INTRO

It’s been AWHILE since I’ve seen you all in person and March 22 I’m hosting my first virtual event of the new year.

What makes it better is I’m co-hosting with my good friend Drew Williams, who doesn’t post a ton on social, but is one of the best leadership minds I’ve ever met.

And since the virtual event is all about delegation, don’t be surprised if you see me writing about effective delegation for the rest of this month.

Those of you who follow me on social might have already signed up, but fore everyone else CLICK HERE and register for free.

I’m excited to see you all there!

LEADER’S LENS

Delegate without becoming the bottleneck

Thanks to my friend Mary Carlisle for her help with this article. Be sure to subscribe to her newsletter focused on helping you build a business that serves you!

I'm calling this a deep dive, but I'm hoping it won't be. I'm trying to keep it simple.

This guide will help you get the most out of each day and ensure you've set your team up for success. 

This simple tool will help you do both more effectively.

A couple of things I'll note before getting started.

• I'm calling this a quadrant for now, but it's not.

• It is inspired by the Eisenhower Matrix but is not the Eisenhower Matrix.

(Watch me break this Matrix Down on TikTok)

 Here is the Leader's Lens Matrix in all of its glory:

Let's analyze how to get the most out of each box.

Do Now

You should have at most three priorities in this box.

As a leader, you know you will get pulled in a million different directions throughout the day.

• Fire Drills

• Staff issues

• Inventory issues

• Urgent client matters

Your time to work on forward-thinking projects is limited. You need to be proactive in deciding what you will do with this limited availability. 

These are the tasks that will have the biggest impact on your business.

These might include:

• 1:1s with direct reports

• Company-wide communication

• Focus groups with employees or customers

• Recognition programs

• Industry trend analysis

• Communication with vendors

Whatever these tasks are, get them done EARLY, so the day is a win before you eat lunch.

If you can complete the 3 more critical tasks for your business each day, you can be confident you are moving your organization in a positive direction.

🕶 What tasks are top priority that directly contribute to hitting goals/generating revenue/growing your business?  Tasks in this group should flow easily for you (do what you do best and delegate all the rest!) and be things that only the leader should do.

• Sales (all or at least the biggest deals depending on size of your organization)

• Networking

• Being the face of your company/team

• Coaching/Development for direct reports

• Planning

Ask why am I the best person to do this task?  If your answer is “because it will just take longer for me to show someone else how to do it’ OR “because someone else may accomplish the task in a different way than me”, then, these are NOT the right tasks for you to be doing.

If there are things on the list that you’re doing to stay busy instead of productive, those are not the right tasks for you.  You can likely pay someone a lower rate to accomplish these tasks and make better use of your time.

Do Next

The Do Next list can get overwhelming if you let it.

This is the list of important tasks that need to be completed but aren't today's top priorities.

This list will become a monster if you let it.

This list should start as a brain dump. 

First, get everything you need to do down on paper. 

Next, take time to organize your list–this might be separate pages in Notion or a color-coded system.

Once everything is on paper and organized, put it aside and don't think about it until your Do Now list is done.

🕶  These are also tasks that only you can do and contribute to top priority things (hitting goals/generating revenue/growing the business) but you have a little more time to accomplish them.  These should be tasks that need to be accomplished within the next 30 days.  Pro Tip:  Everything else (to be accomplished more than 30 days out) should be added to a parking lot document to come back to later.  

Key to this box:  Scheduling these tasks out in your calendar now so that you make sure they get accomplished within the next 30 days!  Don’t wait until the last minute, allow for unexpected things to pop up that you might need to handle and still be able to accomplish these tasks.

Delegate

If your Do Next list is full and your Delegate list is empty, you have a problem.

It's time for you to hand off some of that work.

Be honest with yourself. There is very little on that list that you actually NEED to do. Most of it stays on YOUR list because you want to do or you might hold onto things because you need to be sure they get done.

As a leader, you have to understand the difference between getting work done and doing the work.

It's only possible for you to scale your impact by learning to delegate effectively.

Pass some of that work on to your team!

Three questions to ask yourself when deciding who to delegate to:

• Who has bandwidth?

• Who would enjoy this project and do it well?

• Who would benefit most from this experience?

Delegation is a great way to look for opportunities for your team to do more of the things they are good at. It's also a great way to provide development opportunities for your team.

I'll dive more into delegation at some point, but here is a simple framework for you to use in the meantime.

You can trust you've delegated effectively if everyone involved can answer these 4 questions:

1. Why is this project important?

2. What is my role in completion?

3. When do my tasks need to be completed?

4. How do I complete my tasks?

🕶 Delegate can also mean to Automate - is there a technology that can automate manual tasks that you’re currently doing in your business.  Ask someone on your team to look into ways to automate recurring tasks that happen in your business.  These can be found in project management tools, communication tools such as CRMs or social media planning tools that allow you to batch create and schedule posts out in advance, financial tools that allow you to auto-pay invoices, etc. etc.

Consider what training/information is needed to feel confident delegating to a team member.  

• Are your processes documented?  If so, is the documentation up to date?

• Record how-to videos for the team member to use for training and reference purposes.

• Keep your standard operating procedures in a shared space where team members can access them anytime they need them.

• Be okay with the idea of someone doing something different than you would as long as the task gets accomplished.

Follow Up

You have to inspect what you expect.

Once you've delegated a task, move it over to the Follow-Up box.

Without follow-up, nothing will move forward in your organization.

Follow-up also allows you to check on progress, recognize a job well done, and provide feedback.

All are investments. 

🕶 The key to this box is to ensure that you schedule time to follow-up to inspect progress, provide recognition, and ensure the tasks are being accomplished.  Utilizing a tracking system to help ensure things don’t fall through the cracks is very helpful here.  This can be as simple as tracking on a Google sheet or excel spreadsheet or using a project management system to track team task assignments. 

Every task should 2 things: 

1. One owner (and ONLY ONE.  More than one causes it to be no one’s responsibility and for accountability purposes, one person should ultimately be responsible for the task)

2. A due date.  

Don't Do

This is the best box.

List out the things you won't do.

Here are a few things on my Don't Do list:

• Pick up my phone during a meeting

• Start my day without listing my priorities

• Make a change without communicating to all impacted people

• Commit to a new project without looking at my schedule first

Your Don't Do list should be filled with the things you know will hold you back. It's impossible to make this list without self-awareness.

We all have bad habits and actions we take that prevent us from being at our best.

 Take time to write this down as a reminder.

🕶 Are there tasks that are currently preventing you from being able to do the items in your Top priority TO DO Box?  If so, those things need to be moved to another box  (or the parking lot) ASAP.  Setting boundaries and sticking to them will be key for this. 

REPEAT THIS PROCESS EVERY WEEK.  SCHEDULE TIME TO DO THIS CONSISTENTLY TO BUILD THE HABIT AND SYSTEMATIZE IT FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM.  BE TRANSPARENT WITH YOUR TEAM SO EVERYONE IS ON THE SAME PAGE OF WHAT YOU’RE WORKING ON AND HOW THEIR ROLE PLAYS INTO THE GOALS OF THE ORGANIZATION.  

The Podcast

The new podcast is live!

I’m partnering with my friend Cassidy each week to discuss leadership lessons from our favorite movies.

I’m excited for this new direction. The conversations have been a lot of fun and I’m loving having a co-pilot there to bounce ideas back and forth with.

Give it a listen here.