.  When you delegate, Yes it takes a little more time to get that person “trained” on what you like done, how you like it handled and what you expect but that is really an investment in the time that is saved later.  It is like they say you can bring people fish and do it all, or you can teach them to fish and they can feed themselves.  Teach someone how to fish in your business so they can they take the tasks on themselves “feed themselves” and you no longer have that burden.

Tips on how to delegate easily:

  1. Start off slow, don’t throw everything on your new found help
  2. Be CLEAR with your directions and expectations for the task and its completion
  3. Be available for any and all questions
  4. Encourage a lot of questions, there is NEVER a stupid questions (sometimes your assistant will be just looking for some reinforcement on a decision they are making)
  5. Check in often
  6. Hold a weekly production meeting (or request a weekly progress report)

Big mistakes people make when they start to delegate:

  1. Have no patience for a task getting done (gosh if I would have done it, it would have only taken me X amount of time)
  2. Giving one word answers
  3. Not praising a job well done, no matter how small
  4. Not staying in the loop – not to be confused with controlling it all but just know what is going on
  5. Recognize if you have the right person or not and make decisions accordingly

Getting used to being a person to delegate tasks can be scary and hard – but it is necessary if you are to grow.  To delegate minor things that take up YOUR time and keep you from bringing in more revenue is one of the best things you can do for your business.  When you go to delegate it helps if you create Process Map – they are not difficult to do, you just indicate where and who the task starts with then the process of how it moves through the “system” to completion.  When this is in written form there cannot be any confusion of the steps needed in the process between the person you delegate to and yourself.

Oh, but it is going to cost you to delegate tasks.. yes it is.  BUT if you have been freed up from the “manusha” and the time sucking tasks you can now go out and work ON your business and generate more revenue.  It is a necessary expense to growing larger than life.  If you do not delegate what other things are you missing and how expensive is that? (Relationship, Family, Friends, Traveling)