On today’s episode, I will present a simple and practical delegation framework that you can use straight away.
What is Delegating?
First, a bit of context: as a business owner, you need to be able to work through other people to build your business. The consequence of not doing so is that you will find yourself either busy doing work that you’re paying other people to do, or busy doing work that you should be paying others to do. Your time is valuable, and you should only focus on the things that only you can do – high-value work. Delegating is an important skill, one that you really need to master if you haven’t already.
What stops people from delegating?
Is it because you’re not sure if something’s been done the way you would want it? Is it due to the complexity of the work? You see, you hoard those tasks and bottleneck your team. Sometimes you just want to know that something is being done. If any of this applies to you, then this framework is going to be very useful.
The framework is simple: “Act, Report” or “Report, Act“. Now, “Act, Report” is effectively “go and do something and then tell me that you have done it”. Usual rules apply here: the person you are delegating to needs a specific task, must understand the context of what they need to do and why, and there needs to be a specific deadline. “Act, Report” is a brilliant tool to use.
The other side of the coin is where there is something a bit more complicated, something that you want to be involved in regarding how it is going to be done. This could be because there’s an important decision-making element within the task, or there’s a detail that you want to be clear on, or it might be something that’s new to the person you’ve delegated it to. This is where you would use “Report, Act”. You would ask the team member to put something together by a certain time, explain why, but before sending it to the client, they should report to you. They should come and tell you how they’re going to do it, and then, after agreement, act.
“Report, Act” is going to be especially useful for those who are control-oriented. Don’t take on a whole 40-minute task if you only need to be involved for one minute of it. One more thing: if you use this tool, “Act, Report” or “Report, Act”, with your team members, you can probably progress them faster, make better use of them, and empower them to take on tasks that might be outside of their skill sets or completely new to them. “Report, Act” and “Act, Report” should be your new best friends.
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