Delegating is one of those things that is so important to continuing to scale a business, but can sometimes get pushed to the back burner in the everyday hustle to get things done. We’ve all experienced this, so don’t feel like it’s just you! The great news is that you can re-train your brain to start viewing everything through the lens of whether it is able to be trained to someone else…or not.
We so often get sucked into just “doing things ourselves” and forget that things can be trained. At VA Relief we recommend checking in with your team or different areas of your business monthly or at a bare minimum quarterly to establish priorities and areas that can be delegated. These strategy sessions have a huge impact on forward growth.
These sessions can be really helpful – whether they are with a manager, consultant or a business savvy friend – because they help to remind that you don’t have to do everything. Most anything that can be done on a computer can be trained to someone else with a bit of effort.
Letting go of the idea that only you can do something best is paramount to being able to successfully scale your business. Here is a helpful exercise to get you started on your path to delegation:
Keep a piece of paper or notepad (the VA Relief Virtual Assistant Task Planner is designed for this) next to you for a few days, and each time you complete a task or spend a chunk of time working on a specific area – note it down. At the end of your chosen time period, be it 3 days or a week, it’s time to review everything that you’re doing.
- If there are repetitive tasks happening every day, those are the most likely to be easily handed over to another employee.
- Is there a system or process in place for each item? If there isn’t, can one be built? This is really essential to a business not just to take items off your plate, but ongoing if an employee (or yourself) gets sick or needs an extended vacation, having established and documented processes makes it much easier for someone else to step in.
- Can it be trained? Does the task involve some very specific information that only you have? If not, put it on the list of things that someone else can learn from you.
Have you tried out this method before? Has it been awhile? Get out that paper and pen!