Say you have an assistant. She runs errands, does light cooking, makes phone calls, places orders, and will water the plants if needed. You are happy with her work. She’d like more hours, and you have paperwork tasks that you’d like to delegate. Sounds like a solution is at hand.
Except…. that she doesn’t take to that paperwork stuff too well. “No matter,” you think, “it’s not hard. She’ll catch on and it makes such perfect sense!” You wouldn’t have to look for or get to know anyone else. Besides, you don’t really know where to look for another person.
No matter how much “sense” your brain tries to convince you of, remember to get the right person for the job. The wrong person means:
- more explanation = more time (which is what you are trying to get more of by delegating!)
- more disorganization and errors occur because when someone is unclear on the concept and just following specific directions
- more checking-in to get it right = more time (see above)
- more avoidance of the tough tasks which leaves you wondering if something delegated ever got done
- more frustration, a big factor in job dissatisfaction!
When you aren’t sure if your tasks are being completed, whatever space that was freed up by delegating is replaced by concern that stuff isn’t getting done, needless worrying about where in the process something is, or worse, excessive micro-managing.
On the contrary, getting the right person for the job provides relief, satisfaction, and a job well done in a timely manner.
I understand this puts the self-employed person in a bit of a predicament. You want someone for half a day a week but this doesn’t seem to warrant the effort of going through a full job search.
Besides, experienced and skilled assistants probably want more than half a day of work a week, right? A couple of options are available.
- ask colleagues if they have a part time person who might like to pick up some hours
- if your colleagues, instead, say, “let me know if you find someone!” you could join forces to be able to guarantee 15-20 hours a week
- temp agency
- Project Simplify is putting together a freelance assistant program which will be a great resource for finding that local skilled someone who is willing to assist half to one day a week for you. Coming soon…
Make it easy on yourself by playing to your assistant’s strengths!