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8 Steps To Delegate Effectively · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Learning how to assign tasks to others and to delegate effectively is vital if you want to lead and manage others, and certainly if you want to progress a management career.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't learn ways to delegate effectively, you will remain stuck doing the tasks that you want to delegate to others.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Many new to management think that delegating is telling someone to do a task and then sitting back and to wait for it to be delivered exactly as we want it and on time.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I suggest following the eight steps outlined in this podcast so you don't get a very rude shock when you don't get what you want and it is a week later than you expected.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm taking you through eight steps to delegate effectively, which are firstly know what to delegate, second, play to team members' strengths, third, set clearly defined goals, fourth provide context and the why.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, allocate the right resources and authority level.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: 6.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Follow up and stay involved.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: 7th, coach, mentor and provide feedback.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And eight, praise good results.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25-year management career in corporates and household names through to SMEs.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: My advice is always keep looking to improve your delegation skills and how you assign work to team members.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Your career progress depends on it.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhance.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And do visit us at enhance.training and take a look at the courses and resources for you to improve your management skills and the outcome your team delivers.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: The first of eight steps to delegate effectively is to know what to delegate.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: There are lots of tasks and projects that you could delegate.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge is working out what you should delegate to others and what you should keep yourself.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Certain tasks you cannot delegate, such as appraisals, direction setting, and the core tasks of managing a team.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: The types of tasks that you should think about delegating to team members are likely to fall into the following five categories.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Time consuming tasks.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: The best ones to delegate are the lower value creating tasks, which are repetitive.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, teachable tasks, the tasks which you can teach the team members who have the right skills and aptitudes to do the task well.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, time-sensitive tasks.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Any tasks that need to be done by a deadline and you don't have the time to do it.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, tasks you are poor at.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: These tasks are ones that team members or others can do quicker or maybe even better than you.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And fifth, tasks that will be good development opportunities.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: To build the skills, knowledge and experience of your team members.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Looks delegate tasks that you do so you personally can then take on additional tasks that will add greater value to the business.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: This keeps your career moving forward and keeps you moving up the value chain of tasks, activities and projects within the business.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Build a list of tasks and projects you do.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Prioritize them based on their value creation, you know, the most value at the top and downwards.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then look to delegate the tasks and projects towards the bottom of the list.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Keep going back to the list periodically.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: The second of eight steps to delegate effectively is to play to team members' strengths.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Playing to strengths when delegating tasks or projects is important to ensure that what you delegate is done well.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Ideally, you want the team member to do the task or project delegated better than you would do it.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Each team member will have different strengths, ambitions and interests.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Learning what each team member's strengths and interests are in the first place is of course super important to delegate effectively.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Match up the team members best suited and most interested to each task or project you want to delegate.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And in the real world, you often have to delegate to those not ideally suited to the task because those that are stronger are already fully maxed out with other work or politics gets in the way or etc.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: When this happens, put more effort into the other steps, such as staying involved and coaching, mentoring, and providing feedback to compensate for the less skilled person doing the task.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Flex your approach depending on who you are delegating tasks to and based on what work you are assigning to team members.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do your best to play to team strengths when assigning work to others.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: The third of eight steps to delegate effectively is to set clearly defined goals.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: There is little worse than being given a task without being told the goal to be reached.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Each time you delegate work, you should firstly decide what goals represent success for the work you are delegating, and then secondly, the person you are delegating to must be equally clear as to what the goals are and how progress was going to be measured against these goals.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: You need to judge whether a verbal agreement is enough, or whether you need to put the task and goals into writing and send it to them via email, for instance.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: I found that this very much depends on the person being delegated to and the complexity of the task.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: The more complex or critical the task or problem I'm delegating, the more likely I would follow up the verbal discussion with a quick email summary or even a one-page summary document.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Creating a reference email or document reduces confusion and reduces the project or task slip due to different understandings being taken away from the initial discussion.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Putting the details into writing makes what has been delegated and the goals clear for both parties.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Always try to set clearly defined goals when you delegate work to others and check to make sure both parties are clear what these goals are.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth of eight steps to delegate effectively is to provide context and the why.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have found that providing the context to tasks or projects, in effect, explaining the why we are doing this task or project, firstly, improves motivation and buy-in of the other person as they understand how the task or project fits into the larger picture within the business.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, it improves the other person's ability to successfully work around the smaller problems that invariably come up without having to speak to me.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And third, improves their judgment of when they need to speak to me about problems or issues with the task or project.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: All of these allow the other person to do the task or project better compared to if they had not been given the context or the why, and thus makes the delegation more effective.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: The team member also gets to learn more about how the task interacts with other tasks and projects going on within the business, which of course helps them learn.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: When delegating tasks, make the time to explain the context of the task or project and explain how it fits into the team or functional goals or fits into the company's strategy.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I view this an essential part of delegating and assigning work to others.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth of eight steps to delegate effectively is to allocate the right resources and authority level.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you do the work yourself or delegate the work to team members, you want the work to be delivered successfully and the goals reached.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is by far the best result for everyone and for you personally.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Having the right resources available at the right level at the right time can make a huge difference to the outcome.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So take the time to plan out the essentials needed for the project or task to be successful and work out what resources are sensible to be made available to complete the task quicker, cheaper or better.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: In all businesses, resources are constrained, so prioritizing where these resources get used is an important task of management.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Create the best conditions for success that you can when you assign work to others.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Examples of resources include things like time, cash, manpower, skills and knowledge, access to systems or data at the right level, etc.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget to set and communicate the right authority levels for the person that you are delegating to so they can undertake the work as effectively as possible.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Setting the right authority levels also maintains good risk management for the company itself.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: The sixth of eight steps to delegate effectively is to follow up and stay involved.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Keep tabs on the task or project you have delegated so you can make yourself available to help if the team member you have delegated to runs into trouble, falls behind, or encounters resistance.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Delegating a task, then walking away until a delivery point, of course, can work, usually for the simpler tasks or with your best team members.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: The more complex a task, project or problem, the more moving parts and the more people involved, the higher the chance of problems arising that need to be resolved and for delays to occur.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: For these reasons, keeping tabs on progress gives you an early warning of these problems and gives you the best chance of reducing or avoiding problems.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Following up, the task of checking in with the person doing the work, asking about progress and being there to help is, in my opinion, practiced too little by the majority of managers.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Following up is essentially about managing the people aspects of focus, of prioritization, of getting enough effort put in.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Following up also demonstrates that this task or project is important to you, therefore it becomes important to the person doing the work.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Every business I've worked in has multiple projects and tasks going on at once, all demanding the time and attention of employees.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you are not keeping their attention and time on your task or project, chances are that they will end up doing other ones that seem more important because those managers are following up more.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And just for the avoidance of doubt, I am not suggesting that you should micromanage individuals, which 95% plus of the time is detrimental to them, the task, and you as a manager.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Make the time to keep tabs on the project or task and stay involved so you can help your team members if needed.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: The seventh of eight steps to delegate effectively is to coach, mentor, and provide specific feedback.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Without feedback on what went well and what didn't go so well, it is very hard to learn and improve.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Assuming you want your team members to get better at their jobs individually and as a team, then taking the time to coach, mentor and provide specific feedback is essential.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: This gives your team great opportunities to improve their performance, their skill level and what they deliver, which in turn benefits you as their manager.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the many additional benefits from coaching, mentoring and providing feedback include, firstly, increased motivation and loyalty of team members, secondly, increased engagement and work ethic, third, reduced staff turnover, fourth, increased interest in internal staff moves to your team, and fifth quicker career progression for you and your team members, and then sixth better knowledge of what team members are working on and what challenges they face.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I booked in a weekly one-to-one meeting with each of my direct reports and insisted that they also do the same with their reports.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I used this time to mainly coach, mentor, and provide specific feedback.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Booking in the meeting each week signalled the importance I placed on learning and improvement and made sure team members got regular coaching, mentoring and feedback.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: The last step to delegate effectively is to praise good results.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Positive reinforcement works, plus everyone likes to receive praise, particularly when you've worked hard to deliver some great work.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: There is too little praise within many workplaces.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Research has shown that to keep a staff member engaged and happy, you need to praise three times more than to criticize.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: When giving praise, make sure you are specific with your praise and you described what happened, the impact, why the action and results were good, and add in how they might improve further if appropriate.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure your praise is honest, sincere, and given soon after the results are delivered.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can praise in private, in public, give prizes, in fact, there are so many ways to praise.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do make the time to praise team members, get comfortable doing so and look for opportunities to praise.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I've taken you quickly through an eight-step framework to delegate work more effectively to employees and colleagues.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do follow each of the steps and discover the benefits of getting better at delegating.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: The eight steps are as a reminder, firstly, know what to delegate.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Second, play to team members' strengths, thirdly, set clearly defined goals, fourth, provide context and the why.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, allocate the right resources and authority level, sixth, follow up and stay involved, seventh, coach, mentor, and provide specific feedback, and then eighth, praise good results.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have any questions, please drop me an email at support at enhance.training and I'll get back to you.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.