3 Steps of Learning How to Delegate
Delegation – what a scary word! If just hearing it makes you cringe, I’ve put together a few things tips to make you and your team’s lives a little better. The #1 key to delegating is to trust the integrity and competence of the person you are delegating to. When a mature leader has a mature team member, and trust and competency are strong, they can delegate effectively.
(1) Know It’s OK to Ask for Help
Simon Sinek once said something along the lines of, “I learned that I don’t have to have all the answers, and when I don’t, I don’t have to pretend I do.” He went on to say that realization allowed him to ask for help when he needed it and the vulnerability that made him feel. My goodness, that’s certainly relatable. Office managers wear many hats and are relied on to have all the answers to the world’s problems. When I don’t have the answers, I don’t enjoy the way that makes me feel. Knowing when you can’t do it all or give 100% to a task is the first step to learning how (or what) to delegate.
(2) Trust Your Team
“If we tell people what to do, we get workers, if we trust them to do their jobs, we get leaders.”
Just like my AADOM tribe, our goal is to train our team in such a way, their inner leadership skills shine through. We’ve handpicked the outstanding group of people we have on our team and need to trust them to do the job. After all, we hired and meticulously trained them for it. Allowing them to take on tasks gives them a renewed sense of purpose. It also shows the confidence you have in them and their abilities. They’re fantastic – let them be!
(3) Choose Which Tasks to Delegate
Our day is filled with a million tasks and usually with an end-of-day deadline. You don’t HAVE to be overwhelmed. When we take a flight on a plane, they give a safety talk where they tell you to put your mask on before you help your neighbor. You have to take care of yourself to be able to care for each other. This concept can also be applied to daily life, where delegation helps make things easier. When you learn how to delegate, you take time to lay out priorities and find the tasks that must be completed by you, the manager, and which tasks the team can complete. The day could go much smoother for everyone. It seems like such a simple thing to hand over an email follow-up or a phone call to pay a lab bill, but having the urge to handle it all can be a hang-up. If you feel the need for everything to be perfect or you’ll just do it yourself, challenge yourself to learn to let go and delegate.
About the Author
Brooke Paul is a Practice Coordinator for Beaver Creek Dental in Knoxville, TN. She is a proud lifetime member of the American Association of Dental Office Management and was inducted as a Master in 2023.
