The Simple Technique for Delegating Effectively

by David Bailey for Medium

A few years ago, I was hiring a marketing manager. I asked our office manager to research out the relevant recruitment agencies, get in touch with each of them, and report back to me in a few days.

A few days later, the manager came back to me. They’d emailed several agencies — but most of them never responded. My heart sank… this didn’t help me one bit. “Did you follow up with a phone call?” I asked. The response came back that there were too many other priorities competing for limited time.

I reflected on this with a more experienced mentor. The manager had done what I told them to do. Yet, here I was — frustrated, knowing that somehow the way I delegated wasn’t working out for me. Then my mentor gave me some wise advice:

Delegate problems, not tasks

I realized that the problem of filling my calendar with qualified candidates hadn’t been explicitly delegated. If that problem had been solved, I could get on with interviewing and hiring the right person for the job.Read More →