Episode 77 Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You don’t have to know how to do every job in your business to be able to delegate effectively. I think that’s a bit of a game changer for most people when they learn about how to delegate the first time.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hi everyone. Rob Kropp and Dan Stones here from Pravar Group and welcome back to another episode of The Trade Den. Welcome back Dan, and looking forward to getting stuck into today.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hey Rob. Hey everyone. Yes I am. I love this topic Today. Today we’re going to talk about something that separates the business owners who swim and those who invariably end up sinking. We’re talking about delegation and I know what some people will be thinking. I’ve tried delegating. It’s really tricky. It doesn’t work with my team. You don’t get it. My team’s a bit younger, they’re a bit different, they’re a bit older. There’s always an excuse. My team just doesn’t get it. And we hear this all the time, but what we’ve learned, coaching hundreds of tradies, delegation isn’t about just handing off tasks. You’ve got to get your mindset right. It’s about transferring responsibilities and decision-making at the end of the day, and most business owners are terrible at it, but I always ask the question, well, who’s been taught it to begin with? And it’s not because their team is incapable, but because they’re missing fundamentals. And that’s what we want to talk today. Now, before we get into this and start talking about this big three, what we’re going to do is talk about why delegation goes wrong. We see these same patterns over and over and over, and you probably felt them yourselves, but let’s get into these three. Problem number one is confusion. You give vague instructions, you end up with problems.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, confusion’s a really big one, isn’t it? Where as the business owner, you are busy, you’ve got plenty of things, you’re wearing all the hats, you’ve got plenty of things on the go. You’re juggling multiple things. And so when you do delegate, you are vague in terms of what’s the task or what’s the responsibility or what’s the thing that you’re actually delegating. And because you are vague in your direction or delegation, you get a vague response back.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And I think you can see it the minute you say it, you know it and you can’t walk it back. It’s really hard to take it back when you’ve been too vague like, well, I’ll say it again and maybe this time I’ll say it even louder, it doesn’t work, but vague instructions sort of sound like well sort this out. That’s sort of one of those vague instructions. I need it sorted out. And in your own mind, everyone knows what that sort of means, but everyone can take that differently. And when you’re trying to interpret what sorted out means in the context of a busy job site or something like that, it can cause havoc and someone just stands there, they’re frozen deer in the headlights.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, it’s almost, can you sort this out? Can you get this done? Can you work on this? Hey, get this done kind of thing. You got to put yourself in your employee’s shoes to be able to go, well, what are they receiving from a communication point of view? And your poor employees, they’re just getting this in vague instruction and then you are shitty at them because it’s not done or it’s incomplete or not what you expected, but really is it their fault or is it because they’re confused because of your poor delegation to begin with?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And I think that’s the responsibility we’re looking for people listening to take. It’s got to be your responsibility, your responsible for the impact of your communication. So pay attention to that’s really important. The second problem is I think it’s with the best of intentions everyone’s got, people don’t come to work trying to do a shitty thing, but it says the best of intentions, but there’s no buy-in and you’re telling people what to do. But in this sense, you’re not telling them why it matters.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
This is where the employee gets the task done mechanically. They get in, get it done. But the problem is, is that when you don’t give them the why or the context or the bigger picture around why this task or why this function or why that responsibility matters, they don’t understand where it fits within the bigger picture. They don’t have context and you wonder why they don’t make decisions or they wonder why it’s not done to what you expected or it’s not done in a timely matter. And it’s not because they don’t care or they’re trying to do a bad job. It’s just that as the leader, you haven’t given them context, you haven’t explained it correctly to be able to go, I need this done for this reason so that they go, oh, I get it. Because when someone knows the why, they traditionally get in the how takes care of itself, and then they get in there and get that job done because they can see the bigger picture of where it fits.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
And decision making gets better as a result of understanding why you think how many times you’ve given someone an instruction. It’s like they’ve gone off and done something completely opposite, and usually it’s because they never understood why that one was important or more important than the thing they were doing before. So I think this is a real big one in terms of improving decision making. If I’ve got that context, like you said, I can be trusted to make a better decision, but without the context, I can only make decisions based on what I know.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
And if you don’t give them the wire and the deadline and when certain things need to be met and by when for this reason, if someone’s missing deadlines, there’s potentially other reasons. But if you give them that context around the what, which is what needs to be done and why it needs to be done, then they understand it. Then they grasp the concept of the what and the why, and that’s super important for them to be able to deliver when they need to.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, absolutely. And then our last problem then is if you recognise this, I guarantee if you’ve recognise these first two, you’re going to recognise the last one because people overcorrected and we get into over instruction.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, this over instruction is micromanagement polished up, isn’t it? It’s almost like, well, this is what you need to get done and when you need to get done, and by the way, this is how you’re going to do it. And when you have that culture of over instruction or that micromanagement style, then what happens is no wonder your team may not think for themselves or make decisions or always keep coming back to you with questions and you’re copying a million of mind phone calls. It’s because you are over instructing or over micromanaging and you’re not allowing them to make decisions for themselves. And so if you overprescribe the how you’re robbing your team, the opportunity to use their own brain or do what they’re getting paid to do in the first place.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
You create a dependency, there’s no independence for them to do the task and then it becomes this self perpetuating thing. Every time you have to give an instruction, you’ve got to fill it all the way in and they just stare at you like, well, come on, tell me what to do. I’m used to this. And they don’t think there’s no decision making skill or strength being built up over time. It just becomes like, I can take instructions like a robot, I’ll go off and do the instruction and then I’ll come back and wait for my next instruction. So all the things that most business owners would love with their teams, like being proactive and having some creativity and thinking through stuff and solving problems and all that just gets missed because of the over instruction. Again, it’s a good intention, but now it’s the other way around. It’s your good intention that’s now harming the team.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
When I meet a client and when I’m talking to them on a strategy call for example, one of the biggest things that I hear all the time is that the owner feels, they’re like, Rob, I’m just feeling like I’m at capacity. I can’t take any more and I can see the opportunities. There’s quotes sitting on my desk, there’s more jobs to be had, but I physically cannot do anymore. I’m already at my limit. And if you are feeling that, that’s a sign of poor delegation where you might be trying to delegate and you’re not doing it correctly or you’re just not delegating as it is because you’ve got that mindset of it’s easier if I do it myself, no one’s as good as me and just saves me time and energy and money and if I do it. And so delegation is the thing, it becomes the limit. It becomes the ceiling that so many business owners can’t break through because of the owner’s inability to effectively delegate because they notoriously get these few things wrong in the delegation process.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And you end up at that stuck stage where it’s just down to how much can you fit in? And that’s why owners get stuck. The ones that are talking through this, I just can’t take any more on, you’re right, you can’t. But then they don’t make this link up. They never take that responsibility that we said at the top in terms of being able to say, well, how can I improve this? What can I do? And a lot of the time the answer’s staring them in the face, delegation, you’ve just got to get good at it and you’ve got to practise it.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Correct. What’s got to give so that I can get what’s got to give off the bottom layer of my plate so I can get the time to work on other things that matter. That’s how growth growth is achieved by something giving so that you can get, and what is given is through delegation. And so I’m a big believer that in management delegation is one of the most important skills that needs to be mastered over a period of time. I would believe it’s obviously accountability is important. We’ll do another episode on accountability, but you actually can’t hold someone accountable unless you learn how to master the art, which is delegation because they’re interconnected. But delegation always precedes accountability.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
And I think you said there it is something that needs to happen. I think everyone understands the need of it, but who’s actually been taught? If I think, when did I learn allegation, I learned it over trial and error and what did I do? Shit and it took me forever and sometimes it works, sometimes it didn’t. But who’s actually been taught this stuff is sort of the question. It’s just one of those management things that happens over time that you get asked are you’re good at it, can you do it? Will you do it? That sort of stuff. But you’re never actually taught it. So that’s why I’m excited today to bring the big three across in this episode.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Well, you’re right, you never learn this at trade school and when your business gets to a certain size, it’s not about how good you are at your craft, it’s about how great you are as a manager. Management. The soft skills of management takes time and practise and leaning into it. It is not necessarily the sexy stuff, but it’s the important thing which is going to take you and your business to the next level.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
So without any further ado, let’s get stuck into it then let’s talk about this big three and great delegation comes down to these three things. If they’re included in your instruction, you’re going to go from having a team that goes from just being the order takers, the robots that we talked about into real problem solvers and people that are contributing to the success of the team. And the three things we need to talk about is what, when and why. If you can build these three things into every time you give an instruction, you’re going to see the effectiveness of your communication go through the roof. And so let’s break these down Rob. The first one being the what is all about crystal clear outcomes? And to be absolutely clear, it’s not about telling people how to do the job.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
This isn’t the how. This is being super specific on what you’re actually delegating. Whether it’s a task that you’re delegating, Hey, can you get insert here done or it’s a certain activity that they need to do or it’s a delegation of a responsibility or a decision making that they need to be able to make. So there are a couple of different levels of delegation that you can do regardless of what that is it it’s being super specific on what you’re actually delegating or moving and transferring from your plate to someone else. It’s the transfer of responsibility from you to them and the clearer you are on what that delegation piece is and the more that they understand what that is and what you expect of them, the more that it’s going to register in their mind and then you can move to the next part. But what is always comes before the when and the why.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
So on the basis that we’re talking about what the end result looks like, that’s what we’re shooting for with the what does success look like, what’s the outcome, what’s the end result? Let’s see if we can do this with a couple of examples. Give us a, you’ve heard enough of them, so have I, but what’s a poor, what if you were going to say, well, here’s an example. What’s a poor what in terms of an instruction?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Let’s use a overdue accounts for an example. You’re dealing with your bookkeeper and you’re following up end of month overdue accounts. Nice. Yep. You ring your bookkeeper and go, Hey Mary, I need you to follow up overdue accounts. I need to know who still owes us money.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Nice. Alright. Why do you think or why was that your example? Why was that a poor example?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Because it’s vague. Well, there’s no what information you need. All you’ve said is, Hey, can you follow up and let me know? You haven’t given context around what she needs to follow up, what information she’s going to provide you over what period of time, the status of overdue accounts or anything. There’s no meat or context around the specifics around what you’re actually asking from Mary. All you’ve said is, Hey, can you follow up overdue accounts and let us know who owes us money? And most business owners say that because they’re in a rush to move on to the next thing and they know they need that stuff, but they haven’t taken the time to explain to Mary what you’re actually looking for.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And the outcome then becomes that you can sort of see it coming, right? The outcome is you’re going to get an incomplete answer. It’s not quite what I was after or that’s good thanks, but I really needed to know. And you see how now it starts to stack up in terms of the time, the effort, your expectations, what you think of Mary as your bookkeeper. All of this stems, but it stemmed from that what instruction. So you’re absolutely right. Have you got, and you gave some good things that might be missing. Can you think of a way to throw them into a good example then if you’re going to turn this around and go to that next step. So we knock out some of that, the shit that goes on afterwards when we issue a poor, what?
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, it’s, Hey Mary, can you follow up all outstanding invoices from the last 30 days for all the people who need to be followed up? Can you give us a report on each of those people who owe us money in terms of have they paid, have they been contacted? Is someone not responding or does it need to be escalated? And what that does is it helps Mary around, well I know I need to follow up over what timeframe and I need to report with a status of each of those people who still owe us money. And so with Mary, she’s then going to be able to be really clear in her mind around what to give back to you in that report and what you’re actually chasing. Otherwise, Mary’s not a bloody mind reader. She’s doesn’t know what you’re looking for. So if you don’t explain what you are specifically chasing, Mary’s going to run off burn hours of time doing something and dish it to you and then you potentially get the shits because Mary hasn’t actually done what you’ve thought you’ve asked her to actually do.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, absolutely. So you’ve doubled down when you contrast those two, you’ve doubled down on the what? There’s another layer of detail on the outcome and what the outcome looks like. It’s not the process. And I think this is a big one on the what It’s let your team figure out how to get there. Mary’s your bookkeeper. You are not the bookkeeper. She probably knows bookkeeping better than you do if you’ve got an admin and you’re delegating admin tasks, there’s admins that know how to do things better than you. So being able to have them, you run with the how. I’m just being absolutely clear on what it is I want. It’s your gig. You go and do it.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Well, they’re the expert, aren’t they?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, exactly. And if they get stuck or they’re unclear, let them come and ask for help. That’s not quite clear to me. I’m not sure what you want. That’s a perfectly fine question to come back and you don’t crack the shits at that. You just go, well, how can I be clearer and what can I tell you? I’m not going to tell you how to do your job though. That doesn’t help anyone. She knows how to do her job. She just needs clearer instructions. Maybe with some more depth. You don’t know how many options there might be in your accounting package to run a report like that. I can tell you all kinds of things about who owes us money, but it’s a different thing when you can layer it in with a really specific what. Love it. Alright, let’s get onto our second of the big three and this is the, when thinking about it, if you just looked at that and you said to Mary, do that stuff for us, the what’s really clear, that’s awesome, but every task needs a deadline, right?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I’m going to say they’re all important. They actually are. When is super important because it’s this delegation piece and being really clear on the when or the deadline is what sets you up for an accountability conversation down the line because you can’t hold someone accountable to something that they don’t know they’re being held accountable to. And this is where so many business owners miss this trick because they get the shits with their team because they’re not doing what they ask or doing what’s delegated, but it’s not necessarily their fault. It’s your fault as a leader because you haven’t set a deadline of when things need to get done by. And so when you don’t do that, well, do you need it done today, tomorrow, next week, next month? What do you expect? If you don’t set the expectations, then who are they to know?
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah. And how many times have you seen managers, owners, people on teams crack the shits when they go, yeah, it’s on my list, it’s on my list because you told me what you wanted and it is on my list. Genuinely. It’s like there’s no time attached to it. You can’t crack the shits if it’s not done in the time you want. I’m not a mind reader. I can’t guess the time when I’ve got other things and other priorities. So I think this is where the deadline has to be specific. It can’t just be a vague sort of soon when you get a minute and when you get a minute to, you might mean, Hey, I need it in the next five minutes, but they don’t know that when I get a minute I’m in the middle of something. You’ll get it when I can get it to you. So I think that’s really specific. Any other poor wins that you can think of? Rob, you did so good on the what I’m keen to hear your next poor win.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Can you get it done when you get a chance?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
When you get a chance? Yeah. That’s a shocker, isn’t it?
Speaker 2 (18:47):
When you get a chance, when you get a moment, Hey Mary, can you just get the debtors report done?
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, I love the one asap. Remember people just throw around, I need it done as soon as possible.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, that’s a great one.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
As soon as possible means nothing other than the fact that you’re probably going to get in trouble if it’s not quick enough. But what’s quick enough, there’s no context for it. They’re poor examples of when I think the biggest one is just leaving it out. People just forget to do it. What would be, give us your one of a good what you’re good at these and I know that from experience, but what’s a good when that you would add to a good delegation? You’ve been through the what crystal clear, throw in a good win for us.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
You’ve done what the specifics are and can I get it back on my desk by 4:00PM tomorrow so that I’ve got the time to be able to prepare it for my meeting on Thursday morning. And so what you’re doing is still, you’re giving that little bit of extra context, but what you’re saying is, I need it by this time so that I can do this because I need it for that. And so what it’s doing is creating a sense of urgency, it’s making it a priority and it’s saying to Mary, Hey, don’t just do it when you feel like it. I need it by four o’clock and the reason why I need it by four o’clock tomorrow is because I need to review it in preparation for my next meeting the morning after. So what that does is it you set a deadline and it drives it up the priority list on Mary’s desk and then it’s got the ability to be able to know that she’s got to deliver by four o’clock as if she doesn’t guess what you do at 4:05 on Mary’s door and Hey Mary, where’s that report? You said by four o’clock?
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, absolutely. I like the way that it also connects them when you’re saying, I’ve got a meeting coming up to this, it connects them to that next phase. It means that their work matters. It’s not the necessarily that it’s a huge thing, but it just means that what I’m doing has a purpose to it. I’m not just being asked to pull something out, but I don’t know why. I dunno when it needs to be done by, I dunno have any urgency. I’ve just got this to-do list of just stuff that I get to tick off if it’s done. That’s really sort of hollow type work. And if you, you’re trying to build a team, I think being able to show people how they connect to the bigger picture and how they can help the next person in the chain within the team really, really important.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, I think there’s some people who are very good at delegating, but what they don’t do enough is give enough colour around their delegation. There’s probably two schools of camp around people with delegation. They’re either don’t delegate at all. They’re very poor at it because they just don’t trust their team and they’re poor at letting things go. They’re like a bloody control freak. And then the other side of the equation is people who are very quick to delegate, but sometimes some people are very quick to delegate, but they say, can you do this, do this, do that. I need that done, I need that done. But they just don’t communicate enough to their team to be able to go, this is what I need to be done when it needs to be done by because of this reason. And they miss that little bit of colour to the delegation piece, which just helps your team around you understand why that deadline is important. Because otherwise if you just keep throwing deadlines out there, it doesn’t register in your team members’ mind around why they need it by four o’clock. And that’s an important part.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
And this is our third thing. This is the third of the big three, right? What, when and why? So context is really important like you said, and this is the game changer because this is I think where people, they go into how most people, if I said if they delegate fair, it would be they do a what they’d say when it’s done by, but here’s how I want it. And they leave the why out and it’s so important because if you can get the why in there, what you do is you offload that situation, you diffuse the situation where people start to think, well, I’ve got two priorities here. They’re both pretty urgent. Which one do I do first? If I’ve got a sense of what’s more important and how the context links up, I can start to use my brain and make decisions. This is where the decision making can come in.
(23:01):
I can make a decision, but it’ll be a shitty one if I’m missing the context or why it’s important. There’s no guarantee. It’s like Russian roulette. I’ve got two tasks both due roughly on the same day, roughly at the same time going to take a different amount of effort. I can only get one done pick one. Maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong. But if I’ve got the context and I understand the importance, then I can make a much more informed decision and probably the right one. So we avoid that thing of like, well why the hell did you do that one? I told you to do this one, but I never told you why it was important.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, it’s almost like the more context you give someone and you’ve got to balance this where sometimes it’s like, Hey Mary, I just need to be able to get this done by then boom, you just shoot from the hip and off you go. But other times, giving that context, it creates that buy-in and enables your team to understand like you said, and it registers for them so they appreciate why you’re asking for something. It’s not like you’re trying to explain it or justify why you’re delegating or whatever it is, but it’s helping them understand why you need that task done or why you need that decision made. And sometimes the more context you give, you don’t even need to give the how because once they know what, when and why they can use their own brain to use to work out the how because they’re leaning on their skillset and experience because you’ve delegated effectively it minimises the need to overcompensate with micromanagement or direction around what needs to get done.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah, I like that. And I love what you said there about the idea that you don’t have to justify yourself giving the why is part of the delegation instruction. It’s not a justification because that idea of poor why is the ultimate poor? Why in my mind is because I said so because I’m the boss. Because that’s just the way it goes. You can guarantee if you’ve got to say that the person that you’re giving the instruction to is probably thinking, why am I doing that? Why is that so important? I don’t get it. And you’ve missed that trick, you’ve missed the why, but people will throw a why out there as in I don’t have to justify myself to you. You’re right, you don’t, and it’s not about that. But if you want to have a good result and you want to get your what by when, you can have a much better outcome if you can link the why to it. And I think that’s an important thing for people that might wrestle with this like, well, why do I have to tell a first year apprentice why something’s important? They should just do what I say. But you run the risk of having that sort of moment where nothing gets done, you don’t get your outcome.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Let’s use that example of Mary if you don’t. An example of that is if you could just easily say, Mary, this is what I need done by 4:00PM because I’ve got a meeting and that’s all you leave it. That could be all the context, but if you want to add more colour to that, you go, Hey Mary, I need you to follow up on these overdue accounts. Let us know who’s paid, who hasn’t, what’s the status of all those types of things. I really need it by 4:00PM tomorrow because I need to be able to review it. And the reason why that is is because we’ve actually got a really important client meeting on Thursday morning, which I need to be prepared for because we’re going into contract stage with this customer who’s looking at extending a stage of their project and I need to be able to know do we take this job on or not?
(26:22):
Because they still owe us from what I feel, I think they still owe us a bit of money and I need to know if we’re going to extend on that. And then you leave it at that. But what Mary then goes is like, oh, now I get it. I appreciate that that report is important because now Rob needs that information by this time because he needs to be prepared to go in to make a decision at that contract stage on Thursday morning and it’s just an extra couple of sentences, but it makes all the difference when it comes to that delegation phase.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
So why is that such a thing when you include the why does it work so well in your sense, if you could summarise it as to why it’s so important.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
The first one would be that your employees get to understand the stakes or the importance of what’s being delegated. And Number two, it would be that they make better decisions when problems do arise because they understand the what, the why and the context around it. They get it. And so decision making becomes easier for them. They work out the how easier. So that’s why it’s important that you give that context because it’s better for them and it minimises calls and emails and text messages back to you because you’ve got to, you build a team that make decisions and act on things themselves without keep coming back to you and be the bottleneck of the business all the time.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
I like it. So what you’re really saying is you’re helping them to do their job better. It’s helping people do their jobs better than what they otherwise would’ve.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
Correct. Delegation is not just about moving things off your plate, it’s about empowering your team to do better in their role as well. It’s the win-win they win because they feel more empowered to do what is expected of them and what you want from them. But it’s a win for you because you get those LVTs or low value tasks off your plate, you delegate them out and you make way for more higher value tasks, whether it’s a key hire, a business development activity, working on your numbers, whatever it is, you make way for that stuff that’s more important because you’re delegating the stuff that someone else within your team can do and they can do it at a better function or a better outcome for you.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
I love it. I’ve never thought of that. The ultimate win-win, get your delegation, right? It’s awesome. Love that. Alright, you’re on a roll. I’m going to ask you now, let’s pull this all together. All right. We’ve gone through the what, the when and the why individually if you were to delegate, keep using Mary as the example, that’s really cool, but let’s use that now and see what it sounds like if you can, what all three sounds like when we combine it into one delegation instruction if you like.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Let’s go the Mary example. Hey Mary, can you run a report on all the outstanding invoices from the last 30 days? I’m chasing a status report from all the invoices that have been paid, contacted, but no response or those invoices that require escalation. Are you able to get this to me by 4:00PM tomorrow so that I can review it in preparation for my client meeting on Thursday morning? Now, the reason why this meeting is super important for Thursday morning is because I’m meeting with a client, we’re going to contract stage with them and I need to be able to be armed with all the information, be able to know if we’re going to extend on that contract because I’ve got a feeling that these guys aren’t great payers and I’m unsure if I want to extend that contract and expose ourselves to those risks. So if you can get that report run, drop it on my desk by 4:00PM tomorrow, that’d be awesome, and I can make sure I’m prepared for this client meeting on Thursday morning.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Love it. Love it. Really good. That’s awesome. And I think that it just goes to show, right? You may not know even know the first thing about how to run that report yourself, but that doesn’t matter. And I think if anyone gets anything out of this today, it’s if you can be clear on those three things, you don’t have to know how to do every job in your business to be able to delegate effectively. And I think that’s a bit of a game changer for most people when they learn about how to delegate the first time.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And I think that when you’re delegating, sometimes you’ve got to be a little bit wordy like that when you’re explaining that to someone if you’re standing in person with Mary or on the phone. But the same thing can be done over email. Hi Mary, can you please run all outstanding reports for all overdue accounts? Can you please shoot this back to me in a report format by 4:00PM tomorrow afternoon because I’ve got an important client meeting on Thursday morning that I need to be prepared for. Thanks very much. Talk to you soon. So sometimes when it’s in email writing, you’ve got to be a little bit more direct and more to the point, but when you’re in front of Mary, you can explain a little bit more, but either way, you’re still giving the what, the when and the why. You’re giving all the colour to the delegation and that’s what helps her succeed and what helps you get done what you expect in a timely manner.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Yeah, you painted the clear picture of success, you’ve created a sense of urgency, like when does it need to be done by? And you’ve given them the context to go off and make a good decision about one, whether they do it or not, how they do it, to what level of quality they do it. All of that’s built in, which I love. And you, you’ve done it in a way that you’ve probably avoided the trap of having 3, 4, 5 different conversations or 3, 4, 5 stabs at it at 4:30, 4:45, 5:15 before you get it on the day you’ve asked for. So really, really good.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Now, Dan, before you give our listeners a bit of a challenge for the week, delegation is one of those things that is one of the most important ingredients to being able to take your business and life to the next level. So if you are listening here today and you want to be able to build a business that runs without you being the bottleneck or the decision maker for everything in your business, then jump across to strategysession.com.au book in an initial discovery call, and let’s talk a bit about where you’re at, where you’re trying to go. Let’s talk through delegation as a key ingredient into that process and let’s talk through your structure to be able to see how we can get it right so that you can get some of these low value tasks off your plate and you can work on higher value tasks, which you’re going to take everything to the next level. So jump across there, get it booked in, and I look forward to talking to you soon.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Excellent. Let’s do the challenge. Pretty simple this week. Next time you delegate anything, it could be an email, it could be a phone call, it could be a face-to-face conversation. What we want you to do is practise all three elements. Do it consciously. All right? And by that we mean have it in your mind. What do I want? What does success look like? When do I want it by and why is it important? And then do your very best to get those three points across and then notice how your team responds because you’ll get feedback in the moment of that, and we want you to practise that as much as you can. The better you can get at it, the more reps you do, the better you’ll get, the quicker you’ll get at it. But it’s not hard. It’s practise is what’s going to keep you from progressing on this one.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
The important thing to remember out of today is that delegation is an absolute skill, and like any skill, it just gets better with practise. Your job as a leader isn’t to have all the answers. It’s to give your team the information that they need to be able to find the answers for themselves. What you’re actually doing is empowering them to do that. So how you do that is it’s effective delegation, the big three, the what, the when, and the why. If you practise it consistently, you’ll be able to watch your team and your business go to the next level. It will transform. Your team will transform you will stop being the bottleneck, and your business will just go to the next level. So what it enables you to do is stop being the hero who does absolutely everything, and you can start to be the leader who empowers everyone, and that’s where the real transformation exists within your business. Thanks for tuning in today. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode around effective delegation in the big three and looking forward to coming back to you with another great episode here on The Trade Den next week. Take care.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
See you soon.