How to Delegate in Crisis
Delegating is a great way to take some load off your shoulders. Whether delegating a meeting to your assistant or commissioning some of your work responsibilities to a coworker, you can make life easier for yourself by entrusting another person with some tasks. But delegation also brings challenges.
Considering how much time and energy you spend on your projects, it's not always easy to let someone else take a crack at something. It might be tempting to assume that you're the perfect person for the job, but this is rarely the case. Even if you think that you have all the knowledge and experience necessary for running a meeting, scheduling a conference call, or preparing a proposal, there are bound to be times when these tasks cause problems.
If you have a long-standing pattern of micromanaging your projects, taking a step back may be challenging. You may feel like you're letting someone else loose in your house without first checking to see how they'll clean up their mess. Maybe you're afraid they'll make silly mistakes or put too much lipstick on a pig. Perhaps you think that the project would be better than it is now if you were in charge.
But remember, the moniker for someone who can run things without making any mistakes is "good manager."
Your project may be closer to failure than you realize when you're delegating. It's hard to recognize the signs of failure when you're close to a project and have so much invested in it. From far away, though, a failing project may start to look just like a well-managed one. Consider what your task would look like if it were very successful.
How would that success appear?
By asking yourself these questions, you can determine what kinds of failures are possible with your project and see them coming before they occur. Just as with other types of mistakes, you can't help failing if you don't know the problem.
Once you understand how all of your projects could be failing, it's easier to make sure that they don't.
Identifying the problems in your projects is only half the battle; you have to know what to do when things go wrong. Delegating doesn't mean that someone else should do everything for themselves. It should make things easier since it means that others are more likely to seek input and advice from you than they were before.
If you've recently delegated a task, the first step is to go back into your project and look for signs of trouble. Ensure that you've given your assistant, coworker, or another project member all of the info they need to get their job done. If you haven't communicated clearly with them, you can re-do the assignment until it meets your standards.
If you have communicated clearly with others about what needs to be done to achieve your goals, it's time to give up control. It may be harder than it sounds if you're worried they won't deliver. But this is the point at which you should realize that delegation isn't just something you can use to lighten your load; it's also a tool for recognizing when you give too much control over things. You're not getting any less hands-on with the project if you take time to check up on the people doing your work. It may seem counter-intuitive, but checking in will help you get more out of others.
Playing it safe doesn't mean that delegating is a bad idea. It does mean that delegation is something worth considering. If you can train yourself to trust and recognize when something fails, you'll find that delegating can help you thrive under pressure.
Crisis management can be a struggle for people with ADHD, who tend to fixate on the negative. It's essential to ensure that the crisis doesn't grow out of proportion. That means taking time to step back from the situation and give reality checks rather than reacting without thinking.
Managing a crisis requires fast decision-making and problem-solving skills. If these are skills you struggle with in general, your reaction to a problem could make things worse than they already are.
5 tips for managing a crisis
Here are some tips for managing a crisis:
1.) Recognize that there is no right or wrong time to take action. The only thing you can do here is reacting to the situation before you. If that means not taking action and waiting for everything else to work out by itself, then that's what you should do.
2.) Be open-minded and accepting of your situation. It isn't easy, but it's essential. Once you realize that there's not much more you can do about the crisis, figuring out how to get through it becomes more about survival than fixing it up as quickly as possible.
3.) Take some time to collect yourself. If there's nothing more you can do right now, it may be helpful to take a breather before you move on to the next step.
4.) Take your time. Moving through a crisis too quickly is almost as bad as driving through it too slowly. Once you realize that there isn't any urgency to the situation, don't push yourself too hard to make decisions or come up with solutions too quickly. You don't want to make things worse by allowing your emotions and need for control to affect your choices.
5.) Don't dwell on the negative aspects of a crisis. It's tempting to keep replaying the negative in your mind repeatedly. Instead of figuring out what went wrong, focus on how you can turn things around. Don't let yourself be frozen like a deer in headlights; get moving and do what you have to do to make things right again.
Dealing with a crisis takes courage, commitment, dedication, and a certain amount of comfort with the unknown. If you try delegating your crisis management to someone else and they don't come through for you when you need them most, it will be up to you to decide how much weight you should carry in your overall assessment of their performance.
Sometimes, we delegate tasks in our personal lives to deal with crises. If you're dealing with a friend or family member who is going through a problem and you care about them, then it may be worth delegating some of the responsibilities involved.
For example, if someone close to you is seriously ill or injured and needs help to get better, you might need to make some big decisions about how that person should handle the medical issues involved. If you have to travel far away because someone has an unexpected surgery, it might be time to trust someone else with making decisions on your behalf while you're gone.
If you're the one who is ill or injured, you may need to delegate some of the responsibility for making decisions and taking care of your needs to others. They may even have to take on some of your responsibilities if you can't hold them down yourself.
When dealing with someone else's crisis, it's important not to make matters worse for them by taking on too much responsibility. It is particularly true in complicated family situations that could go from bad to worse if one person steps in and decides how they know the best things should be handled.
It's hard to let go and trust others to make decisions that you know will impact your life. Deciding who you can rely on and who you should tell to back off may be tough battles in the middle of a crisis. However, it will be easier for everyone involved to get through the situation without making matters worse if you delegate efficiently and effectively.
How to manage your time like a pro?
Time management is all about getting more done in less time. The key to achieving that kind of efficiency is all about practice. Below are some tips for learning how to manage your time like a pro:
1.) Start with a plan for getting things done.
It is the first step of time management. You won't be able to keep track of how you spend your time if you don't know what you need to do with it. The easiest way to start making a plan for yourself is by mapping out everything you want to accomplish in a day. If you can't get it all done, then figure out the most important tasks and schedule them first.
2.) Once you have a plan, consider when your best time to do things.
If specific tasks require more concentration than others, then try scheduling them when your brain has the most energy available to focus on getting work done.
3.) Establish the best ways for you to work.
If you're an auditory learner, your schedule will likely be very different from someone who is a visual learner. Try to work out your most productive methods for doing things, and then make a plan around them.
4.) Establish realistic goals.
Keep in mind that tasks take longer than others to accomplish, even if they seem pretty simple at the outset. For example, spending five hours working on a single assignment can often take two or three times that much time once you factor in all of the research and mistakes you make along the way until it's right.
5.) Schedule time for breaks and distractions.
Unless your job is highly stressful, there will be times when you need to take care of yourself mentally.
6.) Simplify and streamline your schedule.
Try to set up tasks so that you have the fewest steps to complete something each time you do it. For example, suppose that you need to write a ten-page assignment rather than a twenty-page essay because it only takes five minutes instead of fifteen minutes per page.
7.) Don't wait until the last minute.
Take advantage of having enough time to finish things in your schedule. If you don't complete something before the deadline, you could do more work on the day of its due date than you would have had you started it sooner.
8.) Be forgiving with yourself.
People make mistakes; some are bigger than others. Don't beat yourself up because you can't get everything done at all times. Just remember that perfection isn't realistic and that there is a big difference between giving yourself an inch and taking a mile!
9.) Manage your energy levels.
If you're very low on energy, you should probably not try to do anything very complicated. Just make sure that you don't lay around all day if you can help it. Try exercising a bit to get your blood pumping and maybe challenge yourself with a mental game or two to try and re-engage some of the energy your body has lost.
No matter what kind of crisis you are dealing with, there are ways for you to come out ahead by being more productive and efficient with your time. If you can adopt some of the habits above and apply them to the crucial situations in your life, you'll be able to handle whatever comes your way with ease.
What Does Time Management Mean?
Generally, everyone understands what time management is: You manage your time. Sometimes people may look at you quizzically or even act as if a question mark will appear over their head, but then they seem to get it once they see how you are at work and how you manage your time. What does it mean?
You manage your time by using it wisely, not wasting a single moment. You make the absolute most out of every minute that passes (except for breaks).
How to surmount a difficult time at the office?
There will likely be disagreement when you are involved in a committee or anything with multiple people. What happens if it flares up into a crisis? Fear not, for I've put together this guide to surviving your first crisis committee. This article will discuss what should happen during the meeting and what needs to be done afterward.
What You Should Do During the Meeting:
1. Let it happen.
If it's a simple conflict that can be fixed by communicating better, let the people talk. Let them say their piece. The meeting shouldn't be about deciding whose fault it is. It should be about resolving the problem and learning how to avoid future ones.
2. Close your ears, open your mind, not just for the problems, though!
It's also vital that you listen for solutions as well as problems. When someone is fighting with another person over something, they often aren't looking for answers because they are already too busy trying to defend themselves or prove their point to a fault.
3. Turn off your cell phone.
You won't be able to call someone if they're on their phone, and you'll miss what they are saying because they are babbling. Avoiding technology is crucial, too, as it can force everyone involved to talk clearly and in a logical order of events.
4. Don't talk just to prove a point or win.'
You want to fit in and be considered a friend. So if you're only in there to fight for a point, go elsewhere. It isn't the arena for that.
5. Be curious, not defensive.
That's the best way to handle a situation. If there's a disagreement, find out what the problem is and how it can be fixed. If you're curious instead of defensive, you'll listen to the other person's point of view rather than sneering at them for having an opinion that isn't your own.
6. Ask questions and clarify things.
Many people are afraid to ask questions when they don't fully understand something because they are worried that they will appear stupid. In truth, finding out the correct information and understanding it can only make you more intelligent in the long run!
7. Be honest, but don't exaggerate your difficulties or stories!
Don't make up a sob story to make yourself look like a victim and get other people's sympathy. Also, don't lie about how difficult your situation is or what you've done to fix it. That will just make you seem like a jerk.
8. Focus on solutions and how you will work on them going forward, not who's wrong or right.
It is very important because if you think about who's wrong or correct and start to argue about it, then the entire purpose of the meeting becomes pointless. The only way to move forward from this situation is if you all realize why it's happened and how it can be fixed so it doesn't happen again.
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Written and Published By The Strategic Advisor Board Team
C. 2017-2021 Strategic Advisor Board / M&C All Rights Reserved
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