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Top Delegation Skills – Achieve More In Less Time Than 9/10 Managers · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Delegation skills is one of the very important skills to build as a manager.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: To have a successful management career, you have to learn how to produce your best work through others.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Learn top delegation skills, and you'll be managing more and more people and they will be doing the work.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't learn delegation skills very well, and you'll be stuck doing a lot of the work yourself as a junior manager.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Which appeals to you more?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you're getting surprises, staff are missing deadlines, work is not being delivered to the right standards, too many mistakes are being made, staff appear very stressed.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: All of these are signs your delegation skills probably need to improve.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Delegation skills are how you leverage your work through others.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: That is how you multiply the value of your time and effort through your team.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The more value you can create through others, the more often you'll be promoted, the more influence and impact you'll have, and the more you will be paid.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: I was promoted 13 times all the way up to board level.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I would have colleagues, bosses, and team members come to me to get help to achieve their goals.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I got top appraisal grades multiple years in a row and delivered over 54 projects in one year with a team of 35.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Building top delegation skills was a big part in enabling all these achievements.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Delegation enables you to achieve more in less time.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: A very important starting place to delegate better than 90% plus of managers is to know your staff.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Your team members are very respectfully your tools.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: They are the ones that should be delivering the actual work.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: When you know your team very well, you can play to their strengths as much as possible, keep developing their skills and get the tasks and outputs needed delivered faster and to a better standard.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you really can get all of these with intelligent delegation and support.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Learn about your team members.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Find out firstly, their core expertise, you know, what do they do well.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, what they like and don't like doing at work.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Third, what their ambitions are and what role they want to be promoted into next.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, discover their strengths, the things that they like doing and are good at doing.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, pay careful attention to their weaknesses.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: What are they not good at or don't like doing?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth, think about their character, you know how do they respond to pressure, what are their values, their work ethic, etc.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And seventh, their energy levels, how quickly and how long do they work?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just ask them about all these areas, make the time to pay attention and observe them in action.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Load them up with different types of work and see how they cope.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Expose them to different situations and challenges.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Ask them to help on many projects so you get to work alongside them.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Pay a lot more attention to what they do rather than what they tell you.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhanced.training provides resources, courses, and coaching for you to build management expertise and confidence to lead any team to their best performance.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: To find out how good your delegation skills are right now on a scale of 1 to 9, and for resources and courses to quickly improve your delegation skills, type enhance.training backslash 2c2 into your browser.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: The second action to treble your delegation effectiveness is to know what to delegate to whom.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, there is not a formula to do this well because there are so many factors involved.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I suggest you always consider these six factors when matching task, activity, project or problem with the person or mini team.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, the team members' skills, motivations and interests.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the development needs of the individual and the team.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Third, your availability to support or other team members' availability.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, the time frame and resources available.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, the goals or outcomes that need to be achieved.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then sixth, high performer, average or low performer.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: The better you know your staff, the more likely you can align the task activity problem or projects with a person who will create the best outcomes in the circumstances you are working with.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: The more alignment you get, the faster and better the task is done, and the more additional benefits you know like development that you're likely to get in the process as well.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: The more effort you put into knowing your staff and aligning as many of these factors as much as possible, the more impactful your delegation is going to be on team performance, on staff motivation, on staff development, on staff retention, etc.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Put serious thought into what to delegate to whom, and you will achieve more in less time versus 90% of other managers.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: The third action to delegate better than 9 out of 10 managers is to clearly define the goals and discuss how to achieve them.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: The general rule is to delegate problems to high performers and delegate tasks to lower performers.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: The more carefully you define the goal or output, the easier it is to delegate in any circumstances.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Your team members will be clearer on exactly what they need to produce.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Ideally, the goal or output should have firstly numbers in it and a way of measuring progress.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, a clear timescale or deadline, and third a clear finish line so everyone knows when the goal has been achieved.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I nearly always ask the team member to explain the goal back to me.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great way of checking their understanding.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: I would then follow up with a quick email to them confirming the goal.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: I need you to collect more money from our customers this month.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very general goal given to a credit control team.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: A clearly defined goal might be I need you to collect over 3.5 million of outstanding debt by the 30th of June, which is 105% of last month's revenue.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is specific and clear.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Always give a clear as goal as you can when delegating.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: The next part, discussing with them how they are going to achieve the goal, is a great next step.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: As a general rule, if they are a good problem solver or a high performer, they should explain their plans to you to achieve their goals.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: If they are new or lower performers, you might explain the steps to them.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Make the time to do this really important step.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: A clear goal is no good if the other person doesn't know how to achieve that goal or is not confident in what to do.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Help them plan out the how.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: You will have a happier team and get a lot more done as a result.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth action to delegate brilliantly and achieve more in less time is to give team members the context and the right tools.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Telling team members the context and the why behind what you are delegating to them firstly helps them understand how their work fits into the bigger picture, i.e.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: it's motivational.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, they will be able to make more good decisions without referring to you, which improves their skills and saves you time.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Third, context and the why will help them reduce delays, thinking time and hesitation, all of which mean they work faster and finish quicker.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, they will have a better idea of how to avoid potential barriers and roadblocks.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And fifth, finally, they will have a better idea of who is invested in the goal being achieved and where they can get help from if you are not available.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: All of these mean that they will complete the task quicker, with less stoppages and with less overall effort.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: A win for everyone.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Explain the context and the why behind everything you delegate.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ensuring your team member has the right tools and the right resources to complete the work is also going to speed up achieving their goal.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Be on hand to help secure resources if they can't get them at the right time and give them the authority they need to complete the task.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Often, this is telling the team or affected people that you have delegated the work to a specific team member.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: This lends them some of your authority, which again will speed up the work being completed.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth action to delegate better than 90% plus of managers is to stay involved as the work progresses.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Managers are busy and it is really tempting to delegate the work to a team member and then come back at deadline time to collect that work.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't make this mistake.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have seen so many managers fail to follow up because they're busy or they fear micromanaging their team member or fear taking away their responsibility and ownership, etc.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Top delegating managers stay close to the work.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Staying close is not micromanaging, nor interfering, nor time consuming when you do it in the right way.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: By staying close to the work being done, you are signalling its importance to you.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: You should also be signalling that you are on hand to help if they encounter any problems they can't solve themselves.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, when you are close to the work being done and consistently offering to help and support, you'll know exactly what is happening, what the challenges are, and how complete the work is.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: When you actively support team members with the work that you have delegated to them, you get high levels of progress visibility.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Staying close also provides the team member with a safety net, increasing their confidence and appetite to learn and develop their skills.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: This increases the number of staff that you can delegate a given task to, increasing team flexibility and the ability to work at speed.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Always proactively stay close to the work that you have delegated by offering to support and help.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Supervising and supporting takes a fraction of the time it takes to rectify issues and recover from delays.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, in summary, developing top delegation skills as a manager is a pretty essential step to ensuring that you keep getting promoted through the management ranks.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Managers create value through their team.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Being good at getting others to deliver what you need on time and to the right standard is only going to help you do your job.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to find out how good your delegation skills are right now on a scale of 1 to 9, and for resources and courses to quickly improve your delegation skills, type enhance.training backslash 2c2 into your browser.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions on top delegation skills, achieve more in less time than 9 out of 10 managers, please email me at support at enhance.training and I'll get back to you.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks very much for listening, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.