If you’re the type of person who insists on doing it all yourself because you think the only way to get a job done right is to do it yourself then you've no doubt come up against the barrier of lack of time.
As new or more pressing projects and tasks come up, things either don't get done because you already have too much work or you must stop work on an existing project in order to take on the new one(s).
Despite your best efforts to juggle all your responsibilities, you ultimately end up with that familiar feeling that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything, especially when it comes to running your business and managing your workload.
So what is one to do?
One of the solutions to reduce the workload is to delegate certain tasks.
Unfortunately, many professionals don’t delegate nearly enough and doom themselves to owning a task forever because they wait until someone else is able to do a task as well as they can, according to Jim Schleckser, CEO of Inc.com.
If this sounds familiar, then you could end up waiting a long time because the gap between what you expect to be done, and what actually gets done is almost always going to exist. But that gap doesn’t need to be the barrier stopping you from moving forward and taking advantage of the power of delegation if you use the 70 percent rule.
There Is No Place for Perfection When It Comes to Delegation
The basic premise of Jim’s 70 percent rule involves asking yourself - "Can this person do it 70 percent as well as I would? If so, you should let go and delegate it.”
Is it scary to let go of perfection? Yes - but using this rule to let go and delegate things you might not otherwise delegate means finding the balance between having work completed the exact way you would do it (to perfection) and getting the job done at all. Just getting started is the best step for effective delegation.
Getting Started With The 70 Percent Delegation Process
- Think about what is currently on your plate that you can delegate.
- Who in your organization or on your team is interested in development and most suited to this task?
- If you can't or don't have anyone in your organization or team whom you can delegate to then consider outsourcing some things such as administrative tasks to a personal or virtual assistant.
You Can’t Apply the 70 Percent Rule to Everything
For instance, tasks and responsibilities that are primary to your job - you may have to keep these things for yourself.
And for the tasks that you want to delegate but require 100 percent performance level, delegate them anyways and accept the 30 percent loss in performance output but offer up support and coaching so that you can gradually get back that lost 30 percent.
For All the Rest That You Can Accept at 70 Percent
Know what you want to be completed
Make sure communication is clear, concise, and consistent. Let people know what you need completed and make sure people have access to all the information and resources to complete the job.
Let go and trust
According to Jim, “TRUST” is an extremely important factor when it comes to delegation. Not only should you trust the person you are delegating to complete the work at an acceptable level, but that person must also trust that you are giving them all the information they need to do the work.
Related: Think You're Too Busy to Delegate?
The 70 percent rule of delegation is a great solution for time-challenged business owners and busy executives who are struggling to find the time to focus on higher-impact work and projects and also alleviates some of the pressure of always doing everything yourself.
What You Should Do Now
If you need help delegating, here are a few options to help you:
- Download our ebook "How to Use Delegation to be a More Impactful Leader" and get a better understanding of what tasks to delegate, how to delegate effectively, and how to create processes that save you time in your delegation.
- Book a free consultation call with Prialto. We can help you regain more of your time by offloading repeatable tasks to a fully managed virtual assistant. One of our experts will help you create a plan to delegate your tasks and we will even train your VA for you.
- If you know someone else who’d benefit from being a better delegator, share this post with them via email, Linkedin, Twitter, or Facebook.