Performance is a team sport. To maximize joy in what you do, you want to focus more on the activities you enjoy, the activities that you have a natural talent for, and minimize activities you aren't so good at. As such, you need to delegate activities to others— elicit their help! This doesn't mean you won't have to complete activities you don’t enjoy— there are activities that are natural necessities in life and work. The point is to focus most of your efforts and attention to the areas of your highest value.
Example: we do not love procuring or reading legal documentation, nor do we get excited about consolidating our accounts for tax purposes. But someone (e.g., an accountant) or something (e.g., Quickbooks software) can help us get those things done with ease— we delegate these tasks to the right people and technologies. But you might be wondering:
How do you know if it is worth paying someone or not?
What if you can’t hire someone?
What if you can’t afford a piece of software?
Here are three ways you can still delegate what you need:
Pay to get it done.
Barter to get it done.
A combination of 1) Pay and 2) Barter.
1) PAY TO GET IT DONE
First, pay someone to help you get it done. The microeconomic theory at play here is called opportunity cost— the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.
Example: if you ask us to reconcile our business accounts, it will take us hours (if not days) to do it, and chances are we'll still end up doing a very poor job. We could be using that time on more productive activities that earn us $2000/hour. Now, to get a professional to reconcile your accounts could cost us anywhere between $75 - $125/hour.
But what about more complex activities? How do you effectively and efficiently delegate activities if you are managing numerous staff, contractors, and partnerships? This is where the other productivity cycle elements come into play:
Define it.
Delegate.
Date it.
If you know what needs to get done and by when— defined and dated— you can find who or what should do them. Some of those activities you will do yourself, and others you will assign to other people or even technologies. When assigning activities and accountabilities to other people, answer these questions in sequence:
Who would consider this activity fun?
Who would be a natural at completing these tasks?
What expectation—workflow, timeliness, and quality—do you need to set so both parties are clear?
What (if any) information, resources, and mentoring do they need to get it done?
When delegating, we don’t always select someone based on proven experience— we also look at their natural talents, ask them what their personal and professional goals are, and communicate the activity in a way that helps them fulfill it.
Delegating is a skillset that takes time to develop. It isn’t something you learn overnight. When you get started, you will likely delegate poorly and to the wrong person. However, it is worth taking manageable risks to learn. If you find the right person to delegate effectively, the upside is tremendous.
These are some good indicators that your delegation efforts are working: 1) Reports feel inspired and enriched to help you out which builds goodwill, 2) Reports complete the activity effectively and on time (often ahead of time), and 3) You don’t feel compelled to micromanage or micro-monitor their efforts.
When we share this methodology with people we collaborate with—we all get better at saying ‘No’ to the things we shouldn't be doing and ‘Yes' to the things we should. And, team members have permission to say "No" without fear they might be perceived as lazy, unmotivated, or not doing enough work— this helps minimize ‘productivity theater.’Just like a game of professional soccer—you have a striker, mid-fielders, goalkeepers—everyone has specialized positions and understands where they add the most value and how they support each team member. Nobody complains if the striker isn’t doing the goalkeeping or if the goalkeeper isn’t scoring goals.
Second, embrace technology— many redundant administrative and repetitive activities have been automated by software. Give you an example:
Otter can help you create a professionally transcripted document of your audio recording, interview, podcast, or video recording.
QuickBooks has an app that you can use to take a photo of your receipts and have them automatically tallied as expenses.
Slack is an app that helps you manage all your team communications in one single fast, easy-to-use mobile, or desktop app.
Asana is a project management tool for teams to collaborate, stay on task, and stay on track.
Think of any activity that you would love to have automated, and likely, there is an app for it.
2) BARTER
Barter is a system of exchange where participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other products or services without using money as a medium of exchange.
The principle is simple— both parties perceive to gain more value for what they provide the other party. Suppose you are the CEO of a company that offers an app that helps people manage their networks— affinity.co is one such app.
You might find a market network influencer and offer him or her a complimentary subscription to your product. In exchange, you get access to their contacts, and you get to leverage their networks to build your brand without having to establish relationships from scratch. In exchange, they get to enjoy the benefits of managing and nurturing their networks using your app. This is a high-leverage exchange for both parties— they get access to a product they don't have to pay for, and you get to leverage their networks to build your brand without having to establish and nurture quality relationships from scratch.
3) COMBINATION OF PAY AND BARTER
Pay for part of the service and offer something else to pay for the deficit. This can take on numerous forms. You must assess the opportunities case-by-case, and you can get creative as you want. The principle stays the same—structure the deal in a way that both parties perceive gaining more than what they are required to give.
Remember: if you want to leverage your time by delegating, there is always a way. You can either pay to get it done, barter to get it done, or do a combination of both!