How effective delegation gives you more time

“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. ” -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Hi . In this month's Time Creation Newsletter you get:
· Article – Jim's story of effective delegation
· Your V-Coach (Virtual Coach)
· Laugh Out Loud – More Funny Answers


Jim sat overwhelmed. He had just finished a meeting with some of his key staff. They asked for the meeting to get his advice. Now he had most of the actions from the meeting. How did that happen?

This is a common scenario for many of our clients. Jim (not his real name) was unsure about how to stop this reverse delegation and be able to delegate more effectively.

The first step for Jim was to stop allowing his staff, peers and bosses to dump extra work on him. He started with his staff and worked on delegating to them in a much more effective way. Jim used our 10 steps to effective delegation every time -- Request the 10 Steps

We define Delegation as getting work done through others. This includes getting your staff to do the jobs they were hired to do, not just any "extra" task you might want help with. And that is where Jim started. He realised his first step was to delegate to his staff the things they should already be doing, but that he was doing for them.

Here are some of the things managers say to themselves and need to overcome to delegate effectively:
"It'll take less time if I just do it myself"
That's true, for one or two things -- but how many tasks for how many people can you really take on?
"No-one can do it like I can"
That's probably true too,-- are you prepared to that job for the rest of your life?
"It's too hard to explain"
It's your job as the manager to learn how to explain things so that your staff can understand what you mean
"What if they stuff it up"
Yes delegation has risks - and so does not delegating. And yes your team will make mistakes at times. They will also be learning.
"They are too busy, so I suppose I will have to do it"
This can be said for most people today. If the task is important enough then your staff need to be able to prioritise. And you need to be able to guide them.

So, if delegation is hard, why do it? Well let's see what happened for Jim.
He now works less hours each week
His stress level has reduced by over 30%
His staff are doing more work than ever before and they seem more interested and motivated
He has time to work on the strategic aspects of his management role - not just the "fires"

Jim can now see himself being promoted and able to manage more staff (this didn't seem like an option previously)

So, how did Jim achieve this?

It does take effort and discipline. Jim was able to identify exactly what was stopping him from delegating and deal with these perceptions and beliefs. He improved his delegation by using the 10 Steps and especially three key aspects.
1. He made sure that his staff knew exactly what outcome they were responsible for achieving and the consequences for achieving or not achieving it - this was jointly agreed on.
2. He made sure his staff knew that he would be holding them accountable, including having progress checks if appropriate. Jim followed through on maintaining this accountability.
3. He made sure his staff had the support, training and resources needed, while always making sure that they knew they were responsible for the outcome.


May you experience your day slowly!

Your V (virtual) coaching session:
As your Virtual Coach I would like to help you to create what you want:
Imagine you are having a conversation with me.
I ask you questions. You answer them one at a time writing out the answers in full. Write everything that comes to mind.

In the last week list the times you have not delegated when you could have. Reflect on these questions.
What exactly stopped you from delegating?
How will you overcome this next time?

If you delegated and didn't get the outcome you wanted reflect on these questions.
Did your delegatee engage in conversation with you about the outcome?
What benefit was in it for your delegatee?
How would you do things differently next time?

Laugh Out Loud – More Funny Answers

The following questions and answers were collated from last year's British GCSE exams.
Biology Section
Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.

Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says goodbye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.

Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes?
A: Premature death.

Q: How can you delay milk turning sour?
A: Keep it in the cow. [He got an A]

Thanks for spending your valuable time with us.

Michael, Graham and the Time Creation Team

Contact us on 03 9849 1723
www.timecreationcoaching.com.au

© 2008 Time Creation Coaching. All rights reserved. Please pass the above in its entirety to anyone you wish.

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