Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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June 15, 2009

Delegation: How Do You Scale Up and Still Do Your Best Work?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:42 am

DELEGATION 1

No One Can Do This Like I Would

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The single social media questions I hear most is:

How do I find time do it all?

I usually answer, “You can’t and I don’t think you’d want to, even if you could.”

We all can only do what’s humanly possible.
We all get the same 24 hours in the same day.

So what’s the best way to get things done in the time that we have?

How Do You Scale Up and Still Do Your Best Work?

Communication might be easier, even quicker through technology, but more people further apart take longer to communicate with. Take, for example, a simple request for information. One message might get to 20 friends, but not all of them will get and respond to that message at the same time in the same way. Not all of them will respond completely. Some will not respond at all. Some will misread or not read the directions and send information that doesn’t help.

Time is an unrenewable resource. We can’t make more. So how do we make the best use of the time that we have?

That’s right, the way to offer more of our best work is to delegate. It’s easy to think that no one would do it like we would. And it’s probably true.

But different isn’t the same as wrong and sometimes different is better.

The trick is knowing what to delegate and knowing that we don’t have to delegate the WHOLE task. We can delegate chunks.

Start with the obvious stuff. Let fresh eyes read your work for errors. Ask another person to key in the changes. Those are tasks that are easily isolated and executed by someone who’s probably more proficient at them than we are. We can check the final before it goes out.

When we pass on the tasks that we don’t like, don’t do well, and don’t need to do, we can put the best of our time where it makes the most difference — doing what only we can do.

How so you offer more of your best work when you’re scaling up?

Part 2 tomorrow … Delegation 2: I Can’t Let Someone Else Do That!!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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8 Comments to “Delegation: How Do You Scale Up and Still Do Your Best Work?”

  1. June 15th, 2009 at 8:58 am
    Cassie Boorn said

    I started my Virtual Assistant business with this idea in mind. If you delegate you have more time. If you have more time your business has room to grow. I have spent a large amount of my time teaching people to delegate. Holding their hand making them feel comfortable. Delegating is hard for most. Your business becomes like your baby. It is usually easier to hand off the tasks you don’t enjoy first. start small.

  2. June 15th, 2009 at 9:27 am
    Todd Smith said

    Hi Liz,

    I’ve been thinking about this recently. I’m considering closing my Twitter account, or using it minimally.

    I get the value of listening and building relationships, but honestly I’m not sure Twitter is the best forum for me right now. It takes a lot of time to do it well, and I feel frustrated as I get more and more followers and can’t really build that many relationships. I notice that I go for long periods without going to Twitter, as as kind of avoidance.

    What do you think, am I cutting off a valuable resource? Or am I saving myself from wasting time? I don’t think SM is something you can delegate, do you?

  3. June 15th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
    Fred H Schlegel said

    DIY is often the death knell of projects of all stripes. Find the folks who are good and get them on board, it may cost $ but certainly saves time and improves output.

  4. June 15th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
    Thursday Bram said

    There are certain tasks that I think are great for delegating — pretty much anything repetitive falls into that category. And if I have to do a whole lot of learning to be able to handle the technical aspects of a project, there’s definitely better uses of my time.

    There are certain things that I just don’t think should be delegated — and that includes anything that is involved in maintaining relationships. I know more than a few people who have outsourced things like commenting on forums and similar projects. I think building connections just can’t be handed off to someone else.

  5. June 16th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
    Todd Smith said

    Thursday, That’s my thinking too. I sometimes do have to cut social networking time, but I don’t that’s something you can delegate.

    I like your idea… if something involves a lot of learning, there’s a better use for my time. Learning is exactly where the time gets chewed up.

  6. June 16th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
    Suzie Cheel said

    This is very timely, I am working on recording everything I do, then marking a what I like doing, what I am good at, and then what I don’t like doing. I will then do as you have written in part 2 of this, record what neds to be done, even make a camtasia to give to VA, I understand I need to get very clear first about what I hand over and expect to be well done.

    Re Twitter, I don’t think you can get someone else to be you if you are being an authentic business person.

    Thanks Liz for getting me to get this out of my head

  7. June 16th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
    Nile said

    I usually do this with web developing rather than my own blog. The delegating to a partner on a project because I tend to get too close while coding and it gets all funky. I have to have someone proof read on occasion. I am dyslexic. It is not as bad as it was when I was young and going through extra classes to help me learn techniques to get over my problem.

    With my blog, no one can say exactly what I do, but I always love it when people point out a mistake. Most understand and I correct and issue thanks. :)

    I think later on when I get into some of my other projects, I will have someone go over my words. You are right…fresher eyes can make it better.

  8. June 24th, 2009 at 9:53 am
    Hiring Help and - if you can - avoid hiring the VA from hell said

    [...] her post, Delegation: How Do You Scale Up and Still Do Your Best Work? Liz Strauss writes: When we pass on the tasks that we don’t like, don’t do well, and don’t [...]

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