An article I wrote about task delegation, originally written for and published in iBusiness Magazine.
In today’s busy world it can be very hard to get things done – and even harder to get everything done.
In small to medium sized businesses it’s important to focus your time so that you’re accomplishing things that are best suited to be accomplished by you. You’re either the “best man for the job”, or you’re the “only man for the job”.
So who does this extra work?
Your colleagues do. You delegate tasks, projects, new sales opportunities, etc. to the most capable members of your team.
If you’re the head of Sales you shouldn’t be responding to a voicemail message looking for sales help – you delegate this to one of your sales team members. And in the same way, if you’re a basic salesmen you shouldn’t be responding to an inquiry to buy out your company – you hand it off to the VP or CEO, etc.
A common problem with delegation however, is that you’re often not aware of the status of something you’ve delegated after it’s left your hands.
What is the solution to this?
There are better ways to check the status of delegated work than walking over to a colleague or flooding their inbox with unnecessary email. Tools like Daylite were built with this intention specifically in mind.
Daylite is a business productivity manager designed to help you manage your business and your team, with native applications for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. More than just a CRM, Daylite can be used to manage your company’s projects, sales, contacts, tasks, appointments, meetings, notes, and email
Daylite provides a rich environment for managing tasks., and allows you to link them to relevant objects in your database, such as projects, opportunities, and contacts – providing you with more context than just the name of the task. You can delegate tasks to your colleagues – no matter if their working from their Mac in the office, or from their iPhone or iPad on the road. When you delegate a task to someone, you’re kept in the loop with all the progress, as it happens.
This same delegation workflow lets Daylite users hand off sales leads to their mobile salesforce. Project Managers are able to ensure work is completed when delegating projects their appropriate team members.
We spoke to some of our users to find out exactly how delegation has helped them manage and grow their businesses.
When asked “Which features do you find most useful to you and your business?”, the crew at Embark Dog Centre (a doggy-daycare) answered:
“Task delegation and projects. The staff love knowing what they have to do, ranked in priority and roughly how long it should take. Now they have a clear idea of what is expected, and can work autonomously. Everyone just knows what to do and they now have the information to get it done, or better yet have the ability to use the information to make intelligent decisions that effect productivity. That eliminates a lot of stress, in addition to creating a higher level of job satisfaction. Seldom is the phrase” Did you get a chance to do that? ” heard at Embark Dog Centre!”
When asked “What is your favourite thing about having Daylite on your iPad?”, Jordan Fleming, Managing Director for Designate Strategic Marketing stated:
“Delegating tasks. I take a perverse pleasure in it. I really do. I love the fact that, if I’m in a meeting in Glasgow I can delegate a follow-up task to the Edinburgh office and it immediately goes into their to-do list. It’s sometimes done by the time I’m done my meeting.”
When asked “How has Daylite helped you grow your business?”, Scott Wolfe, the owner of a law firm answered:
“There’s no question that Daylite helps us in two distinct ways: (i) We can handle a heavier case load because of the organization provided by software; and (ii) We can delegate work and generally work with others in the firm more efficiently. The ability to handle more cases and cleanly delegate work to our staff has undoubtedly helped our business manage its load, and grow to take on more.”
It’s clear that delegation is a powerful tool to not only get things done, but to get things done right. Oftentimes we try to do everything ourselves, which usually leads to tiredness, sloppy work, and ultimately, still not getting everything done.
Remember: if you’re not the best man for the job, hand it off to someone who is.
