Yesterday I was having so much fun  creating systems and managing my client’s virtual team, that  I skipped my lunch, didn’t take my cat out for her walk and do some  personal things I planned to do.  Now, please don’t get me wrong, I’m a serious advocate for work-life balance.  I usually stick to my master calendar which gives me the balance I want,  while increasing productivity. What I am sharing with you though, is that when you do  ONLY what you love and are passionate about, you will have more energy, produce extraordinary results and have fun working.  Everything else should be eliminated or outsourced. 

Imagine the success you can achieve when you have a team where everyone does only what they’re brilliant at! Leverage your brilliance to double your income, have more freedom and create a wealthy lifestyle.  Find out how at http://www.bizsuccesspartner.com/teambuilding

I often hear from entrepreneurs that they’re challenged with how to train their Virtual Assistant (or team member) effectively – to communicate exactly what they want done,  in the easiest and fastest way possible.

A simple training process that I use is the  5 step PEDAF technique. Educational and learning theory shows that the use of all 5 senses along with spaced repetition, increases the trainee’s understanding and retention. The PEDAF technique reinforces learning by tapping into 3 of our 5 senses.  The reason why many entrepreneurs don’t get the results they want with delegating is because they only do 1 of the 5 steps.

Today, I used the “Demonstrate” component of the technique which reinforces the trainee’s visual sense. It may not be relevant to use this with every task you delegate, but use it as often you can.  Your objective would be to show your Virtual Assistant (VA) what you want the end result to look  like  and/or what steps they need to take to complete a task .

For example, if you need your VA to do paperwork for you, show her what a completed form looks like. Or if you want your website or document to be formatted to look a certain way, show her an example(s) of what you like – make sure that you’re both looking at the same thing.  Today, I created a video  of a task I did on my computer to train my VA on  a new task.  I recorded step by step audio instructions, using Camstudio (a free and easy to use software).

Note that if you hire your Best Fit tm VA, she/he will often know the process to use to accomplish many of your tasks (ie. article marketing, social media marketing). However, there are things that you will want done a specific way – your way, and demonstrating what you want done will ensure success.

This technique is included in my Delegation Success Formula that I teach in my ‘Leverage Your Brilliance Team Building Program’.  If you’d like to  grow your business by leaps and bounds and have more free time with team building,  schedule a Free consultation with me at:
http://www.bizsucccesspartner.com/consultation

Recently I had to give my Virtual Assistant  feedback on a task that was done incorrectly. My first instinct, being the ‘tell it like it is’ and detailed type of person that I am , was to state the facts and details – what was wrong , why it is wrong and what needs to be done .  However, the best way to deliver constructive criticism, to achieve a win-win,  is to give a “feedback sandwich”. This is a technique consists of criticism “sandwiched” between two positive comments, as follows:

1. Make a specific positive comment.
2. Critique and/or suggestion for improvement.
3. Overall positive comment.

Here’s how I did it.  “VA Name, I can see that you put a lot of hard work and research into this and I really like how you presented the information (positive feedback). However, *all * my instructions for this task were not done – please read my email again (critique which may make her feel a bit deflated). I’m looking forward to seeing your results when you complete all the steps – you’ve always done excellent work for me, thanks!”  (overall positive comment to ensure she remains motivated).

Giving feedback to your team members is critical to your delegation and virtual team building success. You need give clear, specific feedback and establish frequent check in and feedback methods to manage the process. The type of feedback that you give will vary according to the level of delegated authority you use for each situation (you’d never guess there are 8!) and when you’re just beginning to delegate, your check-ins and feedback should be more frequent and very specific.

I just hired a new Virtual Assistant to help me with marketing. I already have an experienced VA who does this for me but decided it was best to leverage her expertise for other marketing tasks. I could have hired an experienced VA who can hit the ground running, which is what I recommend to my clients. However, because I used to do article marketing and I evaluated my new VA as an ‘A player’, I decided to invest in training her.

Below is my feedback I emailed to her this morning about her first task. The level of delegated authority I am using as I train her is the lowest level of delegated freedom: ‘wait to be told/ do exactly as I say/follow these instructions precisely is’. Here’s why this feedback will result in a successful outcome :

1. Gives clear, specific details
2. Reinforces what she is doing right, will motivate her
3. Asks for her feedback
4. Reinforces check-ins
5. Improves systems

“Marie, for author resource box, you are correct in entering the default standard version for the GoArticles.com site since we can’t enter a different resource box for each article – great job! However, please note that you should have entered the HTML version since this site accepts html resource boxes.  I forgot to mention to you when we spoke that when opening a new article marketing account, you should look in the Publisher Guidelines to see if there are any specific instructions re submitting articles (apart from those I gave you).  The guidelines for this site said ‘URLs in the resource box should be set as hyperlinks.’  so  you need to enter the HTML version.

Also,  please update the submission process document with this step: “When opening a new article marketing account, check Publisher guidelines first before submitting article, to ensure that we comply.’ And as we discussed, if there are no instructions re html resource boxes, always enter the html version first and if it isn’t accepted ,  use the plain text version.  Enter this information about each site on our article submission report under ‘Comments’ section that we spoke about and use this revised spreadsheet to work from as I’ve entered some comments for you. If you have any questions, as usual, let me know and continue to email me updates daily. We are making great progress, thanks!”

So now, I can move on to other tasks, knowing that my VA has everything she needs to move forward. I don’t need to think about this anymore until I hear from her.

Feedback, feedback, feedback – VERY  important when delegating! It’s one of the key components of my Business My Way Delegation Success Formula tm  that ensures you get the results you want every time.

Delegate your way to success!

I woke up this morning feeling excited but also overwhelmed. I received 3 speaking engagement offers that are happening within 2-4 weeks from now. While they are great opportunities for me to talk about what I love most and to promote my services, a LOT of work needs to be done in a very short amount of time!! Plus I am also doing a training program which I’m a bit behind in – HELP!

To shift from being overwhelmed, I calmed myself down by thinking, all will be well, that I can do this because I have a dynamic support team including virtual assistants. I will have to seriously leverage my time by delegating a lot of the research, writing and creation of the visual presentations to them.

My next step was to block of 3-4 hours of my time in my calendar to plan a presentation outline and to create an outsourcing plan – what needs to be done, who’s the best person to do it and when each piece of the projects need to be done by in order for me to meet my goals. I am contacting my team right now to give them a heads up.

I figure that it will take my team about 10 hrs to do the work. So I’m really saving myself 10 hrs worth of work by delegating. Not only that, even if I did have the time, I’m not an expert with all the skills that I will be delegating and it’s not worth my time to even try, I will just end up wasting time and being more overwhelmed. Instead, I will focus only what I do best, this will give me the highest return on my investment (and I’m not just talking about money)

Speaking of money, I’ll need to spend maybe $200 over the amount I budget each month for outsourcing. I’m not being paid for the engagements (this time around) but since I’ve decided that it’s a good move to bring me closer to my vision of success, I will just have to find the money – even if I charge it on my credit card.

It feels so good to delegate! Wish me good luck and let me know what helps you get out of overwhelm.