We can’t do it all in business or life in general so we must delegate tasks and or action to move the business agenda forward. Wikipedia defines delegation as: “The assignment of authority to another person to carry out specific activities. It is the process of distributing and entrusting work to another person. Delegation is one of the core concepts of management leadership.”

Delegating is probably one of the most mishandled forms of communication in business. Delegation has two parts to it, to delegate and to follow-up. A majority of the time the second part is generally not done or in a timely manner.

Typically, an order is barked out verbally and not written down then forgotten or an email was sent and then lost in the minutiae of the day with the thousands of other emails received.

There are simple tools that can be incorporated into your daily life to improve efficiencies and reduce your stress in a simple way:

• Old school “Avoid Verbal Orders” (AVO’s) a two-part written form given to the person you are tasking that states what is to be done and when it is to be done by then keeping a copy for your recorders to follow-up with.
• Using a built-in task manager such as Outlook where a task can be assigned with a due date.
• The incorporation of an excel spreadsheet that may list several tasks to one person or to a group, listing the tasks, issue date, and a required completion date.
• Specialized task management software (there are many) with the following attributes:
• Project Management.
• Team Collaboration.
• Individual workload Management.
• Time Tracking.
• Client Permission Management.
• Third Party Integration.
• Team Chat.
• Gantt Charts.

An effective method for moving agenda’s forward and to manage tasks on a professional manner is to have frequent staff and or team meetings that review the goals and tasks to verify their progression as well as their current validity. This helps the communication process and guards against “gotchas” that nobody wants if they are truly authentic in their agendas.

We delegate on a daily basis, whether we know it or not. By professionalizing the process there is a high likelihood that this skill may spill over into your personal life and help to reduce miscommunication that may lead to senseless arguments and animosity that does no one any good.

As I have countlessly said “we are all in the communication business”. If we can’t communicate effectively, business can’t be successful and grow.