5 Tips To Help The CEO Optometrist Delegate More Efficiently
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou
One of the key pillars of the CEO of YOU business success blueprint is leadership. The job of the CEO Optometrist is to lead. However, many practice owners find it difficult to focus on leading their practices because they’re spending most of their time doing the work. As such, we believe that one of the biggest challenges facing many CEO optometrists as leaders is the delegation of tasks.
As a leader and a CEO Optometrist, delegation is going to be a major key to maximizing your productivity and keeping yourself sane in your practice. The problem is, many CEO Optometrists and leaders don’t know how to delegate effectively, or aren’t willing to do it unless they absolutely have to.
Delegating tasks is a skill that, like any skill, can be learned and improved on over time. Put these five delegation tips below into practice and watch as your practice’s efficiency increases:
1. Learn to let go.
The biggest problem most practice owners and leaders face is the inability to let go. Sometimes they feel so dedicated to do everything that they refuse to let other people help. Other times, they fear that nobody else has the skills or abilities necessary to execute the work as well as they can.
Whatever the case may be, your first priority needs to be to learn to let go. Start small, delegating only the smallest tasks, and gradually work your way up. Get to know your team better and improve the trust among you and your employees. Take baby steps and know that eventually you will have to let go of some the office tasks if you want your team to be successful.
2. Establish a firm priority system.
As part of the letting-go process, start developing a priority system for tasks. Of course, this system will vary on the basis of your expertise and the types of tasks you usually handle, but create at least four categories, according to the degree of effort a task requires and the degree of skill.
|
High Effort |
High Skill |
| Low Effort |
Low Skill |
The highest-skilled category should contain tasks that you keep on your own plate, while those in the lower-skilled categories can be assigned to others. The degree of effort should tell you which tasks are more important to delegate–for example, giving someone else responsibility for a high-effort, low-skill task will save you lots of time.
Examples of low-skill and high-effort tasks include;
- insurance benefit verification
- Contact Lens I&R training
- Payroll
Again, giving someone else the responsibility for a high-effort, low-skill task will save you lots of time!
3. Always include clear instructions.
Even if the task process seems obvious to you, make sure to include clear instructions with each task you delegate. If you have specific preferences for how the assignment will be carried out, include that information. If you have a strict deadline or milestones you need to hit, be clear about them.
Including details and straightforward instructions from the get-go will avoid most communication gaps and will allow your tasks to be executed effectively. The best way to do this is to create a Standard Operating Procedure manual for your practice. It’s a proactive strategy that both you and your employees will appreciate.
4. Maximize each person’s strength.
As a leader, you’ll have to learn the subtleties of your team. You should know each individual’s strengths and weaknesses, including his or her current, and potential, range of skills. When delegating, take a look at your team and assign tasks to whoever has the greatest number of relevant skills for that task.
It seems like an obvious choice, but too many practice owners delegate to whoever has the lightest workload or is the most convenient. The best way to delegate efficiently is do it based on the employee’s capacity not just availability.
It’s also important to be consistent. For example, delegating the same type of tasks to the same individual will eventually increase that individual’s aptitude for those tasks.
5. Trust, but verify
Once a task is delegated, trust your team to execute it on his or her own terms. This will allow the person to tackle the work the way he or she feels is best. However, don’t be afraid to occasionally step in and verify that the task is moving along as planned. For example, if you made an assignment a week ago that’s due tomorrow, trust that your employee is on top of things, but send a quick verification email to make sure the person hasn’t hit any snags.
Doing so encourages more trust and respect within your team and helps prevent breaks in communication or understanding.
Bonus
Don’t forget to give feedback. If your team have done well with a task you assigned, let them know by publicly thanking them and offering genuine praise. If they’ve fallen short, don’t be afraid to give them some constructive criticism in private.
In addition, invite your team to share their thoughts on how you’re delegating. it’s a critical chance for you to determine whether you’re providing enough information and whether you’re assigning the right tasks to the right people.
Delegating isn’t always easy, and the process isn’t always clear cut, but the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll develop the expertise to do it effectively. Realize that the process will never be perfect, but learn from your experiences and make ongoing adjustments for improvement. I leave you with this inspiring quote:
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” –Peter Drucker
Responses