If you're delegating tasks and then pulling your hair out over it, then you're probably not doing it right.

Anything that's insanely great requires a team to achieve.  At the simplest level, while one person might need an hour to achieve a task;  with 3 people, the task can be done in 20 minutes.  As well, different team members can focus on different tasks and bring a focus to that task that cannot be achieved if only one person is working on all tasks - having one person focus on marketing and another on sponsorship is going to achieve a lot better results than having one person focus on both!

Last year, I tried to run Robogals Global in a team of three.  There was the secretary, whose job was to keep the books in order, the marketing manager, whose job was to create our website and monthly newsletter, "The Amplifier", and then there was me, who was in charge of everything else.  Everything else included monthly phone calls with all the Robogals chapter presidents (10 calls a month to people all over Australia and the United Kingdom), networking, sponsorships and partnerships, PR and monthly internal newsletters.  This included me flying to London for a week during semester (when I was meant to be studying), attending a conference for 3 days during semester, and dealing with emails and queries that came my way from all directions!  I don't think I thought nearly enough about everything I was signing up to do before I chose not to recruit anyone else into the team!

So where did that leave me?  Stressed, tired, exhausted all the time and feeling like there was no support for anything I did.  I could never relax because there was always a huge burden of all the stuff that I hadn't done weighing down on me.  It got to a point where I was holidaying in Shanghai (I had to take a holiday to de-stress!) and I still had this massive to-do list to do of about 60 things!

Anyway, since then, thanks to a huge boost of realism and enough people in the leadership chain in the organisation, I now have an incredible team who I work with to achieve Robogals' aims.  I always thought that I did decently in my role last year as the everything-girl for Robogals last year.  But now that I have team members who only work on aspects of what I did (like sponsorships and partnerships, PR and chapter president mentoring), I realise just how much I was not coping doing everything last year!

So, how should you delegate?

1. Role description:  The first thing is that everyone in your team should know exactly what is expected of them.  They should have a very clear role description and know exactly what areas their role covers.  In Robogals, everyone in the executive committee at a chapter level has a role training manual that was written by someone who has done the role before.  In the Global team, most people are the first person to take their job on, so they're writing their role manual themselves as they do the job.  This ensures that everyone knows exactly what their areas of responsibilities are and what they are accountable for.

2. Expectations:  It should be very clear to both of you what the expectations are for your team member.  That way, you won't have any false expectations about the work they will do, and they will know exactly what they are required to deliver.  If both of us understand each other's expectations about the role, then we don't get disappointed.  The most important task my secretary undertakes is doing our BAS statement every quarter and doing a financial report every year.  My secretary is uber organised, and while it bores me thinking about doing the BAS statement every quarter and formally doing the books, I know it's uber important.  So as long as my secretary keeps all our books in order and ensures we file our BAS statements every quarter so we don't get fined by the government, then I'm happy.

3. Creating goals and a timeline:  So that people feel empowered about achieving their goals, everyone has a say in their goals and the timeline by which they'll work to.  I always work with the people in my team to set their goals so that we are both absolutely clear about exactly what they need to do, and so I know exactly what to expect from them.  As well as that, I always work with my team to create their goals so that if I think they aren't challenging themselves to grow enough through their goals, I help them see they can raise the bar higher.  It's always better to set the bar high and fail to reach that, than to set it too low and not challenge yourself.  I don't want my team members to just do what they already know how to do, I want my team members to learn and grow and be better people out of working with me.  :)

4. Checking up:  After the goals and timelines have been set, aligned with their role, then I think my job is to hold my team members to their word and support them in carrying out their plans.  A good way to do this is to set up a structure whereby you and your team member meet regularly so you can check up on how they're doing and brainstorm new ideas together.  I meet either once a week, once a fortnight or once a month with my direct reports, depending on the urgency of the projects.  Having a systematic way of communicating is also good for peace of mind as you won't stress about people not getting back to you.

5. Partnership:  It's very important to trust that your team members will do a good job.  You've worked out the goals and the timeline together, you know what the expectations are, and you meet up regularly to come up with better ideas - you're in it together; so trust that they will do their job and trust that they will do a good job.  By giving them that respect, they will rise to the challenge and do a great job!  If your team members need help, they will come to you.

 

So, how I am going now with delegating?  A lot better than I was last year!  I think the results show for themselves.  This year, I am more on top of my studies at university than I was last year, Robogals is achieving a lot more, I feel better about Robogals, I feel better about myself, and I have a great group of friends in my Robogals team that was formed through all of us working towards a common goal.

Finally, I think the other hard thing about delegating is that, you may think that you can do whatever you're delegating by yourself.  I once read that the lawyer can probably do all of the secretary's tasks better than the secretary can do them, but if the lawyer did all of the secretary's tasks, then she wouldn't have time to do anything else!  So I think a good quote to remember is, "I can do anything, just not everything".