Delegation 101 for Professionals - Three Surprisingly Simple Steps to Delegate Work

In all the years I have been working with professionals I am always amazed at how many of them hate to delegate work. What frustrates most professionals is the time it takes to explain what they need and then to review and correct the work once it is done.

Most will concede that if they want to grow their practices they can not continue to do everything themselves. The more they can delegate the more time they have to spend on their professional work.

Here is the predicament though. Law practices, medical practices, and architecture practices are usually busy places and because the professional has a lot on his/her mind there is never enough time to do everything. The reason for wanting to delegate is also the obstacle to doing it.

In this rushed atmosphere the professional wants to give the staff member the work and briefly explain it. Oh wouldn't it be wonderful if the staff member could just understand it without a lot of details! Unfortunately unless you have hired a mind reader this is not possible.

The first step in delegating then is to explain the task in detail. This means giving all the steps that must be done, highlighting the places where mistakes could be costly, and then explaining what to do with the output once it is complete. For some people especially new hires you may have to delegate a simple task initially and save the complex for later when you are confident the person is ready.

Next once you have explained the task in detail, give the employee a written description of the task which must be exactly as you explained in step one. Have a loose leaf notebook for the purpose of storing your description that the person can refer to if he/she forgets something.

Finally listen to the questions the employee has about the process and answer them fully. Find the place in your written description that addresses the question and review it with the person to insure they are clear about what they must do. (Add it if you did not cover it in the written document.)

Now the employee has the tools to complete the task by him/herself. For complex tasks you may want to have some check-in points so you can review the work along the way. If the employee has further questions as he/she proceeds with the work, tell them when you will be available for questions.

In the beginning delegating a task to an employee takes more time than if you did it yourself. For that reason the only tasks to delegate are repetitive ones. Something that is only done once or twice a year is not worth delegating. Taking the time to delegate repetitive tasks will free the professional to do only work that he/she can do thus maximizing the efficiency of the office.

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Alvah Parker is a Practice Advisor for Attorneys and a Career Coach as well as publisher of Parker's Points, an email tip list and Road to Success, an ezine with career and business information. Subscribe now to these free monthly publications at her website free monthly publications and receive a free values assessment along with your subscription.

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