Brenda Eckstein International

Strategy, Leadership, Integral Coaching and Communication consulting

131: The Benefits of ‘Effective Delegation’

by Leave a Comment

At a recent ‘Effective Delegation’ public workshop, participants from a wide range of different organisations, businesses and government departments discussed the benefits of delegating effectively.  The input from their groupwork was consolidated and their ‘Benefits of Effective Delegation’ include: 

  1. Keeping the vision on track. 
  2. The team taking ownership of the ‘big picture’.
  3. Enhancing communication skills and opening up channels of communication.
  4. The whole business or organisation becoming smoother running.
  5. Service levels improving.
  6. Freeing up those in senior positions to work on the vision rather than in the vision. This gives them an opportunity to focus on other important functions.
  7. Seniors becoming more and more confident in their ability to delegate thus delegating more easily.
  8. Time management improving.  This allows the delegator to focus on more important issues. It also increases the chances of objectives being achieved timeously.
  9. The responsibility for tasks being clearly located.  Accountability resides with the person delegating.
  10. Helping the delegator become more effective in evaluating his or her team.
  11. Creating a team partnership in achieving results.  Thus team work is improved.  Team-building and relationships are encouraged and strengthened.
  12. Empowering others through the clear scope of work.  They can perform additional tasks.  Confidence levels rise.
  13. Enhancing the quality of the work/life environment.  People feel ‘warm and comfortable’ in the organisation and this impacts on other areas of their lives.
  14. Creating a basis for fair assessment for the people you are delegating to. This is based on their ability to achieve tasks. 
  15. Understanding the capacity of staff leading to suitable interventions for improvement being identified.
  16. Creating a learning community – learning through doing.
  17. Providing opportunities for people to be meaningfully involved, allowing people to take responsibility for some tasks.  This leads to business and personal development. 
  18. Using human resources better as the level of work being done is at the appropriate level for them.
  19. Recognising innovation in individuals.
  20. Helping with providing feedback in task performance. 

These are twenty of the multitude of cascading benefits resulting from ongoing effective delegation. So what holds us back?  Why don’t we always delegate where the conditions are conducive to success?  Sometimes, the experience of past failures holds us back.  It is quicker and easier to attend to the task or project ourselves.  In addition, we often don’t understand other people’s ways of operating and this creates uncertainty and mistrust in their ability to handle the task or project as intended.  

But possibly the challenge lies not in their ability to follow through, but in our skill as delegators?  And this skill can be learnt. Our simple ‘Ten Steps to Effective Delegation’ when understood and practised regularly has brought excellent ongoing results in many organisations. You might like to have a look at our previous article, ‘Ten Steps to Effective Delegation’. 

For more information on these workshops, tailored to suit your needs, or other training programmes, please visit www.strategy-leadership.com or contact Brenda on brenda@146.66.90.172 or +27 82 4993311.  Thank you!

114: Relevance

by Leave a Comment

If we wish to stay in business we need to remain relevant to our target markets.  That statement may seem obvious.  However, particularly when riding the waves of success, we may become complacent without realising it. In this rapidly evolving world, the consequence of not regularly checking our relevance could mean our becoming obsolete and thus going out of business.  Recent examples are Kodak and Borders. And in the words of Michael McQueen ‘many of the world’s top brands are dropping like flies’. 

As an example of remaining relevant, let’s look at a specific business, the ‘speaking’ business.   As speakers if we aren’t timeously providing a message that is relevant to each audience it is unlikely that we will remain successful.  We need to check regularly.  How do we do that?

Michael McQueen and Brenda Eckstein, speakers at the TAFI convention in South Africa.

Michael McQueen and Brenda Eckstein, speakers at the TAFI convention in South Africa.

Australian speaker, Michael McQueen has an excellent, simple model using relevance and time as the two axes.  This tool can be applied in any business. 

I have watched Michael in action and he personally ‘walks the talk’.  He remains relevant to his audiences.  Recently I was privileged to be in the audience at two of his talks on the same topic, ‘relevance’ and these presentations took place less than a month apart.  The audiences were very different and yet he was able to effectively address their specific needs. 

At the first event, we were both presenters at the TAFI (Travel Agents Federation of India) Convention in Durban, South Africa. The 1000 travel agents in the audience (mostly the owners of their businesses) were fascinated by Michael’s strong message which really ‘hit home’ for them.  They felt that he understood their industry and they were motivated to ‘take action’ in checking the current relevance of their businesses in India.  His message was powerful and would help them navigate change and stay ahead in the relevance curve. 

Less than a month later, Michael presented his talk on ‘relevance’ at the NSAA (National Speakers’ Association of Australia) convention up at the Gold Coast.  As a member of the New South Wales Chapter, I was in the audience.  I’m convinced that every member of that audience would have been motivated to check the relevance of their business on Michael’s simple model and then take appropriate action.  So, Michael is an excellent example of the business of speaking, the art of speaking and the heart of speaking.  Well done, Michael! 

Regardless of what business you are in, how relevant is your business right now?  And on the time line, how far along the relevance curve are you?  Are you moving towards the ‘tipping point’ or are you further along and nearing the ‘turning point’?  Or have you gone past that and are in a downward trend?  And where-ever you are on this journey, what is the appropriate immediate action for you?  Asking these questions will not only give your business a greater chance of survival, it could lead to multiplying your success.  Recognising opportunities and then optimising them are skills which can be enhanced. 

I trust that this article has given you ‘food for thought’.   For more information on ‘relevance’ and how you can be assisted in navigating change, you may wish to visit Michael McQueen’s website or e-mail: info@TheNexgenGroup.com.  The author of 3 best selling books, Michael's newest release, Winning the Battle for Relevance is a revealing look at why good ideas and great companies become obsolete and how to avoid their fate. 

For more information on the ‘speaking’ and other services offered by Brenda Eckstein International, please visit www.strategy-leadership.com or e-mail brenda@146.66.90.172

111: Listen to the Universe

by Leave a Comment

Listen to the Universe so that you’ll know when the Universe is listening to you – and responding.  Many of us spend a great deal of time managing the present.  We fight deadlines, and feel as though we have little time to work towards the future.   However, each of us is a ‘gift’ to the world and we need to spend time uncovering and discovering our purpose.  How can we build in line with our authentic selves?  And often this ‘building’ may seem overwhelming.  But once we start, the Universe seems to send us what we need. 

Let me tell you a story.  As a coach, I want to be the best possible coach so that I can help my clients ‘turn stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’.  In looking carefully at myself, and through being coached by an excellent coach, I realized that I’m much better at ‘output’ rather than ‘input’.  I love writing these blogs, developing training programmes, speaking in front of audiences, and I write volumes.  I have improved my listening skills (input) to an extent where I do focus on my clients when coaching but find that I’m not spending enough ‘quality time’ reading.   (And I really have been trying to do my practices!)  This also is in line with ‘practice what you teach’.  But my reading was just not good enough.

blog111

Then yesterday I went to Graemor’s (an accounting firm) birthday celebration and there were amazing prices to be won.  I was hoping that I’d win the airflights or one of the other spectacular ‘lucky draws’.   But I won something even better…… the Universe knew I was trying to read more, and sent me 8 (yes, 8) amazing books donated by the local branch of Exclusive books.  But what is even more incredible is that the books range from cooking to business to inspirational and cover the whole spectrum.  I’m going to gain such enjoyment from reading these books. 

So, when you crystallise your thoughts and voice them, the Universe listens and assists you.  So that is why you need to be clear as to what you need.  In addition, you have to stay open and ‘tuned in’ to what is happening around you.  So, focus and peripheral vision are two skills we need to develop. 

For more information on ‘Executive Coaching’ please contact Brenda Eckstein on +27 82 4993311 or e-mail brenda@146.66.90.172.  The website is www.strategy-leadership.com