As a presenter, you likely hold some level of leadership in your organization. Leadership can come with the feeling of needing to “do it all.” True, there is certainly some merit to leaders knowing every facet of their industry. However, it’s important that a leader is not the sole member of their organization with the ability to do a large portion of the work. While teaching peers to own different facets of the business may take time and trust, it should save burn-out in the long run. The best leaders have learned how to delegate well. Therefore, they have freedom to focus on forward progress for the health and longevity of their field.
What delegation is and isn’t
Delegation is not simply offloading responsibilities to those around you. Many leaders rise within their organization, maintaining responsibilities as they go. Praised for “rolling up their sleeves” and doing the work alongside their subordinates. However, there are still only 24 hours in a day, even leaders need to actually rest for some of them.
Learning to delegate the right tasks is key. There’s no need to be overzealous by sending your PA to your next meeting with stakeholders. A healthy balance of maintaining essential responsibilities and allowing others within your organization to have some ownership is what we are looking for here.
Take a long, hard look
In order to lead effectively, take some time to write down all of the responsibilities you’ve collected through the weeks, months, or years you’ve been in your line of work. Does it scare you to relinquish control of some of the more menial tasks for fear they won’t be done correctly? Highlight the tasks that aren’t helping you move forward, and start there. Is there a time consuming report that is run weekly you could hand off? Finding responsibilities you can and should train someone else to do takes time and finesse. See if you can start small with three or four items to get your feet wet, and go from there.
Don’t Teach, Empower
Now, the art of delegation begins with ideology. You are not simply teaching someone else how to do an element of your job. By delegating the right task to the right team member, you’re empowering them. Trusting someone with a small task you find very important gives them the chance to prove themself to you and the rest of the company. Ensuring this message comes across to them clearly and delicately is important. For example, your peer and the weekly report. They will likely take the responsibility seriously if you’ve laid out its importance. It’s imperative you also give them all the tools needed to execute the task properly. This new task is not simply an opportunity to earn a “good job” from you. It is a chance for them to feel they are contributing something meaningful to the whole.
Once you have all of the cogs turning effectively within your organization, your newfound freedom is powerful. Now, you have found those within your team you can trust. That trust gives you the ability to push the envelope on productivity and think outside of the box. Hopefully, the delegated tasks have sharpened skill sets and feelings of purpose within your team. Another option is to hire the experts if a task is not within the skill set of your field, like content or design. Ethos3 can take your presentation to the next level of design and/or messaging. Contact us today for a free quote!
