How to Say No When You Need to - Leon

Hi there,

I hope you’ve taken the time to reflect on your current responsibilities and the tasks that you need to do — both at work and in your personal life.

I’m guessing that you came across certain things that take up a lot of your time, but are unessential for your success or happiness.

If you did, then don’t worry, as I’m going to show you how to effectively delegate tasks. And when you do this, you’ll leverage your time and multiply your value.

Interested?

Then let’s get started…

Delegation allows you to move from what you can do personally to what you can manage. And by delegating time-consuming tasks, you’ll be able to put your focus on more impactful tasks that require your full attention.

My first tip when learning how to delegate is to think through the job.
Decide exactly what is to be done. What result do you want?

My second tip for effective delegation is to set performance standards.
How will you measure whether a job has been done properly or not?

My third tip is to determine a schedule and a deadline for getting the job done.
This is a vital component of successful delegation.

Motivational public speaker and self-development author Brian Tracy had this to say about delegation:

"Delegation is one of the most important and effective management skills. Without the ability to delegate effectively, it is impossible for you to advance in management to higher positions of responsibility."
He’s absolutely right. If you fail to delegate, you’ll fail to make an impact in this world.

But delegation is easy once you know how.

The first step is to make sure you’re delegating the right tasks to the right people.

You can do this by matching the requirements of the job to the abilities of the person. You might also want to delegate smaller tasks to newer staff — as this will help build their competence and confidence.

I’d also recommend that you delegate an entire task.

This is more motivating for the person you’re delegating to, as it means they become 100% responsible for completing the task. Just make sure you give clear instructions and provide a definite deadline.

Now, at this point, you may be thinking: "But which tasks should I delegate?"

The answer will come to you if you ask yourself these two questions:

1. "Can someone do this task as well or better than me?"
2. "Can someone do this task cheaper or quicker than me?"

If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then I recommend you consider delegating the task. But before you do so, ask yourself one final question: "Is this task essential or could it be scrapped completely?"

Once you begin cutting and delegating tasks, you’ll find you have the time and energy to focus on the important stuff. And within a matter of weeks and months, you’ll discover that you’ve made more progress in your life than you would have ever thought possible.

Of course, today, I’ve just touched on some of the techniques for effective delegation. I’d encourage you to click through to read my in-depth article on this subject:

How to Delegate Work Effectively (Step-By-Step Guide)

(Life Hacks)