Last month, my featured article was about creating a “Stop 
Doing” list.  Hopefully, if you followed my suggestion, you now 
have a list of tasks that you are looking to delegate away.  It 
seems a natural progression that I now disclose a few simple 
steps that will ensure your foray into delegation is a success.


1.  Choose the right “delegatee”

Review the task and determine what skills are required.  
Delegation goes much more smoothly if you match the person with 
the appropriate skill set to the task you have to assign.  Now 
if you don’t have a candidate that has all the skills you are 
looking for, decide which is the most critical one (analytical 
ability, attention to detail, communications skills) and make 
that match.  

One of the rewards of delegation is the opportunity to help 
someone develop and grow.  It is unlikely that you will always 
have a candidate that you can hand off something to and not have 
to provide some training or coaching.  But learning to empower 
your employees will reap big rewards as their confidence grows 
with their abilities, and delegation becomes easier and easier, 
and your “Stop Doing” list gets longer and longer.


2.  State your expectations clearly

When you assign a task, be very clear about the deliverables you 
expect, and qualify your expectations as much as possible.  As a 
minimum, you need to communicate the “what” and the “when”.  For 
example:  “I want these invoices entered into my database by 5pm 
tomorrow”.  Then, start adding qualifications to your request, 
such as:  “Please make sure that the expense categories are 
correct, and if you are unsure, ask me and I will clarify for 
you because I want the reports to be accurate.”  

In addition to communicating about the “what” and “when” of an 
assignment, I recommend that you also include information on the 
“why”.  For example:  “I need the monthly recap report done by 
5pm tomorrow because I have a meeting with client X the following 
morning and need the information, so it is really critical that 
I have it.”  Often, we assume that others should know what we 
expect.  But if you have a new working relationship with someone,
that is probably an unfair expectation.  So, take a few minutes 
to think about what you need to communicate to save both of you 
a lot of aggravation, and possibly rework.


3.  Choose an appropriate oversight level

No one wants to work for a micro-manager, but some managers are 
too hands-off when it is inappropriate.  Note the skills and 
experience level of your employee and adjust your oversight 
level accordingly.  The first couple of times they handle a 
complicated task, you may want to check in more frequently.  
After a few months, you could probably ease off on your 
involvement as their knowledge and confidence increases.


4.  Provide feedback effectively and often

Once in a while, we get really lucky and have someone supporting 
us who does things perfectly the first time.  But that scenario 
doesn’t happen too often.  However, we can get the employee to 
the perfection level by providing appropriate feedback.  Tell 
them very specifically what they did well (“Your accuracy is 
great.  I rarely, if ever, find a mistake in your work.  Keep 
it up.”), and what they need to improve on (“I really needed 
the monthly recap report for Company X done yesterday.  I had a 
meeting with them this morning, and was not able to provide them 
with the latest information.  That reflects poorly on my service. 
I need you to let me know when you cannot meet a deadline I have 
given you.  Will you do that?”)

Specific, constructive feedback is the most effective way to 
improve performance.  Even if you have a “star” employee, you 
still need to provide the feedback so that they will maintain 
their high level of performance.  Work on giving more positive 
feedback.  If the only time you provide feedback is when you 
are unhappy, your employees are not going to be very eager to 
talk with you.


Follow these simple steps and dive right into delegation.  As 
you become more successful in delegating, you will feel more 
confident in adding to your “Stop Doing” list.  Then use your 
time on something much more impactful for your business, or 
much more pleasurable for you.