How to Delegate Effectively

I recently attended a great webinar put on by Erin Blaskie.  She is a highly successful virtual assistant, and a great source of inspiration for me, since much of what she has already accomplished is what I aspire to do with my own company.

During the webinar, I got some great tips to use with my clients on how to delegate tasks using precise, focused direction and vision (as she puts it).

Some quick hints on the right way to delegate to your virtual assistant or your employees:

• Use short concise wording with bullet points. Don’t use long, wordy, confusing explanations.
• Utilize your tools and systems. For example, I use Basecamp to manage my clients and their tasks. If you have some sort of project management tool or certain systems that will make delegation easier, then use them.
• Make sure to give enough lead time on projects. If you’re not sure how much time a project is take, ask for feedback from your VA or your team.
• Be ok with having to go back and forth. If your assistant or team needs more clarification, don’t get frustrated with their requests for more information. I would prefer to ask/answer more questions than to not be happy with the final results.

During the webinar, Erin also discussed some tools that can make asking for help easier.  For example, you can use screen shots to show your virtual assistant exactly what you’re looking for, if it’s relating to something online. There’s a great tool called Snag It,  that allows you to manipulate screen shots to help get across exactly what you’re trying to achieve. It’s a lot easier and quicker to grab a screen shot and make some changes to it, than it is to sit and type out everything you want done.

Another great idea is to record what you want done, instead of writing it out. You can use something like Audio Acrobat, and then send the file over to your virtual assistant.

These are just some quick ways to make delegating easier, quicker, and much more effective.

If you have any questions about other tools you can use, or ways to delegate, shoot me a quick email and I’ll be glad to help you.

Have a great day!