There’s a popular saying “if you want something done well, do it yourself”. This is true of tasks that require your specific and unique expertise for completion and of some personal projects. In business this policy will forever limit your business growth to what you alone have time to do day in and day out. 

If growth is your objective, you will have to delegate tasks to others. In order to avoid the pitfalls of doing this, do the following:

1. Get the right person for the task

A sure way to fail is to delegate work to the wrong person. You cannot give a video producer a blog to write and expect them to excel. Neither can you task a children’s film producer to produce a corporate video. 

In the second scenario, the film producer may know the basics of shooting the video at the right angles but they will not know whether a Q & A video will meet your objectives better than an explainer video that describes your services. A person experienced in developing corporate videos will be best as they know what content is best received by the people who will watch your video. Delegate correctly and you will be happy. 

2. Allocate adequate resources

You cannot use a spoon to cut your meat. If your assistant does not have the right tools they will fail at the tasks you assign them. 

In the example above, inadequate resources may be the wrong quality camera. A regular smartphone camera may work for a candid video showing behind-the-scenes footage of your day as a business owner but it will certainly not work for a branded corporate video. 

Give your assistant the right tools and they will turn out a client-attracting piece of work. Provide them with what they need to not only do their job but to do it in a great way.

3. Give adequate time and information

Unrealistic times for projects are one of the reasons cited by employees as a cause of unhappiness. As we shared in our tips for success, you will want to hire the right person to fill certain roles. But just because they are qualified does not mean they can work at superhuman speed, nor should they be pressured to do so. Provide plenty of lead time so your team can carry out their tasks to the best of their ability without secretly entertaining headhunters due to your unrealistic time allocations. And while you are at it, provide sufficient job briefs and background information so your team members can do your work well.

Final Word

Now all of the cons of delegation we have written about may not be the ones that derail you. It could be anything at all that keeps you from reducing your workload. We hope that you will get in touch for a quick call to see how our virtual assistants can help take the pressure away from you, leaving you with more time to focus on the tasks that absolutely need your personal time and expertise.