I am fortunate to work at a company that offers a benefit in form of a concierge service.

I was skeptical at first, but after hearing from others how much they like it, I decided to give it a go.

There were cases that didn’t go well, but many of them went super well. I’d even argue that most of the time when it didn’t go well it was me who didn’t do a good job in delegating.

Historically, I was bad at delegation, I would often find myself getting frustrated when trying to delegate. For example, I’d think that I can just give a person a topic to take care of and not worry about it at all.

This would lead to me being frustrated as I wasn’t expecting that I’ll be bothered about this topic and things will just turn out well. This even lead to me thinking that things would have been easier if I didn’t delegate at all and just did everything myself.

I thought I would quickly finish that topic instead of having to walk the person through on how to complete the task I am delegating.

This was a big mistake and only highlights how bad I was at delegating

Tip 1: Set the Person up for Success

I remember when I asked my concierge to find an upholsterer to renew my chair. I asked them to find some upholsterers, ask for cost estimates and what materials they provide.

Turns out it’s not that simple, upholsterers would ask follow up questions in order to better understand what I need and also required some decisions to be made to provide cost estimates.

At the same time my concierge didn’t have that information nor had the decision power to decide how I want the chair in my home to look like.

I accidentally created a setup where the concierge was a proxy between me and the upholsterer. This was not an effective setup. It was frustrating for me and I imagine it was frustrating for the upholsterer and the concierge as well.

Looking back I think it was not a good topic to delegate because I wanted to move fast and be the one making decisions and I didn’t know what I exactly wanted besides the general renewing the chair.

Another thing is taking into account the skills of your concierge. For example it wouldn’t be wise for me to ask them to code up a program if they don’t have the required programming skills.

Tip 2: Know What You Want

I found that a much better set up is when I have specific and concrete asks. But to do so you need to first put in some effort to figure out what you want.

For example, I was organizing a friends bachelor party. Who is the person that knows the needs of that friend better?

Me as the best man who knows that person for years or a concierge that never met that person?

Of course it’s me! It would have been super difficult for me to organize a bachelor party for a person I didn’t know - why would I expect that it will be easier for someone else?

In this case I decided to put in the effort, learn what the groom wants and use that as input for delegation.

In this case I learned that they wanted a weekend trip, that they want to invite 12 people and that there is only one date that works for all of us.

Thanks to that I was able to ask my concierge to find accommodation options according to this criteria:

  1. 12 people
  2. Available on the last weekend of November
  3. Is ok with organizing a bachelor party (and we wouldn’t be bothering other guests)
  4. That we could commute to in 1 hour from Warsaw
  5. That has more than 1 bathroom
  6. Optionally offers a jacuzzi

Those were very concrete things that allowed the concierge to scan through all accommodations websites and prepare a summary of locations.

Much better way than just asking - find accommodation for a bachelor party right?

Tip 3: You Can Delegate Parts of Tasks

In the previous example, I just asked the concierge to prepare a list of accommodation offers. But afterwards I was the one making the call which one to choose and taking care of the rest.

That’s why it can be a good idea to identify which part of the task is good to delegate. In my case it’s most often some kind of research.

After getting the results of the research I can take things over from here.

A good model of ways you can break up a given task is the 7 levels of delegation from delegation poker.

Tip 4: Delegation is Not Always About Saving Net Time (But Also for Giving You Time)

I would sometimes wonder why delegate 2 hours of my work if someone will do it in 4 hours.

Turns out it’s not just about how much hours did an activity cost, but the hours I personally gain back.

It can also allow me to get something done earlier, for example if I know that I will be swamped for the next 2 days, by delegating I can get some meaningful progress done earlier.

Someone else getting something done earlier but more slowly can be more valuable than me doing it faster but having it ready later.

This is especially useful for chores that are not time sensitive. For example, if I need to get something cleaned at a cleaner and I will be able to take care of it in 3 weeks and I can wait for it to get done in a couple of days.

The chore doesn’t wait for me until I have time but just gets done. Not in the fastest way, but still earlier than it would have been possible if I didn’t delegate.

Tip 5: Don’t Delegate Just the Things “You Have To Do”

Things I would usually delegate would come from my own to do list and that would often be chores or other things I had to get done.

Turns out that I could also delegate things I’d like to do.

For example, I wanted surprise my partner with vegan donuts in the morning. It would be hard to do so because we live in the same apartment and it would be suspicious if I suddenly went out in the morning.

Also the queues to the best donut stores can be quite long and commuting there also takes time. While the surprise might be nice, it wouldn’t be worth it if it meant not getting my house chores done.

Turns out this was a perfect case for delegation, I just asked my concierge to stand in the queue for me, pick up my order and deliver it to our home.

Conclusions

Delegation is hard, because it is a skill that we need to practice.

When delegating:

  1. set the person up for success
  2. know what you want
  3. consider delegating parts of tasks
  4. think about the time you get back (even if the thing will get done more slowly)
  5. consider things you’d like to do not just the things you have to do