Running a business or department can often stretch you to
limit.To be effective at doing what you do best, it's imperative to look at what tasks you can either delegate or outsource.
Delegating
This is an interesting word. For some people it means completely letting go of their responsibilities and getting someone else to do work. Now that's all well and good providing that you train that person on how you've been handling those tasks. Show them how it's been done first.
For many business owners and managers, delegating means completely abdicating all responsibility for a particular task to somebody else without showing them how. They expect that person to know…immediately.
Well, forget it. No wonder you often hear people say, "I tried to delegate that task but no-one was as good as me at doing it!" Or "I just couldn't find right person who was capable of taking on those responsibilities".
That's an interesting comment. Often people are given responsibilities for which they have had no training in and are then expected to know how to carry out those duties. A great example of this is when a person is promoted to manager/team leader and he/she is automatically expected to know how to manage themselves and their people.
Coming In From Outside
How about new kid on block who comes in to take up reins in a position, which has already been vacated. They're expected to run department or business as if they've been working in company for past three years!
Outsourcing
When your car needs to be repaired do you spend hours trying to fix it or see a mechanic who takes two hours?
Do you do your own tax return or have an accountant prepare it for you?
If you need a new assistant do you place an ad in paper, spend hours interviewing people or have a recruitment company do all ground work and send you top three applicants?
Why waste your precious time on tasks which will do exactly that…waste your precious time. And time is money!
