The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 116: How To Delegate Effectively

In today’s episode I am going to go over how we delegate effectively in our business. How to determine what tasks to delegate first, how to determine who to hire first, and where to find your first team member along with so much more.

How To Delegate Effectively

By: Melissa Lin

Today, I wanted to dive into a topic that really relates to delegating because you might hire your first team member, but how do you actually delegate things to them effectively? How can we actually train them? How can we actually ensure that they do the things exactly how we want them to do? I know all you CEOs out there are thinking the same things. So, All of the questions and I have some answers for you as this is something I've spent a lot of time in 2020 working on.

The Best One Woman Show

This is something that I actually laugh at now. I definitely did not laugh at this back in the day, a few years ago, but I laugh at this now and I want to share it with you because you may have had a similar belief in your business, or maybe you do have this belief in your business right now. So in the past, I thought. I was going to be the best one woman show in the entrepreneur space. Seriously, I told myself the story that I was going to be a self-made millionaire on my own. No help needed. No, thank you. Don't need the help. That was one of the biggest mistakes, thinking that I could build a successful business on my own and more so, just thinking that I wanted it to be that way. I can't wait to dive into some of the things I've learned and how I've really shifted my mindset around that. You know, after being a one-woman show solo preneur for so many years I was in constant burnout, constant burnout. It was ridiculous. I started to understand that it's not necessarily that I have to hire to continue to scale, it's that I get to. I get to bring incredible people onto my team that have similar values as me that have similar visions, that see the vision that I'm holding to, to help women find freedom through entrepreneurship. So, you may be asking yourself, well, “Why is it important for me to delegate? And “Does it really matter how it's being done as, as long as it gets done, right? As long as it's off my plate, that's all that matters to me.”

Being Intentional About our Outsourcing

Well, here's where we get to really be intentional about our outsourcing. We really get to be intentional about our delegating, you know. Delegating is such a critical skill for a leader and business owner. For many reasons, you know, such as it's really critical for your own growth as a CEO. It also empowers your team and it gives you time as a CEO, as a business owner to stay in your own zone of genius. It really, really does. So, I can't wait to really share some of the things that have helped me delegate a little more effectively over the years because I've been able to help so many more people in this world and create a bigger impact because of the effective delegating that I've been able to do.

I'm continuing to learn. I'm continuing, continuing to improve my delegation skills, of course, and now it's time for you to start to look at, “Okay, how are my delegation skills? or, if I'm not delegating yet, maybe you're not delegating yet, “How can I start to prepare for that?” Because there definitely are things that you can start doing today to start to prepare for delegation and how to really do it effectively. If you're still in that story in your head of, “I don't need to delegate, I never need to delegate. I'm going to do it all on my own.” I'm going to tell you right now that you will burn out and you are going to be working 20 hour days and you don't need to be, right?

I am heading towards seven figures this year and we are working 20 hour weeks. I am working 20 hour weeks and I delegate so much to my team. I'm going to be going into that a little later into this with you.

Back when I started, I believed that in order to be successful, I had to hustle forever and that I had to grind and I had to work like insane hours, right. That saying of, and I'm not going to get the saying exactly correct, but it's something around the lines of, you know, I would rather work 80 hours as an entrepreneur than 40 hours of my nine to five, which I totally get that. However, you do not need to be working 80 hours a week as an entrepreneur, your entire life. We get to start to delegate so it definitely doesn't need to be that way.

The Delegation Roller Coaster Loop

So during my first years as a CEO, I truly, truly, felt that I was the best one woman show. I always thought about these things and let me know if you agree, or if you've ever felt this, I don't anymore, thought that I could do it better. I felt that it would take longer to train somebody else to do something. I felt that it would be impossible to bring somebody on to help me. My business was my baby and I needed that full control. And for me, it really wasn't until I had hit full burnout, that I realized that all of those beliefs, all those stories I was telling myself, they were false. In order to continue to scale and create a bigger impact, I could not do it alone. I could not do it alone anymore. I see so many entrepreneurs go through the hiring and firing cycle because there's usually a lack of delegation. I see so many business owners take a ride on, I like to call it that “Delegation roller coaster loop, the delegation roller coaster ride.”

What happens is a business owner, they'll typically hire their first team members, such as, let's say, a virtual assistant to take over some administration tasks. What will happen is the business owner, The CEO, they'll delegate a few tasks, but when that new team member doesn't quite meet expectations for the task, business owners tend to take over. They will go and spend some time and maybe even redo all of the work, leaving them to ask themselves well, “Why did I hire this person in the first place?” and eventually fire, until they burn out again and a hire again, going right back into that same loop and eventually firing again.

So the big question is how do we avoid this? Right? None of us want to be on that roller coaster loop of hiring and firing because it's very draining, energetically. It takes your time and it's expensive to hire, find somebody new, fire, because you're putting so much time and energy into training and all of the resources and whatnot. So how do we avoid this? To avoid the delegation rollercoaster and delegate powerfully as the business owner, you get to set clear expectations. Such clear expectations, clear guidelines, examples, instructions. We create SOPs, which are standard operating procedures, video training , and feedback, you know, all tasks and processes. They can be delegated. However, it must be delegated properly. We must provide clear instruction, clear guidelines, trainings, resources, and especially feedback on the work. I have delegated over a hundred hours of work each month to my team members who are completing tasks that in the past I truly felt that only I can do this best and the way I like it. Now, I have created the evidence that it's possible to delegate, delegate effectively, still receive incredible, incredible work, and have it be the way I want it to look and feel. I've created that evidence and that it's possible for you to do so, too.

How To Delegate Inside Your Business

So here are some ways that we actually do this inside of our business. We create training videos, every single person who has a business, they've got processes, they've got systems in their business. You have systems in your business right now, whether you think so or not, you do. So, you know, for example, when you create a caption posted to social media, the steps you take to do so that's a system. So you can record, video record. We turn a lot of our SOP’s into video trainings because it's very easy to have someone go through some of those trainings and repeat pretty easily. So start to record and start to take note of the processes and how you do certain tasks so that somebody else can eventually do it for you. So we do train, we create training videos. We have weekly team meetings, monthly team meetings. We're always asking for updates. We require certain tasks to go through an approval process and have tons of examples of graphics and older pages, especially If we're looking for a team member to create something new.

Choosing The Right Person For The Job

So the next thing to keep in mind is to also choose the right person for the job. Really explain the vision behind the task or the vision behind the project and what their key role is in that growth. So when first hiring, you know, some hire a virtual assistant as their first team member, who can take on many areas of the business, which definitely works. This doesn’t mean that there may be more training on your end. So, for example, if we're asking our assistant, who typically does administrative duties for you, and then we're asking them to help with copywriting or maybe tech issues on our website, on our sales pages, we may see that there could be a gap and we may need to do some additional training. So at some point in your business, you may see yourself hiring a few more that are specialists in certain areas of your business.

Another thing that we can do is really delegate the responsibility and authority as well. This has been one of the bigger shifts that we've made when we delegate, delegating the responsibility and the authority so that your team members truly feel empowered to make decisions with you in the business. They're truly part of the team. They're with you in the vision. Taking that next step for you and your business together as a team. For example, charge backs or missed payments. I love using this as an example. So this is something that happens in business. People don't always talk about it, but it happens in business and your team member, let's say they come to you, you've tasked them, or delegated to them, the entire chargeback process. So if a failed payment comes through, it is their duty to go take care of it. Now, your team member may come to you, the business owner or the CEO for every decision on whether this chargeback should be looked at, if it should be given back and how to go about it. What happens is you'll feel that you're still spending so much time on this, even though you have “delegated it”, we get to give our team members the responsibility and the authority, so they feel empowered to make decisions.

So for example, what you could do is you could create a golden rule that says, you know what, if a chargeback is $300 or less or $500, whatever number you feel comfortable with, and you want to put that up, you trust them to decide for you and the business. Anything more than that number, they must come to you for approval. So, create rules and guidelines and expectations for them, and also give them that authority so that they can also make some decisions within the business so they're really part of the team with you. So empower and trust your team to take on these tasks so that you're delegating, so that you can spend more time in your zone of genius, not wearing 20 different hats in your business. Which maybe you're doing right now. It's time to start to shift away from that because it really gets to be time for you to scale and help more people, with the help of some team members. Now, all of these things that I've learned to incorporate more as we hire more team members. This is what's helped us all work together toward our greater vision as a team, as a company.

So I would absolutely love to hear your biggest takeaways, no matter where you are in your business. If you have zero team members, What are some of the things you're starting to think about? Are you going to start to record some of your systems, the processes that you go through in your business? Are you going to start to map out some of those SOPs, standard operating procedures? Are you going to start to brainstorm who to hire? Right.

Take a screenshot and tag me on Instagram @themelissalin, share on your Instagram stories. We'll always, always give that opportunity to give you some love and reshare as well. I'm always going to be your biggest cheerleader. So you taking time out of your day to hang with me, truly means the world to me. See you next time!

Topics we cover include:

The best one woman show needs help too
Being intentional about our outsourcing
The Delegation Roller Coaster Loop
How we delegate inside our business

And so much more!

Times to check out:

(5:55) The best one Woman show needs help too

(7:22) Being Intentional About our Outsourcing

(9:58) The Delegation Roller Coaster Loop

(13:31) How we delegate inside our business

(17:50) Choosing the right person for the job

GET IN TOUCH WITH MELISSA:

Hot Leads Machine (new course):

https://www.themelissalin.com/hotleadsmachine

Are you ready to take your online coaching business to the NEXT level? Have you been wanting to start coaching, finally start making a full time income doing what you love? The Fierce Business Academy might be the right fit for you! Head to the link below for more details and to hop on the waitlist!

The Fierce Business Academy:

https://www.themelissalin.com/academy

The Caption Capsule

https://www.themelissalin.com/captioncapsule

Promo Code: PODCAST to save $$$ on The Caption Capsule!

Sell Like A Sales Queen Crash Course:

https://themelissalin.lpages.co/sell-like-a-sales-queen/

Five Figure Launch:

https://themelissalin.lpages.co/five-figure-launch

Find me on social media for more daily content!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themelissalin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melissa.lin.180410