Five Keys to Successful Delegation

Five Keys to Successful Delegation


You are overqualified for most of the things you do in both your personal and professional life. If you are doing all the work, you will never reach your full potential. Here are five keys to help you delegate effectively, and achieve the success you desire:

1. Hire people who are more gifted than you. Their strengths should be your weaknesses. Oftentimes people (1) hire others just like them, and (2) hire others cheaply because they haven’t made the decision that an assistant or new team member is worth the money. Hire the right people today so you won’t be sorry tomorrow.

2. Follow the 30/30/30 System for maximum empowerment. When you bring an assistant on board, follow this plan:

For the first 30 days: (1) Let them shadow you (i.e., watch you do what they will one day be doing), (2) Highlight when you do what they’ll be doing, (3) Answer their questions often, and (4) Test their knowledge daily.
For the second 30 days: (1) You spot shadow them (i.e., watch them as they perform different tasks), (2) Coach and train them in key areas (to do otherwise is to set them up for failure), (3) Ask them questions daily, and (4) Test their knowledge often.
For the third 30 days: (1) Coach them daily, (2) Train them weekly, and (3) Empower them permanently.

3. Be more concerned with outcome than process. Know that different people with different talents can get you what you want through a different process than the one you want them to have. Make a habit of telling people specifically what you want them to do and how you want the task to look when it is done. Then, let people do the task the way they want to do it, within the parameters of efficiency and consistency.

4. Build emotional equity by praising as much as you prune. Praise them publicly; prune them privately. It is really important to praise people publicly when they have done a great job for you. However, if you need to prune people, take care to do it privately so they won’t be embarrassed in front of their peers.

5. Consistently surprise them with value and they will constantly delight you with performance. Whether you reward team members with a surprise gift certificate, trip, or day off, the surprise factor is huge. These rewards don’t have to happen often, but make sure they happen often enough. You will be delighted with the performance you get from people as a result.

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