I dreamt a world for myself – or, when can an entrepreneur go on holiday? Task delegating process and its tools
This month’s theme of our blog will be processed in an out-of-the-ordinary way. Me and my friends are on a 10-day bike tour that has become traditional for many years, and I’m going to sign up with each part during the tour.
Part 1: What are the goals?
To get started, let’s quickly clarify the meaning of the foreign word in the title: Delegate: appoints something, assigns you something. It’s a Latin term, it even means to send (someone) as an ambassador. This latter might be interesting later…
A lot of people think when they start a business, on one hand they’re going to make more money than they do as an employee, on the other hand, they’re going to be their own masters, and they can go on holiday whenever they want. This is not true in itself. In order for this to be the case, there is a long way to go.
If an entrepreneur thinks that it consists only of recruiting an employee, entrusting (delegating) him with the task and he – himself – can go to bake his own belly in the sun, then he will soon face the bitter reality. Because task delegating starts much earlier!
What time do you think it starts?
In my opinion, it starts when the business is set up. Yes, but when is that? When the commercial court or document office registers the company’s data? From my point of view, it starts much earlier: when the IDEA for which the company/enterprise is created flashes first in the mind of our future entrepreneur. The moment of creation of a business is the moment when you see the vision of your own future for the first time! When he first comes up with the idea that he wants to go his own way, that he wants to accomplish his own GOAL! But for now, this picture exists only in his head.
In order to be able to share this idea, vision and purpose with his future colleagues as accurately as possible, it is worth describing it in detail before he actually sets up his business.
Many people make the mistake of operating the business for several years, even working with dozens of employees, but the goal, the idea, the vision still exists only in the mind of the founder. Very often, even the direct associates of the manager do not know exactly what they are working for every day.
I hereby bring you a bike analogy quickly: our current tour takes from Miskolc to Szeged. We have already discussed it in advance. Which means everyone knows the ultimate goal! And everyone knows the interresional goals – the daily destinations – that lead to the ultimate goal. And despite it’s still tiring to ride, we’re still motivated because we know (and, of course, we long for) the goal to achieve.
Many entrepreneurs/business leaders only expect their employees to “cycle 8 hours a day”, but it does not make the goal known and DESIRED to them!
Then he wonders if his men are going to burn out one after the other and one by one. It’s the motivation that makes you satisfied!!!
In my opinion, the first step in delegating tasks is to set goals, to make them known accurately and to make them desired. If the colleague doesn’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing, he’ll be less happy and good at it.
And here’s another thing: your coworkers represent your business in front of your customers, your clients. They’re your ambassadors! Ambassadors were also sent to represent something, to deliver a message.
But if your colleague the ambassador does not know the message, he or she will not be able to represent you and forward your message to your customer, to your client.
Summary: Always write down your ideas, articulate your visions, set your goals, then make them known and desired also to your colleagues. That is when you took the first step in the actual delegation of tasks.
The process and tools of task delegation
Part 2: The posts
It’s a pretty important part of the task delegation. In this case, the term post does not mean publishing content on an online platform, but a job created to perform a particular task.
For example, everyone in the cycling team has their own responsibilities and posts: since all four of us are founders, all four of us are also involved in the process as goal-makers.
After we have jointly designated the location of the annual tours at the beginning of the year (setting annual targets), I am always the one who prepares the route plan. I send this to the guys, Józsi books the accommodations, Zoli collects the sights to be viewed, and then we finalize the route. Péter is in charge of the team’s finances during the tours, and he brings the pálinka. Okay, he brings pálinka, too. And the others as well! It seems that bringing pálinka is an important post with us.
Since everyone has their own responsibilities and is aware of this, and he also performs it, the organisation and arrangement of tours is much smoother.
It is no different for a business: each workflow or task can and must be defined separately. In the absence of this, it is not possible, on the one hand, to separate the personal responsibilities of individual staff and, on the other hand, it is more difficult to verify a process, and thirdly, it will not be possible to assign, i.e. delegate the responsibilities if necessary.
But what do we have to define for each post?
We have to define the exact name of the post, its place in the organisation of the enterprise, the name of the person or persons holding the post and the result expected from the post!!! This latter is very important, and many people forget to define it. Believe me, it’s not a self-explanatory thing.
The manager is obliged to specify the result and goal to be achieved in each post, so that he can legitimately expect the staff member to fill that post. As someone I know says, football is played not for running, but for goals.
We pay the employee not for going to work, but for doing the job effectively! And to do this, it is necessary to accurately determine the result of the post.
We calendar this in an organizational table in MASC Ltd. from which you can read all of the above mentioned.
Why can delegation, i.e. the transfer of the tasks, the posts become necessary?
For convenience or under duress.
There may be several reasons for the transfer of tasks under duress. These reasons have in common the fact that they are not usually pre-planned: illness, deaths,
A kényszerűségből történő feladat-átadásnak több oka is lehet, a közös bennük, hogy általában nem előre tervezettek: betegség, haláleset, extraordinary termination, etc.
For convenience, I mean that the person who previously took up the post – mostly the manager, the owner -, would like to get to the so-called second phase, i.e. he or she, coming out of the daily wheel, would like to gain more time for his or her goal-creating, managerial duties, or quite simply wants to go on a holiday, say, a 10-day bike ride with friends while the operation of the company is running smoothly.
The point is that when the time comes to hand over the task, the staff member who takes over the post should be aware of what needs to be done and what the expectations are. This is greatly facilitated by the availability of written knowledge for the performance of the job, i.e. a post description.
There is nothing special to be imagined behind this, just a detailed description of the to-do list in a given job and the optimal way to do it. This is important because it speeds up the training of the new staff member for the post. You don’t have to invent Spanish wax anymore!
The question may arise when to write a post description?
The answer is simple: always. In other words, the documenting of the tasks to be carried out may be continuously expanded. But there are times when it’s quite simply mandatory: when someone leaves his or her post, their manager has to have them write their post description.
Part 3: Who should we hire?
Once we have defined the goals of the company, if we have already set out what posts and jobs we need to create for the optimal functioning of the company, we can start filling the individual posts, i.e. to hire the right people. In the case of a new business, this is a meaningful process, since only after that will we find prospective colleagues for all jobs. But what about a business that has been running for a long time, but its manager only strikes his forehead when reading this article, that he will then run his company more planned? Well, in that case, the existing employees should be examined on the basis of roughly the same criteria as if they were new recruits.
How does a smart football coach sign players?
Well, for a certain post!
What does it mean?
It means that if we are looking specifically for a right-quarterback for our team, then if we have all the money in the world for that purpose, we will not sign Leo Messi, anyway. Because, on the one hand he’s the best in the offensive role, and on the other hand, he is left-footed.
The point of my example is to always find and place the most suitable staff for the given post!
To do this, however, you need to know exactly which jobs and posts are necessary for the most optimal operation of the company. But even this is not enough for salvation: it is necessary for the manager to be aware of the expected results of all the posts. So that he has to know what kind of staff is needed, who will be able to produce the expected results of the post by its skills. But how can we achieve all this?
I tell you:
- Once the competences expected filling the post have been defined, they must be recorded in the job profile. And now, here we are already in the process of recruitment.
You can read more about the masterstrokes of staff recruitment in the blog articles https://www.uzenetajovobol.hu/en/king-give-me-a-soldier/ and https://www.uzenetajovobol.hu/en/how-far-is-kolozsvar/
Once we have found the coveted new colleague and successfully agreed with him or her on the terms of cooperation, the process of placing in the post, i.e. training, can begin.
In my experience, we can greatly assist this process by using one or two not-so-complicated tools.
- Compiling written training material: all information about the company and the job and post to be filled in written form, which the new entrant needs to know using a checklist method (anyone interested in more than this should contact me and I will help)
- Appointment of a mentor:a reliable, helpful, responsible older employee supervises and assists the new employee in the first few months. Warning! He’s not doing the job for him, he’s just a sure point who a new colleague can turn to at any time for support.
We have observed that any new employee who is trained in this method will be able to fit into the community and the company more successfully and quickly. And as a result, we will be able to delegate the tasks assigned to him or her more effectively.
Part 4: How to transfer the tasks?
Finally, the Dear Reader can sigh, we have finally reached the point of what the title of the topic actually is. Seriously, did we really have to read through the three previous chapters to get here?
By the way, yes. We really had to read them all. And anyone who has read it is in fact already in possession of all the tools necessary for an efficient and successful transfer of tasks.
Namely, if the manager has completed all had been included in the previous parts of our series of blogs on task delegating, then only the easiest part of the task delegating is left. All you have to do is tell the new colleague in charge of the task you’ve delegated: “Do it.”
But according to my observations, many people simply skip the “preparatory” processes and think that task delegating consists solely of this “Do it” instruction. Then they wonder if the colleague asks back: What? How?
Let’s say this is the better case, because if he or she does not even dare ask back, because, say, his or her leader has such a habit that he’s afraid of it, then he starts doing the task entrusted to him on his own terms, and if that doesn’t happen to meet the Chief’s vision, then the conflict situation is ready.
Unraveling it, repairing it, and in the worst case reimbursing the customer for the damage caused, usually takes much more time, money and energy than going through the preparatory process.
For those who missed the first three episodes, we re-create in headings the most necessary things to be done in order to the successful task delegating and transfer of tasks.
To get started, let’s quickly clarify the meaning of the foreign word in the title: Delegate: appoints something, assigns you something. It’s a Latin term, it even means to send (someone) as an ambassador.
In order for an entrepreneur to feel truly freer and more informal than if he were working as an employee somewhere – many of them set up a business for this reason –at the end of a process, he must get to the point where he can pass on the tasks which he had all carried out himself when setting up the business, to his employees of growing number.
If an entrepreneur thinks that it consists only of recruiting an employee, entrusting (delegating) him with the task and he – himself – can go to bake his own belly in the sun, then he will soon face the bitter reality. Because task delegating starts much earlier!
In fact, even when the IDEA for which the company/enterprise is set up flashes first in the mind of our future entrepreneur. The moment of creation of a business is the moment when you see the vision of your own future for the first time! When he first comes up with the idea that he wants to go his own way, that he wants to accomplish his own GOAL! But for now, this picture exists only in his own head. In order to be able to share this idea, vision and purpose with your future colleagues as accurately as possible, it is worth describing it in detail before you actually set up your business. Many people make the mistake of operating the business for several years, even working with dozens of employees, but the goal, the idea, the vision still exists only in the mind of the founder, often even the direct associates of the manager do not know exactly what they are working for every day.
In my opinion, the first step in delegating tasks is to set goals, to make them known accurately and to make them desired.
If the colleague doesn’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing, he’ll be less happy and good at it.
And here’s another thing: your coworkers represent your business in front of your customers, your clients. They’re your ambassadors! Ambassadors were also sent to represent something, to deliver a message.
But if your colleague the ambassador does not know the message, he or she will not be able to represent you and forward your message to your customer, to your client.
Always write down your ideas, articulate your visions, set your goals, then make them known and desired also to your colleagues. That is when you took the first step in the actual delegation of tasks.
Once the goals have been set, then you can set up your business organization, i.e. create the posts needed to complete your tasks.
It’s a pretty important part of the task delegation. In this case, the term post does not mean publishing content on an online platform, but a job created to perform a particular task.
When starting a business, it is not surprising, in fact, it is general that all the posts are run by the entrepreneur himself! But it doesn’t mean that he only has one job, it means he has a lot of jobs, but (for now) he performs all the jobs himself. And that’s a huge difference in perspective!
Each workflow or task can and must be defined separately. In the absence of this, it is not possible to separate the personal responsibilities of individual staff in the future, and on the other hand it is more difficult to verify a process, and thirdly, it will not be possible to delegate the responsibility if necessary.
But what do we have to define in connection with the certain posts?
We have to define the exact name of the post, its place in the organisation of the enterprise, the name of the person or persons holding the post and the result expected from the post!!! This latter is very important, and many people forget to define it. Believe me, it’s not a self-explanatory thing.
The manager is obliged to specify the result and goal to be achieved in each post, so that he can legitimately expect the staff member to fill that post. As someone I know says, football is played not for running, but for goals.
We pay the employee not for going to work, but for doing the job effectively! And to do this, it is necessary to accurately determine the result of the post.
The point is that when the time comes to hand over the task, the staff member who takes over the post should be aware of what needs to be done and what the expectations are. This is greatly facilitated by the availability of written knowledge for the performance of the job, i.e. a post description.
There is nothing special to be imagined behind this, just a detailed description of the to-do list in a given job and the optimal way to do it. This is important because it speeds up the training of the new staff member for the post. You don’t have to invent Spanish wax anymore!
Once we have defined the goals of the company, if we have already set out what posts and jobs we need to create for the optimal functioning of the company, we can start filling the individual posts, i.e. to hire the right people.
How does a smart football coach sign players?
Well, for a certain post!
What does it mean?
It means that we always have to find and place the most suitable staff for the given post!
To do this, however, you need to know exactly which jobs and posts are necessary for the most optimal operation of the company. But even this is not enough for salvation: it is necessary for the manager to be aware of the expected results of all the posts. So that he has to know what kind of staff is needed, who will be able to produce the expected results of the post by its skills. And that’s where every step you’ve taken earlier becomes important.
But how can we achieve all this?
Once the competences expected filling the post have been defined, they must be recorded in the job profile. And now, here we are already in the process of recruitment.
You can read more about the masterstrokes of staff recruitment in the blog articles https://www.uzenetajovobol.hu/en/king-give-me-a-soldier/ and https://www.uzenetajovobol.hu/en/how-far-is-kolozsvar/
Once we have found the coveted new colleague and successfully agreed with him or her on the terms of cooperation, the process of placing in the post, i.e. training, can begin.
In my experience, we can greatly assist this process by using one or two not-so-complicated tools.
- Compiling written training material: all information about the company and the job and post to be filled in written form, which the new entrant needs to know using a checklist method (anyone interested in more than this should contact me and I will help)
- Appointment of a mentor:a reliable, helpful, responsible older employee supervises and assists the new employee in the first few months. Warning! He’s not doing the job for him, he’s just a sure point who a new colleague can turn to at any time for support.
We have observed that any new employee who is trained in this method will be able to fit into the community and the company more successfully and quickly. And as a result, we will be able to delegate the tasks assigned to him or her more effectively.
Finally, let’s summarise the most important steps:
- setting goals, making them known accurately and desired
- creating posts
- determination of the result expected from the post
- writing post description
- conscious recruitment of staff
- training, mentoring
And now can come the order „Do it” and our enterpreneur friend is ready to go on holiday.
Well, not yet, but I will talk about it in the next section….
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