Improve Your Own Productivity By Learning to Master Delegation
I believe in being a life-long learner. One of the things I've been struggling with lately is my own productivity. With all the distractions around me (social media, tons of email, phone calls, etc), I find myself becoming less and less productive.
I went in search of a book to help with my productivity problem, and found Dan Kennedy's "No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs". Just what I needed!
One of the things I realized before even reading the book is that if I want to be more productive, I need to get better at delegating. You see I'm a bit of a control freak and I'm willing to bet some of you are too. And if you started your cleaning business like us and had to wear all the hats yourself, you can probably relate. After all, we did it ALL. But at some point if you want to grow your business, you need to get help. And that's where the delegating begins.
I like Dan's list of 7 Steps to Mastering Delegation. It's helped me and I thought it might help you too.
1. Define what is to be done.
This step is pretty simple. For example, answering phone calls.
2. Be certain the "delegatee" understands what is to be done.
This is where it might get a little less-simple. It's easy for you to answer phone calls because you've been doing it since day one. But to your employee, it's much more complicated because they have no idea how you would like them to respond to many of the questions they'll hear from callers. So when training, be sure to spend time writing down and then discussing examples of the types of calls they'll receive and how they are to handle those calls.
3. Explain why it is to be done as you are prescribing it to be done.
This is a very important step because if they don't know the reasoning behind doing it exactly as you want it done, they'll do it their own way, which may not always be a good thing. For example, if you have people calling for price quotes on cleaning, you may instruct your employee to ask for an email address so you can send them a $50 off coupon. This is a step they may skip because they don't feel it's that important, or they don't feel comfortable doing it. So explain that by getting their email address you can build your prospect list and continue marketing to them because many people need several marketing "touches" before they'll make a decision to buy. And then explain the wording you'd like them to use so that it feels more comfortable asking.
4. Teach how it is to be done without micro-managing.
In the example above I mentioned to give them the verbiage to use when asking for an email address. If they come up with a way to get the email address that feels more comfortable to them and still serves the same purpose, let it go. Don't micro-manage this step by making them say it word-for-word the way you would say it.
5. Be sure the delegatee understands the how-to process.
Many tasks have several steps. If you are training them how to do phone quotes, be sure to spend enough time training them on the process so they fully understand.
a. Write out the steps so they have something to review.
b. Give examples of common questions they'll have to ask.
c. Let them listen to you several times so they have a feel for how the conversations should go.
d. Let them start taking the calls with you there to support their effort.
e. Let them take the calls on their own and encourage them to ask questions as they learn the process.
6. Set the deadline for completion or progress report.
In the example of training on how to do phone quotes, decide how much time it should take for the delegatee to master the task. If you give them a week to take calls on their own, set a time to review their progress after that week. If they are not progressing as expected, determine if they just need a little more time or if they're not the right person for the job.
7. Be sure you have agreement to the date or time and method.
Make sure they understand your deadline for completion or their level of competency expected by their progress report date. It will give them incentive for making sure they've mastered the process by that date.
If you apply these steps to delegating you'll ensure you and your employee are both on the same page. And if you can do that, you'll not only give your employee the best chance to succeed, but you'll improve your own productivity because you'll have freed up more time for yourself to work on more important projects.
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Jean Hanson helps owners of residential cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through her online community at MyHouseCleaningBiz.com. Jean is also the host of the popular Web TV show CleaningBiz.tv and author of the popular newsletter House Cleaning Profit Tips - sign up today!
