Choices When Delegating Tasks

You have several choices on how to spend resources to get tasks done right. Which method is cost-effective, gets the task done right and involves the least amount of your time?

Do it yourself

Your time is your most valuable commodity. If you do routine tasks yourself, you put the highest-priced person (you) in the position of performing simple tasks. This choice directly conflicts with growing your business and reducing your stress.

Ask an existing employee to do the task

Employees have only so much time and knowledge. When you add more tasks to an employee’s task list, what tasks drops off? Or, which tasks are rushed so that the whole list is done by the end of the business day? As important, is the employee highly skilled at what you asked him/her to do? If the answer is “no”, then you are paying for ongoing learning and potentially inferior results. Plus, your time will be drawn into managing that person and holding them accountable. While this choice gets the task off your plate, it only does so only partially. Your time is still required.

Hire an expert full-time or part-time

Hiring an expert who is very skilled in a task is a strong choice. However, hiring an expert full-time is expensive. Even a part-time expert may be costly. You must have the budget to support this choice. Plus, when something comes up outside of the expert’s skill area, you search and hire another expert. That’s more cost to your company. Even when an expert is involved, you are drawn into the process of managing the person and holding them accountable.

Hire a novice full-time or part-time

The wise saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” Choosing someone who is less skilled at a task often means getting lower quality results. Do you really want to trade lower cost for lower quality? Why take the risk? You rarely get the value you desire. The consequence may be upset customers and lost profits. Plus, you are required to jump back into the whole process of closely managing the person, finding someone to do the task better, improving the process, and paying for them to learn the skills on your time. Your time is still required.

Hire a fully-supported expert on a project-basis

Hire an expert who has the skills, online tools and support team to deliver quality results without drawing you into the process. On a project-basis you pay for the time used to complete the task. That’s cash efficient. The expert takes full ownership of the task and results. The expert improves the process. The expert solves issues that come up. Best of all, your time is free to do what you do best. This choice best supports growing your business.