How to do a task in the fastest possible time through super delegation?

Most of the time we delegate tasks which we are currently doing to free up our calendar. We have skills, experience and we can coach people how to do a task. We know what steps to follow to make a decision and what to expect as the end result. We also know what problems might arise during the execution of delegated tasks and we also know solutions to them. But, in our career there will be situations where we need to get some work done through others while we have almost zero knowledge about how to execute those tasks.

For example, you might want to run a marketing campaign or facebook ads for your business but you neither have experience nor the skills to do it. You might want to create a animated movie for some purpose or you might want to set up another department or business unit in your company. There are two ways to do it, either you start learning required skill yourself or you hire a consultant or in other words delegate it completely. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. We are exploring the FASTEST way to get this done provided you have money and decision making power to get this done.

F - Force yourself not to do it

The problem with smart people is that they are willing to take almost any task in their hands because they know they can do it with hard work and their intelligence but this always works against them because they now have less time to focus on better things. Do not give into temptation that you want to learn this thing and do it yourself. Resist. Resist. Resist. Be dumb, let someone else do it.

Saying NO to a lot of tasks which come to you, is a superpower, specially deciding not to pick a new task which has a learning curve and you might have to spend too much time to master it. These are the tasks which you should avoid doing if you are trying to achieve something in shortest amount of time. You do not want to start learning different animation tools and all the details of animation industry if all you want to produce is a short movie for some purpose. These are the kind of tasks which you should never pick up unless you are trying to build a hobby.

A - Assign it to some expert

People have spent a significant portion of their life doing the same kind of work. They have devoted countless hours to mastering their tools and crafts. They are much better in their skill than you ever will be (unless you want to spend too much time). Try to use their expertise if you can. Therefore when it comes down to a task which has a good learning curve and you are short on time, you might want to find good experts and outsource to them. Find someone who delivers results from day one.

S - Save time not money

Consider money nothing but a tool to achieve some goal, do not get emotional about it. Money works best if it is being put to some use and is not sitting in reserve. Save time instead. Never hesitate to spend money on professional services, treat it as a business expense. If you do not have money, which is generally the case when you are starting up a business, you have limited options and a lot of time people have to do all the things themselves because they can not afford to hire someone or outsource the task, but when you have a money which can be spend on professional services and if cost-benefit analysis is in your favour, then consider using money to achieve a goal through others. Hire the best expert you can get.

T - Time should not be needed from you

Once you have assigned some expert/person to a task, make sure they are not sucking energy from you. You should not be dragged in to train or coach them or to explain all smaller things by yourself. If that is happening, change the person, admitting you chose a wrong expert. Find a better one. The sole reason, you are spending money on an expert is to use their experience and skill and save yourself from investing your time into that task.

E - Expect Result

Expect results from people. Be clear what you want your consultant to deliver. Do not be confused, double minded or change goal posts too often. Leaders sometimes avoid confronting poor performers because it is awkward to confront people. Get over it. There is no point in working with experts if they can not deliver. Additionally, the real test of a good consultant is that they evoke wow moments quite often when they are working with you. They will present you with some useful facts which you never knew before. They will save you from some mistakes which you are about to make by using their own experience. They will also tell you which direction to make and which decision is better since they are expert in their trade.

S - Say good bye early

If your expert is not delivering results, say goodbye and say good bye early. No need to get emotional about personal friendship or relations. It is business and it will not care about you if you do not care about it. Introspect to see if you need to change the expert selection process or if you need to improve delegation skills. You can keep doing this exercise repeatedly until you find an expert whose frequency matches with you there there is a resonance among two of you. All you need to do is to find a good consultant or expert who takes you to text level and it does not matter if you have to fire some consultants to find that special one.

T - Try Again, Think outside the box

If things do not work out the first time, it is OK, make changes and try again. The only time you want to spend is in thinking outside the box while your expert is doing its thing. People are prisoners of their way of thinking and you add value by freeing them up from their chains. Sometimes when you apply first principles to a problem, you might be able to discover insights which your expert is not able to do after having too many years of experience because he is consumed in day to day activities and is spending too much time with his tools, while you on the other hand has all the time in the world to think about problems deeply.

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