How To Delegate Like A Master And Reclaim Time

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Lauren: Welcome to The Biz Doctor Podcast, my love letter to business owners the world over. I’m your host Lauren Goldstein, award-winning business consultant and advisor who’s fondly nicknamed the Business Doctor by my Clients. My clients call me the business doctor because I help business owners who are burning the candle at both ends, diagnose what is actually keeping them stuck in and buried under the day-to-day of their business, and then formulate a business treatment plan to help them adjust their business and team to fit.

And most importantly, support them in having what I call true entrepreneurial freedom. If you’re ready to look at your business in a different lens and elevate yourself out of the business operator in the trenches 24 7. To visionary business owner and leader who can take a breath vacation and have more fun making an impact with your business, then grab your favorite beverage and your earbuds and let’s dive into our latest episode.

In today’s episode, I’m gonna help you become an expert in delegation so it  is no longer something you might shove to the side because it’s faster to just do it yourself. Trust me, it might seem to be in that moment faster to do it yourself, but it won’t be in the long term because that five minute thing that you’re just doing is stopping you from having five minutes to work on things that you, as the business owner and c e o need to be working on to move the business.

If you don’t know what you should be focused on, go back and listen to season one, episode seven, should the founder run the business or book a CEO profile strategy session with me to get laser clarity on where you should be spending your time in your business to really gain momentum, traction, and duplicate time, which leads me to the second point of this episode, delegate anything that is not in your innate talent wheelhouse.

If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you’ll know. My stance on this, if it isn’t your superpower, let someone else do it. Someone whose superpower it is, let them plan it. Let them run with it. Let them take control. I know I might have just triggered you, business owners still like to give up control, but trust me, if you wanna take a vacation without worry or have a business that actually grows without you, that is something you’re gonna have to get real comfortable with.

and this one is all about having players versus worker bees and trusting them to deliver. And again, if you dunno what a player or worker bee is, go back and listen to, um, some of the former episodes where I touch on [00:03:00] them. So if you’re clear on what done means, Which we’re gonna talk about in a moment.

Then really, this should be a walk in the park, and when you have a player on your team, they’re gonna actually hit it out of the park.

Now,  before you actually delegate to someone, there are a few things you need to get crystal clear on First, the devil is in the. or the big picture. The thing that I’ve learned after almost a decade helping multimillion dollar companies build teams is that there are two types of people, big picture people and detail people.

If you delegate a big picture project to a detailed person or vice versa, that is a recipe for disaster. And trust me, it is gonna be frustration for everyone involved. So figure out who your employee is and how they process information so nothing gets lost in translation. Second, and in that same vein, You wanna make sure that you’re delegating to the right people.

Some people are all about ideas and strategy. Some are timing and fulfillment. Some are details and systems, and some bring all the parts to life. So word to the wise, make sure you are delegating to the right person and having the necessary people on the project so you don’t put the onus on someone who quite literally can’t get it across the finish.

Last but not least. This is not a set it and forget it moment as we do in the medical field. This is a c1, do one, teach, one moment, and feedback is king until they’ve really got it. The way a team learns to work with you is feedback. When something is done, good or bad, they need and want feedback, so take an opportunity to give them that.

You’ll thank me later because they will continue to improve and you will need to spend less and less time. Okay. Now that I’ve gotten the housekeeping out of the way, let’s dive in. Here are the three things that when you do them, you will become a master delegator and someone who can quite literally create time.

The first thing to think through when you are delegating is what is your definition of done? Everyone’s version of done is different. So for the task or project you’re delegating. What is yours? If you’ve been a listener before, you’ve heard me say, unshared expectations are nothing more than premeditated resentments.

This is the perfect time to make sure that everyone’s expectations are aligned, and you do that with a clear definition of done. The next thing to convey to the person who’s taken this over is how long should it take? This is one that I see a lot of people skip when it is one of the more critical components of effective delegation, letting the person who is taking over.

Know how long it should take is something that is gonna make their job and your job easier. Now remember, you’ve been doing this thing for a while, so you are speedier than them, but by giving them an estimate, it makes sure that they do not spend too much time down a rabbit hole that’s leading in the wrong direction.

So, for example, if something takes you 30 minutes plan on it, taking the new person and, If it is starting to go past an hour, then that is their cue to reach out and get support. Lastly, this step is honestly one of the biggest time savers I’ve discovered that has allowed me to offload, whew, 80% of the things I was doing when I was chief, everything officer in the early days, but also so valuable in training, onboarding, or even when I’m transitioning out of my interim COO roles in.

And that is recording the process. Again, this might seem like a NoDa, but a lot of people don’t actually do that. And let’s face it, you’re currently spending the time to do it now, so why not record it? My all time favorite resource to do this is Loom. No, not Zoom. Loom. With an l, , it’s easy to use. It allows comments, it’s easy to share and organize.

There is a free version, um, but I think there’s a time limit. But basically it makes teaching and handoffs a dream. We even use it in our signature hiring made simple framework to save over a hundred hours when we’re hiring for. Like, no joke guys. This is probably one of the best things that I can recommend when delegating.

I remember when I was transitioning out of a COO role and you know, there’s, there’s things in your mind that you’re like, I don’t need to explain this because it’s so simple. That is the curse of knowledge, because what’s simple for you might not be simple for someone else who’s taking this over. So for.

About, I would say the last month of my time in C O O I recorded just about any processor thing I was doing, and then gave it to the team so they could catalog it, organize it, et cetera.  And that way, any time there was a question about something or they needed to take something over, I could just point them to the two minute, five minute I try and keep them short and sweet, um, video.

But if it’s a longer process, you know, who knows? They could be half an hour. But this way you have a tangible resource that gets all of the institutional knowledge out of your brain into the hands of your. Which spoiler alert, if you ever wanna take a vacation, this is also super helpful because instead of your team going, Hey, the boss is gone and we realize that the boss is the only one that knows how to do this, we don’t know how to do this.

Shoot, we’ve gotta interrupt the boss on vacation. So Loom. Make it your best friend, I promise you will. Thank me. So again, to recap, to delegate like an expert, the first thing is define your definition of done. What does the end product look like? And again, to extrapolate a little bit more on that, why this is really important, beside the fact that everybody’s definition is different is when you have a player, they’re gonna do things differently than you.

Which is totally okay by the way. I know giving up control and having people do things differently than you might trigger you, but if you have a definition of done, it doesn’t matter how they get from A to B as long as they get there. You know, some might go by train, boat, whatever. They just gotta end up in the same Destin.

The second is, how long should it take? Making sure the expectations of the time investment of how long something should take are set so you know if they are on track or not. And then last but not least, record, record, record. If you’re having somebody take over a process, record you doing the process so that they can see one, do one.

Okay. That is it for this week’s episode. Short and sweet. Thanks so much for listening in. It’s because of listeners like you that I embarked on this podcast journey, so be sure to subscribe. So you know when the next episode drops, I’d also love to hear from you and your biggest takeaways, so make sure that you’re following along.

Tag me on Instagram at its Lauren Goldstein or LinkedIn or wherever you hang out on the. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you next week.

Thank you for listening to The Biz Doctor Podcast. Now, I like to say that friends, don’t let friends WebMD your business. So if you’re wondering what your next steps could be, here are some options for you no matter what. Head to the show notes or to my website, goldenkeypartnership.com for some impactful resources to support you getting out from under your business.

That’s also where you’ll find the links to learn more about our services and how we support business owners just like you, who are ready to make the successful jump from business operator in the trenches to visionary business owner with more freedom and flexibility. All that info is on our website, so pop on over to learn more or get in touch at goldenkeypartnership.com .  Finally, if you love The Biz Doctor podcast, I’d be so grateful if you would share it with your friends and network and give us a five star rating or review wherever you listen to your podcast.

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