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Seven Tips on Delegation

1. Never sit on work - delegate it as a soon as possible. The later you leave it to delegate to someone else, the more disruption you are causing to the rest of his or her work.

2. Allow a buffer when setting a deadline. Always allow a suffient buffer to give you time to chase the work if it late without throwing you into emergency situation

3. Be specific. Always be quite clear about what you want done and by when. Make it clear that you expect the deadline to be met.

4. Give intermediate deadlines. Intermediate deadlines increase the likelihood of a project being completed on time, It also increases the quality of the finished work.

5. Remind before a deadline. A day or so before an intermediate or final deadline, issue a reminder that you are expecting the work back on the deadline.

6. Follow up immediately. If the person misses the deadline, you must follow up immediately. If they don't hear from you they may think it doesn't matter.

7. Don't listen to excuses. Make it clear that you are not interested in why a deadline has been missed. You are interested only in when the work will be completed. Focus on that point exclusively. Make them give you a new completition date and hold them to it.

The points are taken from 'Do It Tomorrow' by Mark Foster. The actual points in the book are slightly longer of the above points are very sound. The book have incredible insights on how to be more productive with time.

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2014

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