Vanessa Van Edwards’ Post

Transcript

Of all the leadership skills, delegation is the one that leaders are struggling with the most. Delegation is the ability to hand off tasks or skills that you want help with or that you want someone else to do. I actually have some steps on how to delegate that are a little bit more than just give someone else your task, right? We all know that we should be eating more, but it's hard to know exactly how. The very first step is to delegate based on strengths and weaknesses. This is specifically with an exercise I call ABC. 3D work first. Start with yourself. Make 4 columns labeled ABC&D. In your A column, I want you to write down all the work that you are excellent at. This is the work that you think you are better at than most other people. You can get it done faster, it's easier for you, and when you do it, you hit a kind of flow you're so good at that it doesn't take a lot of mental load. It makes you feel alive. It gives you energy. There shouldn't be a ton of tasks by the way in a work where our A work is usually limited to a few really. Amazing tasks were super good at It's like our superpower in column. BI want you to get tasks that you're good at, but you're not better than average. So you're good. You can do them, but you're not faster than most people. You're not better than most people, but you're good at doing it. Your sea tasks are the tasks that you are average at and you don't love doing. So their tasks where it takes you maybe a little bit longer than other people, you kind of dread doing them. You can do them, but they're not your favorite in your D column. I want you to list the task that you're way worse at than other people. This is the task that you're not only dread, you hate them, you think you do them worse. You make more mistakes. You're slower and clunkier. They drain and take energy. So we had a pause this video and spend some time making those four columns. The tasks that you should never delegate are your a work you should never give away. The work that you love, that gives you energy and that you're incredible at. Don't delegate that, as the biggest mistake leaders will often make is they give away their best work. The task you should give away first are your D&C work. The other mistake that people make is they give away their B work, B work. You're pretty good at. You're not amazing, but you're pretty good at it. You're actually better off giving away the task that you're worse at, that you're slow we're at, and that you and you dread doing. They take away energy. So your DNC columns, those the columns I want you to focus on delegating. OK, pause that. Now take out a couple of new pieces of paper. Or you can do this digitally if you like. Think about the potential people you could delegate to. Teammates, colleagues, partners. Contractors, friends. I want you to do ABC D work for them. So let's say that you're thinking about your business partner or your partner in your company you would want to make. So I work with my husband. I work with my partner. Our ABC D work looks totally different. So for my A work writing, editing and researching. Love it. He hates writing, but he's very, very good at images. He's very good at technical building. So for us, when working on a landing page or a course, I'm writing the course. He's building the course, so they should look really different as you make your BCD work for each of those people. And if you're not sure, it's really great if you can do this exercise with them. So ideally you could call them over or send them this video and be like, hey, would you mind doing your ABCD work for me so I can see which tasks you really like? I really don't. If you can't ask them, you can try to guess what tasks are they excellent at, what tasks they are not so good at. If you're CRD work, is there a RB work? Give it to them right? This is the perfect way that your C&D work. Work that you're weak at or not your strengths. That could be someone else's strength and that is the key to effective delegating, is not trying to give away your best work and trying to give work away that. If you don't like it, it's at least someone else's a work. That way everyone else is getting it done well. So that was a long step. Do your ABC D work, do other people's BCD work. And then step number two, alert that team member that you would like to delegate work to them and explain why. I think if you can say, hey, you are so good at this. Kind of task and I am so bad at it. I'm hoping that I can put it on your plate because you won't not only get it done faster, you get it done better and I don't do a good job with it. Explaining the concept of a BCD work really helps with delegation and also empowers the person you're giving it to feel like. Ohh wow, what a compliment. Set #3. When you give the task, set clear expectations and timelines. So don't just give someone the work and then say bye. Tell them hey I think this project will take about this amount of time or about this amount of time every week. I would love for you to tackle it by end of week or next Monday or December 20th, whatever date is coming up. It's always good to tell them how you hope they'll get it done and when you hope they get it done by so it doesn't just languish on their desk next. Always offer support if you're going to delegate it, give a task away. You have to make sure that you are still the lifeline there in case they don't understand something, don't get something, or need a little extra help. So when you delegate, be sure to say I'm here for you if you need any questions, if you want to bounce it back to me, I'm happy to review or take notes. That way they know that they're not delegating the task because you're trying to give it completely away, that you want them to do the best possible task, and you're there fitting to help. Last steps you can monitor without being a micromanager. So this is hey, let me know how often you'd like me to check in or when they're done, celebrate. Give them feedback, give them appreciation. Completing a task that you love to do is incredibly fulfilling. I want to make a note here, What if everyone has the same task in their D work? And this has happened to me? We're on a team no one wants to do. Task. There are tasks like that in every company and every family. Like in my family one of the tasks is taking out the trash. That's no one's a work, no one is excellent at taking out the trash and no one wants to do it. So for those tasks you has a team have to figure out how are you going to delegate in a fair way. So for example I tend to tackle the dishes. So my husband and I have arranged OK I'll do all the dishes you even though it's both of our tea work if you take out all the trash. So in those D tasks figure out how you can delegate in a way that makes everyone feel that it's fair and or you could also consider. Doing what I call a Sprint day. So sometimes in our company we have these D tasks, these tasks that no one really likes to do, but we just have to get through them. You could consider setting aside a block of time every week or every month or one big project, just barrel the project and get it done. We order pizza, we try to make it pleasant, we try to make it fun and we go, OK, today's our D work day. We're going to Sprint through it. We're going to get through it together. That way you know that it doesn't have to drag on you on a daily To Do List. There's nothing worse than seeing ad task every day in your To Do List. And they're in it together. Even though you don't like it, half of delegation is being aware of your strengths and weaknesses. So if you can say, hey, I know this is your sea task, but we have to get this done by Monday. Can you help? Acknowledging that something is someone see work helps everyone feel like OK, we're in IT together, we have a purpose and so we can get through it. I hope this helps with delegation. If you like this video, give it a like. I would love to hear your delegation tips below. If you're watching this video, you are probably a leader. You're probably incredibly interested in learning and leveling up. If you're interested in this, I would highly recommend. They have a free training on your professional development plan. This is a plan to think about your goals through your career and what you want in the next year. Five years and 10 years. Go check it out our professional development plan so we can work on more than just delegation together.