Delegation is a key to your overall business success. Without proper, well-thought out delegation strategies, you’ll be left holding the proverbial ball and all the tasks to keep it in the air. That makes for an exhausted, stressed-out leader.

According to one study, one of the behaviors of an effective leader is the ability to delegate.

Sometimes it’s really difficult to know what tasks to keep for yourself and which ones to delegate. Sometimes knowing the answer to this is harder than the actual delegating. So what strategies can you use to decide which tasks you should work on and which ones to delegate? Here are five tips:

Tip #1: Spend Your Time Moving Your Business Forward

Is there a task that takes up a lot of your time, but doesn’t necessarily need you for completion?

For one week, track your time – track it to the minute. Note the start and finish times. If you find most of your tasks aren’t moving your business forward, then it’s time to delegate. For example, let someone else take care of your accounting or your web development. Farm out your blog writing and your social media posting.

Your tasks should involve strategy, planning, sales and marketing your business.

Tip #2: Delegate Administrative Tasks

As far as routine office or administrative tasks go, you can almost always delegate these. Your skill set won’t necessarily add a particular value to these tasks, and they don’t highlight your strengths. Either delegate to a staff member or an online virtual assistant.

Some tips for delegating these tasks:

• Make sure the tasks can be broken down into track-able steps.
• Set a timeline or due date.

Tip #3: Look for Repeatable Tasks

You’ve already tracked your time, so you’ve probably noticed your workflow. Did you find some tasks you do over and over again? Do they monopolize your time?

By taking a look at your workflow, you can pick one task to delegate to someone else. Do the math to learn how much time (and hopefully money) you’ll save by handing this task off to someone else.

Document the steps it takes to finish your task and give your chosen staff member the steps and hand off the task!

Tip #4: Give Away the Tasks You Aren’t Good At

This tip is pretty simple. Delegate the tasks that aren’t your forte. Delegate the tasks you don’t know how to do.

Anything that takes you time to learn should also be delegated. This leaves you more time to focus on promoting your business and selling yourself.

Tip #5: Delegate to Develop Talent

When you delegate, you give your team a chance to show their stuff and develop skills. Your business wins because your employees are engaged and loyal. You win because you saved time and developed a skill in an employee.

When you delegate to develop talent, make sure the task is appropriate to the person and his/her skill level. Strategically assign tasks to staff members based on their interests and talents.

In Conclusion

According to a Stanford University School of Business Professor, “Your most important task as a leader is to teach people how to think and ask the right questions so that the world doesn’t go to hell if you take a day off.”

If you have staff members you’ve trained properly, delegating should be easy because you’ll feel confident they’ll perform responsibly and successfully.

As we mentioned earlier, delegating is a key to your success. When you delegate:

• You aren’t spread too thin.
• You are less likely to burn out.
• You gain satisfaction from seeing team members grow.
• You gain leadership experience.
• You have a better chance of getting all of your projects finished.
• You have a more efficient organization with team members who are committed to their jobs.

If you are still stumped on what to delegate, North Carolina State University has a quiz you can take.

Now that you have tips on how to decide what tasks to delegate, and you’ve taken the quiz, look for our next post. In part three, we’ll discuss how to know when to delegate and outsource tasks.

With MastermindJam, you connect with the right people to help you start and/or take your business to the next level. You meet people who’ve learned how to delegate the right business tasks for maximum profitability. You learn how they conquered their to-do lists to get to the side of success. Interested in learning more? Visit our website to get matched into a group of likeminded entrepreneurs that can help you take action in your business..

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