How to Effectively Delegate and Monitor Tasks for Productivity

Task delegation is a critical skill to have in the business world. However, managing human resources can be one of the most difficult tasks team managers have to face. Delegating tasks requires self-knowledge of both you and your team, trust, and accountability. Here you’ll find 5 steps to achieve effective task delegation within your company.

When used correctly, task delegation is key for increasing the productivity and growth of the whole organization. It doesn’t only help free time for more important tasks, but it will also promote growth opportunities for your employees and the rise of new talents and leaders.

Furthermore, if your objective is to save time and increase your productivity, you can also delegate secondary tasks to third-party providers. Outsourcing has become a common practice among all kinds of businesses, as it frees precious time from your employees and allows you to focus on more important tasks.

For example, we at 24Slides help organizations all around the world with 24-hour presentation design turnarounds. This way, our clients can send their content in the late afternoon, and rest assured that they’ll have an amazing, professionally designed presentation ready for them first thing in the morning. We constantly hear from them how much of a game changer it is and how much time they save by being able to completely forget about the tiresome task of presentation slides and focusing on what matters most.

Whether it’s to an employee, or to an external provider, learning how to efficiently delegate tasks can make your job much easier. Here are 5 steps to take into consideration the next time you’re thinking about delegating a task.

1. Define the tasks you need to delegate

If you’re feeling that you lose time over repetitive, routinary tasks, or maybe your backlog keeps piling up, then it might be time to delegate some of your tasks! First thing is to define exactly what you’re going to entrust to others.

There are many different kinds of tasks that you can delegate, and of course, this varies wildly from the field of work. However, there are still some general guidelines that can help you define what you can delegate to your team members.

A great option is to relegate routinary, tedious tasks that take more time than necessary. Tasks that feel way below your paygrade, or where your area of expertise or experience is not necessary, are good options to get rid of in order to free your time.

Thats why things like presentation design are such a good option to delegate. They are routinary tasks that are also extremely time-consuming. Not only that, delegating it to a design professional will definitely get you a much better end result than what you could do by yourself.

Another possibility to delegate tasks (and a sign of a great manager!) is when you’re able to recognize that there’s someone who could be doing a better job than yourself. No one is a specialist in every topic, and letting your team tackle tasks where they can do better is key to improve productivity.

2. Chose who’s going to take over

Task delegation is an excellent growth opportunity for your employees. It can be someone who already has the skills necessary to take over the task, or someone who’s interested in acquiring them. It’s your role as a manager to define not only who’s got the skills to do it better, but also who is up for it and willing to rise to the challenge!

Task delegation works the best when you’re not only ridding yourself of a task that’s clogging your backlog, but someone else can also benefit from taking it. Knowing your team, their skills, interests, and aspiring career paths and acting accordingly can make task delegation so much more efficient.

However, when talking about delegating tasks to a third service provider, it can be a little bit trickier! Especially in the case of recurring assignments. It’s important to evaluate carefully your options. The main characteristic you should look for is definitely reliability! This will assure you that your task will get done, and that you will not just end up having to deal with it by yourself at the last minute.

Our customers here at 24Slides always highlight that one of the main reasons they feel so confident delegating their presentations is because they can trust the end result will always comply with the turnaround dates and the quality standard.

3. Set goals and monitoring

Many people avoid delegating tasks as they feel hesitant to lose control over the project or are skeptical about the quality of the final product. In order to make task delegation truly efficient, it is critical to be as clear as possible when setting goals and overall strategy.

In order to get a good result, it is key that employees know what’s expected from them. Make sure that the end result is clear for everyone involved. This will make you feel more confident in delegating the task to someone else, and at the same time, it’ll be easier for the employee to take responsibility and accountability for the project.

It’s also a good idea to define clearly what’s the monitoring going to be like, as well as expected reports, turnaround dates, and overall updates. This will not only help the person taking over the task know what they should prepare for, but it’ll also help you avoid micromanaging.

Things like setting KPIs, or setting monthly update meetings will help you know how’s the project coming along without having to be perpetually vigilant over it. And, it will also help the employee take more accountability for the designated task.

In the case of third-party providers, it’s important to establish full transparency from both sides from the start. Make sure that you have a clear understanding on how is their working process and how it’ll integrate to yours to avoid any obstacles or miscommunication.

Being clear on things like how often you’ll get content, how and where should you leave your feedback, how is they payment procedure and so on can seem small, but they can help you assure that your task delegation experience is a successful one.

Things like having a satisfaction guarantee and security policies can make all the difference!

4. Provide your team with resources

To make sure the task delegation is truly a growth experience, it’s your responsibility as a manager to make sure whoever is taking over the task has everything they need to be successful.

Whether it is equipment, material, or even knowledge, evaluating together what they need and working on providing it for them is key to achieve efficient task delegation.

This includes creating effective communication channels for any unexpected changes and readjustments of the project. Keeping things transparent and an open communication challenge will make the delegated task easier for everyone involved. You’ll be able to inquire about any updates and turnarounds, and it’ll be easier for your team to contact you in case there are any questions or inconveniences.

5. Evaluate the outcome!

Finally, in order to make task delegation a constant practice, it’s essential to evaluate how was the experience and what could have been better. It’s important to assess not only the final result but the whole process.

You should ask both yourself and your team what went well and what could have been improved. Only this will allow you to learn from the experience, fix any issues that came along the way, and overall improve the task delegation process for next time.

Hopefully, these 5 steps for effective task delegation will have a positive impact on you and your teamwork. Remember that task delegation is all about trust and accountability. Help your team grow and rise up to the challenge.

If presentation design is one of those bothersome tasks you’re looking to delegate, then we have the perfect option for you! Companies all over the world trust 24Slides fast turnarounds to get their presentations ready without having to spend any effort on them.

Our presentation design experts will be happy to take your slides and turn them into a masterpiece that will maximize your content’s and brand’s impact. You and your team can leave it all in our hands, and focus on more important tasks that are worthy of your time!

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