The Art of Delegation

[Music] hi this is Darren Hardy and welcome to this special module of the insane productivity training system on delegation if you have not yet reviewed module 7 that I encourage you to do that before diving into this module as it provides the baseline that you need for the more advanced discussion we're about to have right here on the proper mechanics of delegation now if for some reason you've found your way to this module without being a member of insane productivity that I encourage you to become a member immediately membership is not opened but infrequently and by invitation only but if you've been invited to watch a special module that I can assume that you have a sponsor connected to our community so here's where to go find that backdoor entry to access the full insane productivity training system go to insane productivity dot-com /v IP friend ok now let's dive into this special training module the question posed to Richard Branson was this what do you think is one of the most underrated leadership skills that entrepreneurs and leaders credit their success to Richard said this it's the simple ability of leaders to delegate and let go in further explanation he said the key enterprising skills I used when I first started out were the very same one that I use today the art of delegation risk-taking surrounding yourself with great people and a great team and working on projects that you really believe in you'll notice the last part of his sentence is not even possible without the beginning part of the sentence which is the art of delegation it is an art and one that requires great skill practice and constant improvement it is a skill that I am constantly working on and improving myself as well I've suffered the psychological blocks the excuses the justifications for not delegating or doing it poorly than blaming the one that I delegated to only validating psychological anxieties about delegating in the first place I think delegating is particularly challenging for us human beings because it incites much of our weakness and social programming ego thinking that you can do it better need for control recognition and fear of not getting credit or procrastination and excuse making rejection or reacting from others and feeling guilty why you should ask someone else to do what you don't want to do yourself this is why even though we know delegating work plays such an important role in leadership and achieving our big hairy and audacious goals we still see very competent people structure stress struggle to delegate or delegate enough highly talented people relegate themselves to attending to routine and lower-level tasks the founder of the JC Penney retail chain James Cash Penney yeah by the way that is actually his name James Cash Penney crazy right this is what Cash Penney said he said the surest way for a leader to kill him or herself is to refuse to learn how to and win and to whom to delegate work the inability to delegate properly is one of the main reasons why leaders fail but leaders often mistake delegation for passing off work so they don't do it and thus they end up wasting their time as well as the company's time and resources as Richard Branson says if you really want to grow as an entrepreneur or a leader of any kind you have got to learn to delegate he said and I'll read this for you when my friends and I started up virgin I knew that I was lacking vital knowledge on some subjects and so I started learning this skill the art of delegation very early in my career i delegated the areas that I struggled with to people who also believed in the project this freed up my time to focus on what I was good at for me as founder of an entity that now operates 400 enterprises the one thing I was good at was finding the next business to start up look if you to be a high achiever you need to give up the activities others can do better so that you can do what you are gifted to do the quality of your life the quantity of your achievements come down to one metric the number of hours you spend in your strength zone your unique genius zone your passion zone your high-energy zone and your high outcome zone staying exclusively on the right side of your leverage curve your ability to delegate and manage important tasks outside your few vital functions is the key to you rising above your current performance thus current income level thus towards the lifestyle of your dreams and the life that you were meant to live here's another critical lesson learning how to delegate is not only about maximizing your own productivity in value it is also about maximizing the productivity of your team your job as a leader is to get the highest return on the company's investment in people the average person today is working about 50% of their capacity with effective leadership and delegation skills you can tap into that unused 50% potential and increase your team's productivity dramatically now I know that you already know this and you know that you need to delegate more but yet you're still not doing it or enough or properly so let's stop shooting yourself and just do it delegate it or delete it but just get on with it already so here's what happens most people give up on delegating because the few times they tried those that the delicate delegated to didn't do it right or the way that they wanted it done so then they became gun-shy about doing it thereafter does that sound familiar well I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but there's a 99% chance the reason why it's your fault not theirs they didn't do it wrong you did you failed to delegate correctly first off delegation is not abdicating you can't just say hair you do this let me give you a for instance there's a certain lady that I know who will remain nameless for my own she had recently hired a housekeeper but that housekeeper to my surprise was soon fired I asked the lady who will remain nameless if she had spent time training the housekeeper on her preferences and if she provided the housekeeper with the products that she wanted her to use her response to me was she's a housekeeper I would expect her to know how to clean and have the right products I retorted but she's not a mind reader and that's the first mistake I think we make when it comes to delegating we expect the person who is getting the baton to read our mind and know exactly what to do with it how the baton should be held and the direction and the speed and the desired running style we prefer that they have all those details have to be passed with the baton so let's start with this fundamental successful delegation has more to do with the delegator not the one being delegated to this is where the responsibility lies if you want the job done right you have to learn how to delegate it properly so let's outline the proper process are you ready okay of all the convoluted advice there is out there on this topic and trust me there is a lot because I've made a study of this skill for my own use and development it boils down to these five key points that I'll outline for you now okay here we go first off you have to set time aside to delegate one of the biggest excuses or let's say barriers to delegation is the perception that you don't have enough time to find the right person or adequately explain or teach your team member the skills necessary for a delegated task so you just do it yourself sound familiar even though it may take you less time to complete that task now where does that put you the next time that task must be completed this feeling is paradoxical because one of the main benefits of delegation is saving time in a special video series that I produced called wicked awesome productivity tricks to kick your butt into high gear I aligned three productivity strategies one of them was titled how to play God how to manufacture time yes how to actually create from what seems like thin air new time time you didn't have before and you wouldn't have had in the future if you hadn't applied this strategy one aspect of that is investing the time now so that you could benefit from the compound return of that time time and time again without spending any more extra time that is what pausing for a few moments investing the time now to find train and equip a person to take over a task for you can deliver then you can reap the reward of that investment over and over again as they continue to perform that task for you but it requires an investment upfront know that and understand that the future returns are so compelling that it will compel you to make that investment the compounded interest the compounded time it returns to you is so magical and so magnificent it's almost godlike this is how people like Richard Branson Jeff Bezos Elon Musk and the rest can enjoy a compounded return on their time they made one investment in finding training and equipping somebody to delegate - which leaves them free to frolic on the beach like Branson or play with your Rockets like musk or continue to pursue world domination like bees owes so number one is this force yourself to hit the pause button invest the time now so you can reap the multiplied and ongoing return got that one now be sure to be patient the first time you delegate any tasks it's almost certainly gonna take longer than doing it yourself that's just normal just remember that the payoff down the line is well worth it okay here's number two delegate to the right person not just anyone - right someone I start with finding someone who loves what I hate it's always amazing to me that someone loves to do everything it's true things that I think are dull laborious downright soul-crushing other people find fun and exhilarating and then there are people who find what I do to be dull laborious and downright soul-crushing - and it's quite fascinating to me there are people who love to build complicated spreadsheet formulas some people who love crunching numbers some people who love writing code some people who love working on cars some people who love working outside or hanging with their pals on a construction site or taking care of a garden to someone each of those activities is play to me everything I just listed to you I hate to do but yet they love it it's interesting right if there was ever evidence of a grand designer to me this is one of those clues how perfectly balanced and designed all this really is now your job is to just match the person to the job find someone who loves to do what you want done find someone who plays at that thing you find work now if you find someone who loves to do what you need done usually that also means that they have a super power in that skill usually what involves your super power is also something that you like doing like Superman's affinity for flying or Aquaman's joy of swimming now I don't want to assume anything here so let me be sure to add in this use your instincts just because someone is enthusiastic to help you have to also pick someone whom you can trust your assignment to for example there is the fable of the sheep herder and the wolf a sheep herder guarding his flock had a wolf continually prowling around his sheep the shepherd watched very anxiously to prevent him from carrying off one of his precious lambs but the wolf did not try to do any harm instead he seemed to be just helping the shepherd look after and take care of his sheep at last the shepherd got so used to seeing the wolf about that he forgot about the nature of the wolf one day the shepherd had to go to town on an errand and the wolf enthusiastically volunteered to watch after the flock but when the shepherd returned he was horrified to see how many of his flock had been killed and carried off he knew how foolish it was to delegate or to trust a wolf as he explained I've been rightly served why did I trust my sheep with a wolf the moral the story is this be sure that you pick the right people to delegate to those whom you can trust to not kill your flock or projects trust your instincts the other consideration in finding the right person is in the works standards and values that they keep for instance I'm a bit of what we like to call on our team OCE instead of OCD obsessive-compulsive disorder we call it obsessive commitment to excellence in the choice structure of fast cheap or excellent pick two you've heard that before I will always pick excellent and fast in that order I'll spend more money I'll give you more time even to do it with excellence instead of just getting something cheap or sacrifice excellence in speed I will be much more at ease and sleep better at night if I know I have delegated something to someone who also shares my standards for excellence now don't get me wrong I'm not saying having a standard of excellence is any better many people and many people far wealthier and more successful than I would say throw it all up on the wall and see what sticks I'm just sharing you my preference and what will allow me to trust the person I'm delegating to thus also relieving me of not only the task but the mental anguish of it being done to this standard that I want it done when you pick the person that you're going to delegate to tell them why explain that you recognize their their unique superpower in this particular area tell them how you've seen them grow and develop and hope that this assignment is an opportunity for them to take on more responsibilities grow new skills and advance their development further number three is this clearly define the goal and what success looks like when delegating a task don't just explain the what of the task but also the why behind it why does this task need to be done in the first place why is the decision what is the decision around making it for instance let's say that you're teaching the task of providing a refund don't just explain that task functions but explain why this purse that's getting a refund and the decision-making process behind it this will not only teach them a skill but also start fasting fostering autonomy next explain how they will be measured how will you know if the job is completed properly or not schedule a deadline with progressive check-in points you are not going to micromanage and presetting any necessary check-in points relieves you of having to continually think about it once the deadline and the check-in points are established this will allow you to clear the entire assignment for your mind you know exactly when you will get an update this is essentially boxing and shelving the assignment in your head pick the person train and equip them complete the handoff and then it goes back onto the shelf for you until the next check-in clarity of deadlines and check-ins is not only mentally relieving for you but most importantly to the person being assigned the task clarity uncertainty is empowering knowing where the end zone is what play is being called and when the next huddle for regrouping allows them to just focus on performing now here's an important distinction that I needed to learn in my own delegation delegate the objective not the procedure this is the key to not being a nightmare of a micromanager which I probably was in the past instead of instead set clear standards for what kind of quality of results you're looking for and then let them do it if they need training on how to do it then show the person how you do it but let them know that they can do it any way they want as long as it's done well and gets completed on time just be sure you communicate clearly as a fun example I read a story that allegedly took place in a factory in the US which manufactured the tickle-me-elmo toys you know that that toy right the children's plush toy that lasts when you tickle it under the arm well legend has it that a new employee was hired at the tickle-me-elmo Factory and she was duly she duly reported for her first days induction training and then took her place on the production line at 8:45 the next day the personnel manager received a visit from a very excited XM alleline foreman who was not pleased about the performance of this new recruit the foreman explained that she was far too slow and that she was causing the entire line to back up delaying the whole production schedule the personnel manager asked to see what was happening so both men proceeded to the factory floor on arrival they saw that the line was indeed badly backed up there were hundreds of tickle-me-elmo strewn all over the factory floor and they were still piling up virtually buried in a mountain of toys sat the new employee earnestly focused on her work she had a roll of red plush fabric and a bag of marbles the two men watched amazed as she cut a little piece of fabric wrapped it around a pair of marbles and then carefully began sewing the little package between elmo's legs the personnel manager began to laugh and it was some while before he could compose himself at which he approached the trainee and said I'm sorry I would not being able to disguise his amusement but I think you misunderstood the instructions that I gave you yesterday your job is to give Elmo to test tickles sorry I just thought that it was time for a comedy break and it does provide an act applicable lesson here that be clear in your communication the slightest misinterpretation can cause quite a calamity another key point is to focus on the results not perfection be more concerned about the outcome versus the process I still have to remind myself of this I find myself clearing up people's online documents their communications and imposing my way of doing things unto others I have to remind myself of this key all the time focus on the outcome not the process I am NOT interested in the method only the result let people do it their way I'm saying that out loud right now for not only you but to hear myself say it again ok now if you have some crazed seek works that you just know drive you crazy then go ahead and share your preferences even if it does make you look well crazy maybe you insist that they only use jumbo paperclips or label files only using a Sharpie or only use 4x6 cards never 3x5 or only write in blue ink never black or whatever by the way those are some actual obsessions of some very successful people that I know number next I think it's number four is to make sure that they are properly equipped set them up with all the tools all the resources or support that they're going to need in advance if it's heart surgery don't send them in with a hammer if it's building a house a scalpel won't do either make sure that they have the right tools to do the job you're asking of them and number five is this once you have picked the right person clearly define the goal set the deadlines and the progress check in points and made sure that they were equipped to do the job let them loose number five is just trust them as Richard said in the beginning of this delegate and let go you need to delegate responsibility and authority not just the task have a deadline completion and check-in times then get out of the way and leave them the heck alone the check-in points allow you to trust as Ronald Reagan was taught and he liked to repeat to the point of irritation to Mikhail Gorbachev trust but verify at the signing of the INF T treaty on December 8th in 1987 Reagan said it once again and Gorbachev responded in exasperation you repeat that at every meeting to which Reagan answered yeah because I like it and so should you ok so there you have the formula for effective delegation 1 pause to take time to delegate to pick the right person someone who plays at the type of work or someone who shares your standards and someone you can trust don't delegate to the wolf to guard the sheep that doesn't turn out well number 3 then clearly the goal of the assignment and the why behind it number four assign deadlines check-ins and any cray-cray idiosyncrasies or preferences that you have and number five make sure they are equipped and let them fly now let me answer a couple of questions that I know that you have how do I know because a few of your alumni have asked me these questions the first one comes in from garrett cron he asked me this let me read it to you for those of us who are not yet making our hourly rate how do we switch our perspective from it's cheaper for me to do it and it saves me money to do it to it's more expensive for me to do it and it cost me money even if I'm not yet seeing the hourly rate in my bank account planning and trusting that the money will come as we begin delegating how does one bridge that gap alright Garrett I'll explain and expand on the story that I gave during the live session and reiterate the answer that was given to me when I asked Ken Fisher a member of the Forbes 400 richest people at America I asked Ken how he managed to get the proverbial bee in his title and net worth bee for billionaire his answer flabbergasted me at the time ever since then I've been trying to master his advice and this is the advice that you need to hear again Garrett and probably most everybody listening now so here it is here's a billion dollar answer or I guess in Ken's case two billion dollar answer when I asked them how he became a billionaire he said I quit I just kept quitting all the jobs all the way up to the top huh I responded I know not a very thoughtful or a very articulate response but that's it kind of caught me off guard he continued by saying whatever it is that you're doing in your business right now your goal is to really find a way to quit it you need to stop doing almost everything that you do in the office he could see that I was still perplexed so he explained further once the founder has the vision the key to succeeding on that vision is to delegate and to delegate as much as fast as possible delegation is a form of quitting the fact is that even if you are the most well-rounded and capable founder or CEO of all time you are still better off delegating functions off to specialists this allows you to apply the size of your endeavor through large numbers of people rather than trying to do everything yourself so the process of quitting is really trying to give up every part of your job as fast as you can other than playing the part of visionary leader now we've been talking about that all module long hopefully you've gotten that message loud and clear but it was the next question that I asked Ken that gets to your particular situation Garret and probably many others that are listening now so pay close attention here I asked them so how does one go about this if they're just starting out so here's what his answer was and I'm gonna read it for you directly he said look when you first start a business it's likely that you're going to have to do everything sales customer service accounting all the way down to taking out the trash your goal is to get enough sales going so that you can quit taking out the trash and hire someone else to do it get more sales going and then quit doing the accounting hire a specialist to do it get more sales going and quit doing the customer service - there are people who are probably better at that than you anyway he said you want to go from everything to nothing except leading you can only get there by quitting everything as fast as you can he concluded by saying you want to turn labour into leadership as the founder CEO you should not be doing labour anything you should only be leading others who are doing the labour now I want to reiterate the source code to that process and that is sales as I wrote about in my book the entrepreneur roller coaster everything starts with sales nothing matters until you sell something nothing you can vision cast you can dream board you can draft fancy business plans you can meet with consultants you can design nifty logos and get pretty business cards and letterhead made but if there's no sales there's no business no cash flow no resources no other choices are possible until a sale happens a sale tells you whether you even have a business a sale starts the entire process and is the first thing every new business needs it's the lifeblood of the business you have a problem sales will solve most of them and the most product the most common problems you will run into when it comes to surviving and sustaining your business is guess what yes sales if the idea of sales as your top priority every day is making your stomach queasy then you'll need this spoonful of medicine suck it up and go out and sell something a lot every day because it will allow you to quit to quit taking out the trash quit doing the accounting quit doing the customer service or whatever it else is it that you ultimately want to delegate the funds to delegate come from sales in fact usually what you are needing to delegate is all those things that will free you up to be doing more sales and no doubt you can make more money selling than taking out the trash or doing the accounting or customer service or filing papers are doing expense reports or commenting on Facebook and the like I know no one wants to hear this answer but it is the answer selling pays all the bills all the expenses all the salaries all the profit for your entire lifestyle no sales all that collapses the main reason why ken Fischer became a billionaire when so many of his peers in the same industry selling exactly the same service struggle to survive is he got really good at sales and marketing ken runs a financial advisor firm with more than 50 billion dollars under management ask anyone else in his industry if his service performs any better than most anyone elses or if he is seemingly smarter than any other financial wizards in the market and I can tell you firsthand because I was a client of Ken's for more than a decade the answer is most certainly not it's on par but what they what he did get great at is that he's killer at sales and marketing the formula he outlined in that answer the one that he gave me was that quitting everything but sales and marketing until he reached such a scale that he no longer even has to sell on the front lines that is but make no mistake about it he's still the number one salesperson so Garrett I'm glad you asked this question because this allowed us to have this very frank conversation about the priority of any business whether you own it or not in the chaos of competing priorities and projects and fire drills it's easy to lose sight of the most essential fundamental sales it's the first and most important priority of any business period if you are an individual it is what you do to get paid that is the first priority you are still selling something a results what is that result doing that is the first priority period speaking of which let me bring in a second question from Sergio Cunha he asked this let me read it to you I find it hard to delegate since I don't own my company and since I am on the bottom of the totem pole in my company I am thankful to have learned about this skill early in my career even though I can't use it yet when I find myself in a better position to delegate I will be sure to look for opportunities ASAP nope Sergio the time might be right now as I mentioned your company hired you to produce a result that result is valuable to them all those things that distract you or take time away from that result that hinder your result those things still might need to get done but also might be less valuable than the result that you're hired for it's up to you to initiate a conversation with your boss or as you will learn in a future module inside of insane productivity you have to vitalize your boss sit down with them and get agreement on what are the vital functions to your job role next calculate the hourly rate based on your hourly rate and what is paid for you to produce the outcomes of your vital functions now what are still the tasks that are hindering your ability to deliver more on that vital function what could you delegate get assistance or outsource to help some of those tasks get done likely there are front desk receptionist assistants or other team members at a lower rate who could help if they're if if not there is a plethora of outsource contractors or project-by-project people who can that you can help find so identify a goal that if you get assistance on X number of tasks that you can produce X more the Delta between that is a net gain for the company get an outsourced budget approved and then go produce insane results insanely fast and now that you have the help you can do it sanely hey I'm constantly asking my assistant to go help a sister I have $20 and our team members who I'm constantly pushing to outsource tasks to Fiverr or freelance calm or up work or thumbtack or whatever if I can get my $20 an hour person to outsource tedious and repetitive and laborious work to someone overseas for eight to ten dollars an hour I can multiply the value of that $20 an hour person and keep them sane and happy doing high-value work where an indoctrination to our culture is essential you see this works right up the pace pay scale it drives me nuts when I find someone I'm paying $125 an hour do something that I know I could hire somebody else to do for $50 or $75 they cost me money when they don't delegate with the right education Sergio your boss will understand that quickly as well okay that should clear up most fears apprehensions and the oh yeah but what about here are the last two bits of essential advice for you on delegating number one force yourself to delegate look most people have a natural sense of ownership in their work they want to do anything and everything they can they want to be and be perceived as responsible so they want to do much of the work themselves as possible for the most part this is an admirable trait but one that will hinder you and your ability to ascend the totem pole in life you have to force yourself to delegate some work away even if you don't want to even if it's a task you actively wants to be doing it still may be better for you to delegate it and number two do it before you ready delegate before you're ready because here's the deal you'll never be ready if you wait till you're overwhelmed and on the verge of burning out delegating may even end up stressing you out even more and it may be too little too late instead you need to be proactive identify what you should be focused on versus what is coming at you and recognize when demands are piling up as early as possible and take the pause now to start delegating before it becomes too late if you are delegating because you're overwhelmed it's already too late so bottom line go delegate as fast as possible as much as possible since we started with the advice from the master delegator himself Sir Richard Branson let's end with the advice from the knighted one with his assistant of 31 years when asked what's the biggest productivity mistake most people make and what should they do to fix it specifically she responded with this people often end up being busy on the wrong things so they feel that they're being productive but it isn't getting their business or their career anywhere Richard was a master at being productive only on the things that pushed Virgen forward that is the best advice you can get become a master at being productive only on the things that push your mission your business and your goals forward so I'll see you back inside the insane productivity training system for module 8 as we continue to uncover the success vitals that you need to help you create insane results insanely fast sanely [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Darren Hardy

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Length: 35min 30sec (2130 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 13 2019