If a lawyer manages by screaming, shifts to working remotely, and communicates mostly by e-mail, is he still a screamer when he can’t be heard?

It’s like the tree/falling/forest thing.

If no one hears me screaming at them, then am I?

These are the issues I ponder when I’m working in one time zone and my team is in another. I’m screaming, but I’m the only one who knows. Of course, I can write a pretty mean-spirited e-mail when the mood strikes.

There was a time when I struggled with delegation. I had trouble handing off work. Well, that’s likely a bit of an overstatement.

I had no trouble at all handing off the shit work. If there was something I really didn’t want to do, then I could delegate it with ease.

However, I did have trouble with some of the other stuff.

I believed I was the only one who could do it right. If you want it done right, do it yourself. That made sense to me, so I did lots of stuff myself.

Five Steps to Better Delegation

The problem with that DIY idea is that you reach a point where you’re doing so much yourself that you’re no longer doing it right. You’re making a mess. You’re damaging your reputation, you’re hurting your clients, and you’re alienating your staff.

It was at some point, many years ago while I was SCREAMING at someone, that I realized I’d need a more effective system for delegation. Here’s what I did:

1. Eliminate

Somehow we end up keeping work that’s no longer important. Best example: lawyers going paperless and then maintaining paper files. Um, that’s insane. However, it’s not unusual. We add new work and fail to eliminate the old. Somehow, instead of getting more efficient, we just get more and more bogged down. There’s no point delegating things that don’t need doing. Eliminate dumb, redundant, outdated, unnecessary tasks from your business. It’s like cleaning the garage: the first step is throwing away the junk.

2. Evaluate

See what’s left and prioritize/value what remains. Put yourself on the most important things that only you can do. Use yourself for the highest value tasks and things that require your training/credentials. Some of us think of the easy stuff as delegable, and that’s true (especially if it is rote), but the hard stuff can go as well. We routinely employ experts for the hard stuff when the client is paying (business valuation, forensic investigations, etc.), but we keep the hard stuff when we’re paying. Look at what you’re doing that could be done better by someone with specific expertise. Accounting? Drafting? Research? Illustration?

3. Systematize

Delegation goes poorly when you don’t have a system. You need documentation of the step by step on the easy stuff. The harder stuff will, of course, be harder to document. In an ideal world, you’ll develop the system before handing off the task. However, you can delegate the design of the system. What if you ask the person to whom you delegate returning certain client calls to draft the system documentation after you discuss it? See how that gets you moving? All systems documentation needs to detail standards. What’s acceptable and what isn’t? Provide examples, recordings, etc. so your team knows what you expect. In your systems documentation, be sure to explain the “why” of what’s being done. Make sure the team understands the objective.

4. Delegate

You’ve eliminated, evaluated, and systematized. Now let it go. Delegate it and stop owning it. Walk away from the task. Let it happen and (this is tough) settle for a little less. Yep, don’t expect perfection. Let it go out the door without being just right. It won’t be done the way you would have done it. Sometimes you’ll be disappointed. Sometimes you’ll be surprised that it was done better than you would have done it. If you plan for about 80% of what you would have done, then you’ll be fine. Holding on to 100% will doom your delegation. It’s not going to be what you’d have done, but your business will start to grow, and you’ll start to have time for the important stuff.

5. Refine

Once you’ve given the system a chance to function, it’s time to revisit it and make it better. For some tasks, that means having the team update and edit the process instructions. For some tasks, it means you’re going to need to evaluate the system in its entirety. System development never ends. It’s a constant process, and it involves continual elimination, tweaking, and refinement. Sometimes you’ll realize that the tasks ought to be assigned to others at lower cost. This is where you keep an eye on the expense of delegation and maintain systems that result in a profitable business.

Adopting a systematic approach to delegation results in lots less screaming. Instead of screaming, I’ve found that I can use snarky, sarcastic, cutting remarks. Maybe you should find someone else to give you management advice?

No, seriously, trusting others to do the work works. It makes you scream less because you’re less stressed. Delegation changes everything.

When you let go of the work, you make more money. More money means less stress. More money helps you build a better team, provide better training, and make more happy clients. That means even more money.

Making money, building a profitable business, makes it possible for you to make more of a difference for yourself, your team, and your clients. It all starts when the screaming stops.